“It’s just ludicrous and I’ve tried their emergency connection telephone on the station, they answer and then you start to talk and they just hang up,” he said.
“It’s terrible.”
KiwiRail chief operations officer Siva Sivapakkiam said the overhead lines between Westfield (south of Penrose station) and Papakura short-circuited by a commuter train just before 4.50pm, which automatically turned off power to the specific section of the Southern Line.
KiwiRail switched the power back on about 5.35pm.
He said reduced services were able to run between Papakura and Penrose, while the disabled electric train was removed.
About 28 kilometres of track between Penrose and Papakura were without power this evening, Auckland Transport reported in posts to social media.
“No trains are running on the affected rail section,” it said.
“The cause of the power outage is being investigated, but no ETA is available yet.
“Scheduled buses will accept rail tickets. There is no power to the trains in the Southern and Eastern Lines between Penrose and Papakura.
“Delays and cancellations are expected”.
In an update, Auckland Transport shared that the trains would now be running their full Southern Line and Eastern Line via Newmarket routes, but it would take time to return to the schedule.
Updated with KiwiRail comment
