Passengers force doors of burning city train

Passenger Marty Beets photographed fellow commuters scrambling from the smoking Connex train near the Britomart tunnel. Picture / Marty Beets

Worried Auckland rail passengers forced open doors to flee smoke from an underfloor fire on a train near the Britomart tunnel yesterday.

The train's driver, a former firefighter, was praised for the speed with which he leaped from his cab and used a powder extinguisher to put out the blaze in a motor under the third carriage.

But rail operator Connex came under attack for an alleged lack of communication by train staff, who appeared powerless to control the evacuation of the 50 or so passengers from what had become a smoke-filled carriage.

An expert from the Transport Accident Investigation Commission has rushed to Auckland to investigate the incident, given what a spokesman last night described as "the potential for disaster".

Connex denies any passengers were at risk, and says staff put into practice recent evacuation training to deal with such incidents, including a potential fire in a tunnel.

Almost 200 passengers were on the elderly four-carriage train when some heard loud bangs and it came to a halt on the eastern waterfront rail line at 9.04am, just before the junction with the southern line outside the Britomart tunnel.

Smoke rapidly filled the third carriage, prompting some passengers to force open side doors with emergency release levers as others waited several anxious minutes for staff to shepherd them out through an unused driving cab at the front.

Covering their faces with clothing against the smoke, they faced a drop of about 1.5m on to uneven ground before scrambling up a rail embankment, some in high heels and office clothes which became mud-splattered.

Passengers from the rear carriage joined them, but those in the front two were barred from leaving and later complained of not being told why the others were fleeing.

Train controllers in Wellington ordered a halt to all trains throughout the 92km Auckland rail network until 9.40am, delaying more than 1000 passengers.

Office worker Wendy Stanton, who was in the third carriage, said she noticed smoke outside the train at about Orakei, and it started pouring into the carriage near the Parnell Baths.

"We were choking and started putting our hands over our faces - I started gagging and then the train came to a stop, then the smoke became really bad - the cabin was clouded in white smoke."

Mrs Stanton said she could see train staff helping passengers at the front end of the carriage, but there were none where she was, at its rear.

Another passenger said he heard loud bangs just before the train stopped, and said he saw smoke at every station since boarding at Manurewa.

One woman, who did not want to be named, said she decided not to catch that train after hearing a Connex worker on the platform at Manurewa warning a colleague about smoke from an overheated engine.

Connex confirmed that the 37-year-old train was topped up with water at Otahuhu in response to a warning light indicating over-heating. But general manager Chris White said the driver denied that it was smoking so early in the journey.

He said passengers were instructed to file out of a door in the driving cab at the front of the third carriage, and those at the rear should have been able to see that everything was under control.

Mr White did not believe passengers would have been in greater danger had the fire broken out in the Britomart tunnel, about 250m down the track, as he said it was well-ventilated and had good smoke and flame suppression systems.

He believed the train's three-member crew was enough to deal with the 198 passengers.

Remuera Fire Service station officer Neil Petri praised the train driver for acting quickly to put out the blaze.

"There was a fairly large fire underneath - the driver did a fantastic job," he said.

It appeared the motor had overheated and blown a cap off, spilling oil into electrical wiring.

Troubled carriage 'well passed its use-by date'

The passenger train which caught fire in Auckland yesterday is among the region's oldest and is "well passed its use-by date", says a top rail official.

Elena Trout, general manager of rail for the new Auckland Regional Transport Authority, said the carriage under which a motor burst into flames on an approach to the Britomart tunnel was one of nine "ADK" driving units built in Australia between 1967 and 1968.

She admitted they had out-lasted their economic life by about a decade, but said the nine units and an equal number of passenger trailer units would be fully refurbished between now and the middle of next year at Hutt Valley rail workshops.

This followed the $8.5 refurbishment of 10 similar "ADL" train-sets from the 1980s.