The Western Line has the worst on-time performance of the three suburban train lines, writes Kylie Munro
A quarter of Western Line trains are late, an Auckland Regional Transport Authority report shows. For the September quarter, 25.2 per cent of trains were more than five minutes late. The Western Line has
the lowest on-time performance record of the three Auckland lines, with 9.2 per cent of trains running more than 10 minutes late. But punctuality is dramatically better now than for the same period last year, when 58 per cent of trains were more than five minutes late. For the September 2005 quarter, only 42 per cent of trains were on time or arrived within five minutes of when they were due. This September quarter, 74.8 per cent of trains arrived on time or within five minutes of schedule. Transport authority spokeswoman Sharon Hunter says the improvement is largely due to a new timetable implemented in October last year. She says when the authority, and its operator Veolia, took over the network it inherited a timetable which had not been reviewed since 1994. The new timetable included adjustments to running times and increased the time allowed to load and unload passengers. New control systems which monitor train crossings were implemented, meaning fewer trains sat waiting for another train to pass on the sections of single-line track. ``A combination of a few simple factors has really boosted train frequency,'' says Ms Hunter. She says when the double-tracking of the Western Line is finished in 2009, train frequency will increase to a service every 10 minutes during peak times. The report showed for this September quarter, 13.5 per cent of Southern Line trains ran more than five minutes late compared with 39.3 per cent for the same period last year. On the Eastern Line, 10.6 per cent of trains ran more than five minutes late compared with 32.6 per cent of services for the 2005 September quarter.
