“Please expect delays and some individual train cancellations while recovery is in place,” Auckland Transport (AT) said.
Auckland Councillor Richard Hills questioned AT’s decision to shut down the track.
“I’m not an engineer but surely there’s a better way to manage a track issue than closing down an entire network,” Hills said.
“Government only just invested $330m to finally upgrade track network but it feels less resilient than before.”
Trains across Auckland were cancelled last week due to the “heat” - causing significant disruption to rush-hour commuters and prompting Auckland Transport to lash out at KiwiRail.
Last week, AT said potentially one in three train services will be cancelled and the commuter chaos could continue until March.
KiwiRail said it would be carrying out an “aggressive plan” to fix the issues.
AT’s director of public transport, Stacey van der Putten, said it was “enormously disappointing” the transport body had to cancel services because of speed restrictions put in place by KiwiRail on the network due to “hot tracks.
“These speed restrictions would be unlikely to be needed today if the Auckland rail network was not vulnerable because of numerous known faults,” van der Putten said.
- More to come.
