Western line rail commuters marooned at Newmarket last night wait for alternative transport home. Photo / Dean Purcell
Hundreds of Auckland train passengers had to catch taxis home after a signal failure closed the western line last night.
The failure occurred just after 6pm and affected four trains.
One passenger who boarded at Britomart on the 6.31pm train said it got as far as Newmarket before
travellers were told anything was wrong.
After a five minute delay they were told there had been a points failure and to expect a slow trip home. Passengers then sat at Newmarket station for about 20 minutes before being told they wouldn't be able move at all.
Because the failure happened during peak-hour no buses were available and taxi vans were called in but it took some time for all the passengers to be transported to their destinations.
Rhys McPherson from Mt Eden was among about 30 passengers still at at the Newmarket station at 8pm having boarded a train just after 6.30pm for his 15 minute trip home.
"They put the prices up on us a while back and there seem to be more breakdowns than ever before," said Mr McPherson. "Whether they're putting the money into making the train system better I'm not so sure."
Emil Melnichenko, who teaches at Auckland University and boarded the train at Britomart at 6.30pm, was more philosophical.
"It's happened before and it will happen again and of course it's unsatisfactory but these are teething problems any kind of transport system is going to have," he said.
Passenger operator Veolia Transport confirmed a signal failure caused the problem but it was unsure if it was related to recent work on the western line. The company said four trains had been affected.
Each train can carry about 150 passengers and they were relatively full given the time of night.
There have been numerous delays for train passengers, especially those using the western line, this year.
In March passengers faced almost daily delays due to track duplication work.
Two weeks ago there was widespread disruption after a freight train broke down and blocked the southern line's northbound tracks for two hours.
Passenger trains had already been running about 15 minutes late because of an earlier points failure had disrupted services on both the southern and western line.
