Rugby World Cup: KiwiRail working to trace cause of latest failure

Huge crowds wait for public transport outside the Britomart Centre in central Auckland after the opening game of the Rugby World Cup. Photo / Alan Gibson

KiwiRail is scrambling to pinpoint what caused a communications blackout which dampened the All Blacks' Sunday night victory for many fans.

More than 1600 would-be rail passengers had to be transported on buses after the failure at 11.27pm of equipment needed to relay signalling information to train controllers.

Many others who were already on trains faced delays reaching Britomart and beyond. Some took more than two hours to get home.

Although KiwiRail said the equipment was reset within 15 minutes, the failure had a knock-on effect on train movements over a wide area from Kingsland to Wiri, compounded by the breakdown of a locomotive which blocked tracks for 25 minutes outside Britomart.

Only about 200 fans were brought back from Kingsland by replacement buses, compared with more than 10,000 who travelled by train, but congestion at Britomart meant the buses also had to be used to move 1400 fans out of the city.

KiwiRail spokeswoman Jenni Austin said yesterday that the failure was not of new signalling equipment which is being installed throughout the region under the rail electrification project.

But she said that although the fault was fixed quickly, KiwiRail had yet to find out exactly what went wrong.

"We are still working through the data to pinpoint the exact cause - at this stage it appears to have been a [computer data] router - and expect to have an answer and measures in place in a day or two to ensure there is no repeat."

The failure was the first serious problem for Rugby World Cup trains since the public transport meltdown onSeptember 9 which resulted in many fans missing the tournament opening ceremony.

Although that was caused by overwhelming numbers of people trying to use the trains, rather than technical issues, one transport source said yesterday it was lucky the latest setback did not strike until after Sunday's game.

Ms Austin said KiwiRail would have well-equipped technical staff at important locations around the network for Friday and Sunday's World Cup finals, "so if anything similar happens we can respond quickly, as we did last Sunday".

She also said the company had, at the request of Auckland Transport, kept a crane and operating staff on standby throughout the tournament in case of emergencies on the tracks, including at level crossings.