Rugby fans to test out World Cup trains

Tomorrow's train timetable is an early rehearsal of plans for moving 60,000 spectators in and out of Eden Park. Photo / Richard Robinson

Rugby fans will have to accept being "corralled" if they want to use the Kingsland railway station's new underpass tomorrow night after the Tri-Nations clash at Eden Park.

That is because the Auckland Regional Transport Authority is using the event as an early rehearsal of plans for moving 60,000 spectators in and out of the park for each final match at next year's Rugby World Cup.

Although that will be more than twice the crowd expected tomorrow, the authority has reopened Kingsland station after a $6 million upgrade to load fans rapidly on to trains leaving for Britomart every five to seven minutes after the New Zealand vs South Africa test.

World cup transport director Bruce Barnard says fans will be held or "corralled" inside barriers on Sandringham Rd before being herded to its northern platform, either over the station's footbridge or through the new underpass beneath the railway tracks.

"Corralling of sheep is the same as corralling of humans - it's a standard crowd management technique," he said.

Mr Barnard, who has managed transport for major Australian events such as the Grand Prix and 2006 Commonwealth Games, said the 3.5m-wide underpass would be kept clear for emergency purposes until fans were sent through in batches to the northern platform to board four-car trains.

The trains would take 550 passengers each, but about 750 would be held on the platform at a time.

Each of the station's two lengthened platforms - also 3.5m wide - will be used to load 1000 passengers on to six-car trains at a time after World Cup matches, but that will require the completion of a rail crossing loop east of Kingsland in coming months.

Tomorrow night's operation will require Sandringham Rd to be closed to general traffic between Burnley Terrace and New North Rd, although free buses will run from a new Eden Park terminal opposite Altham Ave.

Wairepo Swamp Walk, a new lane between Walters Rd and the top of Sandringham Rd, will be available for the first time for pedestrians wanting to avoid the railway station.

Holders of match tickets will be entitled to travel free across any of Auckland's three railway lines for three hours before the test match's 7.35pm kick-off and until trains stop running around midnight.

Special-event trains will run between Britomart and Kingsland every 10 or 20 minutes from 4.23pm until 6.58pm, stopping only at Grafton Station en route. Trains will call at Newmarket and other stops only every hour, the normal Saturday timetable, disappointing restaurateurs and bar-owners along the way.

Return trains will run from Kingsland every five to seven minutes from 9.15pm until 10.30pm, stopping only at Grafton, meaning passengers wanting to travel to Mt Eden or Newmarket should use free buses calling at all other stations.

Trains will leave every 20 minutes after that, stopping at all stations.

Newmarket Business Association chief Cameron Brewer said: "What is alarming is the fact that our brand-new $35 million station will be completely bypassed by most trains."

He said the strategic location of Newmarket station meant it should be used for World Cup duties, even if only to take pressure off Britomart and Central Auckland.

Transport authority spokeswoman Sharon Hunter said her organisation's top priority was "to move crowds away from Eden Park as quickly and expediently as possible".

"We've done some patronage analysis from other games and discovered that people who get off at Newmarket are a minute number - very, very small - so we would actually be holding people up if we stopped at Newmarket."

TRAIN TIMES

TO THE GAME
* Special-event trains leaving Britomart every 10 to 20 minutes to Kingsland from 4.23pm until 6.58pm, stopping only at Grafton station.
* Normal hourly trains will call at Newmarket and other stops, but spectators should catch free special-event buses at other times from Newmarket and Mt Eden Rd.

FROM THE GAME
* Trains leaving Kingsland for Britomart every five to seven minutes between 9.15pm and 10.30pm, stopping only at Grafton station. Spectators wanting to travel to Newmarket should catch free buses from the new Eden Park transport terminal across Sandringham Rd from Altham Ave.
* Trains calling at all stops will leave Kingsland every 20 minutes from 10.39pm.