Admission of train woes comes with a warning of more to come

Auckland commuters have struggled with delays. Photo / Jason Oxenham

Months of delays and cancellations on the city rail network have brought an acknowledgment of problems from Auckland Transport - coupled with a warning that it's not over yet.

The three-line network has been plagued by delays and service-wide meltdowns since a new timetable with increased services was introduced in December. AT says the problems are in part linked to the rollout of electric trains, now sharing the tracks with aging diesel locomotives.

But the range of excuses - diesel breakdowns, crew shortages, track faults, points and signal failures and "operational issues" - suggests the chaos won't end when services go all electric late next month.

The problems linger despite a decade of investment in upgrading the network, potentially weakening Mayor Len Brown's case for fast-tracked government funding for the $2.5 billion City Rail Link - vital if rail is to offer a meaningful alternative to Auckland's traffic gridlock.

Since December, peak-hour rail commuters have endured as many as three network meltdowns a week, when services bank up because of incidents at "clinch points" such as the Britomart tunnel and Newmarket and Westfield junctions.

Punctuality fell below 80 per cent in March and April when more than one in five services ran "significantly late". Reliability (the percentage of non-cancelled trains reaching their destinations) has hit the low 90s. The international benchmark for both performance measures is 98 per cent.

Hundreds of trains heading south and west to Pukekohe and Waitakere have pulled up short of their destinations as operator Transdev tries to get late trains back on schedule. Affected passengers are meant to be moved to buses or taxis but passengers say they often don't turn up.

In April, 7 per cent of all services were cancelled, partly due to a spike in emergency service incidents.

AT Metro general manager Mark Lambert says service should improve when unreliable diesel engines are taken out of the mix but the new electric trains have "teething" problems of their own and will need six to 12 months of "bedding-in".

Mr Lambert acknowledges the disruption has resulted in too many "bad experiences" and promises a significant lift in performance.

Mr Brown says a complicating factor is the number of players in the network: AT, KiwiRail, French network operator TransDev and Spanish electric train manufacturer CAF.

"Most metro networks operate with one owner and one manager."