AT group manager public transport and operations Rachel Cara said the very high volume of people moving in a short space of time last night put huge demand on train services.
AT had taken into account that Eden Park would be hosting more than 40,000 people for the concert and had a plan to get people home as quickly and efficiently as possible, including running additional train services at maximum size as frequently as possible, as well as running supporting bus services – including direct buses to the city centre and North Shore.
Huge crowds cram onto Kingsland train station's platform after Pink's Auckland concert on Friday, March 9.
Train services heading to Waitematā Station (Britomart) boarded at Kingsland Station and services heading West boarded at Morningside Station.
“This is why some passengers may have observed trains not stopping at the station they were waiting at, but these were full when leaving their designated station,” she said.
“Track constraints did not allow to run trains immediately after one another, as AT could not stack trains at Kingsland Station and insert them when needed, so there were gaps between services.”
Following the event, AT carried 16,000 passengers from Kingsland Station and 6000 from Morningside Station.
“People gradually left Eden Park after the concert and wait times at Kingsland Station were no longer than 45 minutes, which is what we had expected for an event of this scale,” Cara said.
She said AT again had plans in place tonight and Sunday night to manage the high volume of people that will be travelling to and from Eden Park, and were making further optimisations to reduce wait times where possible, including putting on additional buses to the city centre.
But one concertgoer, who didn’t wish to be named, complained about the lack of extra train services.
AT did put on extra buses carrying people to Britomart, but the concertgoer said she had to get to Newmarket.
She said she left the concert on a high, but when walking out to see a sea of people “totally jammed” in the tunnel to the train platform, she just thought, “Oh my gosh”.
“I would have thought the trains would have been ready to go,” she said.
“There should be ... train after train trying to clear the backlog.
“I really thought that for such a huge concert like Pink they would have done something more to get everyone home.”
The woman said she normally leaves before the end of concerts to beat the rush.
“But in the last song in Pink’s concert, she actually flies around the stadium and you don’t want to miss that,” she said.
Pink performed to an audience of more than 45,000 people at Auckland's Eden Park on Friday. Photo / Carson Bluck
Despite the issues, another concertgoer Carla Perry said her experience was completely different, as she and her husband waited about 10-15 mins for a train to Britomart, then about 15 mins for a train to Panmure before taking a bus to Pakuranga.
“It was a very smooth trip home. Both on the way into the concert and back out there were a lot of guards or AT workers keeping people safe and away from the edge of the tracks,” she said.
“It was extremely congested and I thought they did a great job.”
“My cheeks are numb from smiling, I’m smiling way too much.”
Pink’s newest tour solidifies her spot as the artist who has played the most stadium concerts in Australia and New Zealand.
“Thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you,” she humbly repeated after playing her hit tunes Raise Your Glass and Who Knew. “Thank you guys for coming to play with us tonight.”
