The signal failure affected all lines heading into Britomart station. Photo / Herald on Sunday
The signal failure affected all lines heading into Britomart station. Photo / Herald on Sunday
KEY POINTS:
Train commuters in Auckland were delayed by hours this morning after a signal failure on all lines heading into Britomart train station.
Ontrack operations manager Carl Mills said the fault affected all lines between 8am until 11.30.
"A device that establishes that there are no conflicting rail movementson a particular line failed just after 8am," Mr Mills said.
He said Ontrack apologised for the delays.
Ontrack spokesman Kevin Ramshaw said Ontrack would not be compensating passengers because it didn't deal "with the customer interface".
"Delays, while they are hugely regrettable, are a fact of life in transport whether they are in motorcars or waiting for a flight. They are difficult to deal with and very frustrating at the time, whether compensation is justified is very hard to say," Mr Ramshaw said.
The fault added hours to passenger commuter times. One nzherald.co.nz reader emailed to say she had a wait of over two hours after the train she caught from New Lynn stopped at several points along the way.
She said passengers were told there would be a wait of five minutes but each wait took at least half an hour.
Passengers were also asked to pay for their journey at the end of the trip and were only offered feedback forms as a consolation.
Train operator Veolia has not offered any refund to the 1500 passengers affected by this morning's fault.
General manager Nick French said any refund would come from the Auckland Regional Transport Authority who Veolia contracts to.
Mr French said the fault was an Ontrack problem and the company was working through any possible compensation with ARTA and Ontrack.
ARTA spokeswoman Sharon Hunter said it was an Ontrack fault and there would not be any compensation given by ARTA.
"From ARTA's perspective it was a total Ontrack signal meltdown and it impacted on our passengers which is certainly not what ARTA expects or Veolia expects," Ms Hunter said.
She said ARTA was not "particularly happy" with the delays caused to passengers.
