Two trains run red lights, one during commuter rush

There have been 17 incidents of red-light running on Auckland's metro rail network since July 1. Photo / Supplied

Auckland Transport launches inquiry after a couple of serious incidents within 12 hours.

Two Auckland passenger trains are being investigated for running red lights within a 12-hour period - including one in the Britomart tunnel at the beginning of the morning commuter rush.

Details of the potentially dangerous incidents on Monday night at Swanson and on Tuesday morning at Britomart are being kept under wraps by Auckland Transport and metro rail operator Transdev while internal investigations proceed.

Neither is it known how many passengers were on board each train, and how far away any opposing rail traffic may have been.

But the incidents have been confirmed by the Transport Agency, which is the safety regulator for land transport and is following the investigations.

"NZTA has been notified of both these incidents," agency spokesman Andy Knackstedt said. "We aren't carrying out separate investigations of these two incidents, but they will be included in our active monitoring of SPAD [Signals Passed At Danger] trends and risk-profiling."

Despite the rollout of electric trains with sophisticated European-standard collision avoidance equipment, and an $8 million retrofit of a less advanced system for the old diesel fleet, the agency says there have been 17 incidents of red-light running on Auckland's metro rail network since July 1.

The incident at Swanson occurred at 7.36pm on Monday, and the Britomart scare at 7.01am the next morning.

The agency said a train passed a red signal while "approaching into Britomart area" - confirming a tweet on Tuesday morning reporting an incident in the station's tunnel requiring the driver to be stood down.

Auckland Transport would not confirm the nature of the incident at the time, other than to say there had been "a train crew matter" which had been resolved, but was causing other services to run up to 10 minutes late.

An update said "an operational incident has occurred and is being investigated".

The council body was last night still waiting for a report from Transdev, whose chief executive Terry Scott could not be reached for comment.

However, three incidents of red-light running in July were enough for Mr Scott to describe that as "a terrible month" on the Auckland network, even though he said the trains involved stopped well short of other rail traffic in each case.

Public Transport Users' Association co-ordinator Jon Reeves said two incidents within 12 hours was virtually unheard of and a concern for passengers.

"In the Swiss rail system, they don't have that many in 12 months, let alone two in 12 hours."

He feared they were a symptom of a system being stretched by the overlap of two fleets - electric and diesel - and skills shortages caused by a decision by Transdev last year to stop paying for KiwiRail to train more drivers to operate non-electric locomotives.

Rail and Maritime Transport organiser Stuart Johnstone said he was unable to comment on the latest red-light incidents.

But he said an extended services timetable was "putting a lot of pressure on Transdev to provide drivers and train crews."