Six stops were six too many

By MATHEW DEARNALEY

Auckland rail chiefs face a complaint to the Auditor General after an "express" train made six unscheduled stops, delaying its arrival at the Britomart station by about 20 minutes.

Weymouth commuter Daniel Newman said he understood the unscheduled stops on Friday morning were to collect passengers stranded by a broken down train, but is annoyed that rail staff offered no explanation.

He says commuters are often kept uninformed of delays, and has written to Auditor General Kevin Brady seeking an investigation.

"Based on the current reality of Auckland's inefficient and unreliable commuter rail services, it seems to me that attempts to promote commuter rail services in Auckland as efficient, reliable and convenient contravene section 11 of the Fair Trading Act 1986," he wrote.

Mr Newman catches the express from Pukekohe at 7.43am, for a scheduled arrival at Britomart at 8.12am, but Friday's arrival was delayed by the unscheduled stops at Mangere, Otahuhu, Westfield, Penrose, Greenlane and Remuera.

His complaint cites a reference on the Auckland Regional Council's website to "a rapid transit network enabling people fast, frequent and reliable transit across the region."

The regional council intends handing over running of Auckland's rail network next month to a new operator, Connex, which may face penalties if it falls short of an initial target of ensuring 85 per cent of trains run on time or no more than five minutes late.

The figure now is about 80 per cent throughout the regional rail network, and 84 per cent on the southern line. The company will be encouraged to lift the target towards 95 per cent during its four-year contract.

In November Mr Brady criticised the regional council, after a three-month investigation into its rail services, for deficiencies in its 13-year-old contract with present rail operator Tranz Metro and inadequate monitoring to ensure ratepayers and passengers get value for money.

His inquiry followed a complaint by former Papakura mayor and train commuter David Hawkins, who now says service reliability and staff attitudes have improved considerably but glitches such as the one on Friday are still unacceptable.

Mr Hawkins' son was on Friday's "express", on his way to a university exam for which he arrived on time, but stressed by the delay.

Mr Newman called a new text-message service which uses cellphones to warn Auckland rail passengers of train delays an "ironic use of 21st century technology to deal with a 19th century problem."

Toll was unable yesterday to confirm the cause of the unscheduled stops, but Auckland Regional Council rail official Shane Ellison said text messages were sent to passengers notifying them of delays caused by a mechanical fault.

He said the council understood passengers' frustration and was working with Tranz Metro to investigate.

Mr Ellison said the 84 per cent on-time score on the southern line this month compared with 63 per cent when Britomart opened almost a year ago.

* Contracts worth $3.2 million have been awarded to build or widen bridges for a duplicate rail track needed to boost the reliability of Auckland's western suburbs trains.

Work will begin this month on a second rail bridge over New North Rd at Morningside, as well as a replacement footbridge at Mt Eden Station.

The Mt Eden Rd bridge over the railway line will also be widened as part of the $23 million double-track project between Boston Rd and Morningside, which the Regional Council expects to have completed by January.