A peep into Auckland rail's hi tech future

The new train cab has more room and better visibility than the old cab. Photo / Natalie Slade

It resembles the control deck of the Starship Enterprise, and Auckland's train drivers hope for a new era in comfort with a revamp of the city's fleet.

Rail and Maritime Transport Workers' Union members are giving the thumbs-up to a swish walk-in model of a driving cab for the region's new electric trains which arrived in Auckland from Spain last week.

"The feedback we've had so far has been that they are very impressed," union member and drivers' representative Isaac Broome told the Herald.

Not to ignore the needs of long-suffering rail passengers, Auckland Transport expects to give a representative group of them a similar opportunity to try a mock-up of an electric train carriage for size when it arrives in about June from Spanish manufacturer CAF.

Mr Broome, a train driver for six years, was immediately struck by the generous dimensions of the model cab.

As a relatively tall man, he was looking forward to no longer bumping his head on the entrance door, which he said was hard to avoid when getting in and out of the existing diesel train cabs.

"It [the new cab] has got considerably more room, there is more visibility and it is ergonomically more comfortable," he said.

That was not to say there was no need for minor improvements, such as the T-bar shape of the drivers' master-controller, which Mr Broome feared may put drivers at risk of occupational over-use injuries.

The union is understood to be in discussions with rail operator Veolia to ensure there is capacity for train managers to be retained on the 57 new electric units, rather than putting drivers in charge of passenger movements as has happened in Wellington.

But a visual display in the new cabs will give drivers views from four CCTV cameras to be installed in each carriage of the three-car trains.

That should shorten delays if doors are opened illegally during train journeys, meaning drivers will not have to leave their cabs to physically check each carriage, which aggravated disruption to rail services on Rugby World Cup opening night.

Auckland Transport electric train project manager Tom Salt also pointed to a separate display which will advise drivers of speed restrictions on the tracks ahead, making life easier for those who may be new to a particular route.

That will be particularly important, as the new trains will have almost twice the acceleration of the diesel clunkers they are replacing.

Senior Auckland Transport rolling stock engineer Albert Bossward said an upgraded version of the model cab would arrive with the carriage mock-up in June.

Although the first of the new trains is due to arrive in about 16 months, Auckland Transport wants to have about nine available before putting them into "revenue" service by the second quarter of 2014.

The entire fleet, to be provided under a $640 million supply and maintenance contract which will include a $100 million depot at Wiri, should be running by mid-2016.