March Madness signifies the busiest time of the year on Auckland's roads, public transport and cycleways. Photo / Greg Bowker
The second day of March Madness has run smoother for commuters in Auckland as travellers into the city adjust to train changes due to the rail union's industrial action.
This morning Auckland Transport put on three extra six-car train services to Britomart, in addition to an extra 4600 seats already in place.
The service also continued to run on a temporary timetable where trains are running on a 20-minute frequency, as opposed to the usual 10-minute.
Auckland Transport media advisor James Ireland said services were still busy during the morning commute, but less so than yesterday.
"The vast majority of services were on time this morning.
"We thank Aucklanders for planning ahead, and for coping with the temporary timetable."
Ireland said AT received quite a lot of feedback from customers yesterday, but most of it was from people wanting more information about the temporary timetable.
Meanwhile, Twitter feeds and social media accounts have been hot on the commuter-delay topic, with enraged train users not holding back in expressing their adversity.
"How can AT let it get to the point where they undertake industrial action right as Auckland is coming into its busiest period on the roads and public transport. Heads need to roll over this," one Facebook commentator said.
Due to industrial action by the RMTU trains are running at a 20-minute frequency today on Southern, Western and Eastern Lines during peak. Six-car trains will run on as many services as possible to help reduce impact. https://t.co/uqo126inm2pic.twitter.com/EDhSpmhoRr
While another said, "I agree in theory with the union action. But OMG [sic] the 7.30 train was like a cattle truck this morning. It was packed before Manurewa and people just kept squeezing in, it was horrendous."
One Twitter user said "the novelty of providing half as many peak-time trains was going to wear off a lot sooner than mid-March", when the industrial action is planned to finish.
Train users have not been the only commuters affected by the strike and March Madness business, with bus riders also complaining of delayed services and full seats.
"I'm waiting for a bus that was due 10 mins ago but won't arrive for another 10 mins.
"I'm going to be very late. Auckland Transport never ceases to amaze me with how unreliable they are. This and the train situation is making the first week back at uni very unproductive," a Twitter user said.
The Rail and Maritime Transport Union announced on Saturday that it would be taking industrial action to protest AT and Transdev's decision to cut train managers on commuter trains.
From Monday, rail workers who are members of the RMTU have taken a ban on working overtime and threatened full-day strikes if concerns aren't heard.
RMTU organiser John Kerr said proposed changes would jeopardise passenger safety.
He said AT and Transdev's response to the overtime ban has illustrated how understaffed the service is.
"Clearly with a fully staffed network an overtime ban wouldn't have this sort of impact."
He said the union knew of train drivers who had to work 120 hours a fortnight, and train managers who ended up working three of their four rostered days off - meaning they only had one day off a fortnight.
"It's an indictment of management that we have a public transport system in our biggest city that is dependent on staff working overtime to make it run.
"We knew this was happening - we just didn't appreciate it was to this extent."
The union met with AT and Transdev last week, and is due to talk with them again tomorrow.
Kerr hoped they could make some progress so the union could lift the overtime ban.
Yesterday, Transdev managing director Michel Ladrak called the industrial action a "blunt instrument" that affects the commuters and is hurting staff.
He said changes to the service, and the installment of 70 newly trained staff, wouldn't reduce safety but instead result in staff being able to better deal with conflict and anti-social behavior on its trains.