Information from answers to parliamentary written questions submitted by Mt Albert MP David Shearer show the biggest two problems with Auckland’s rail network – the number of signalling failures and the number of points failures. Here’s the question Mr Shearer put to the Minister of Transport, and his answer:
Question: How does the number of points or signal failures on the Auckland rail system over the past year compare to previous years?
Answer Text: KiwiRail has advised the following:
Signal failures:
Apr 07 – Jan 08 (10 months) 144
Feb 08 – Jan 09 (12 months) 214
Feb 09 – Jan 10 (12 months) 172Point failures:
Apr 07 – Jan 08 (10 months) 288
Feb 08 – Jan 09 (12 months) 267
Feb 09 – Jan 10 (12 months) 234
That’s 406 signalling or points failures on the rail system in Auckland alone over the past year. I suppose that the good news is that this figure is lower than the 481 signalling or points failures on the rail system over the previous year. However, it’s still more than one a day. No wonder there’s the strong impression out there that our rail system is hopeless and unreliable.
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Its a hell of a lot but they are also missing how many train failures have occurred, they can be fairly frequent as well.
That is far higher than I would have thought…
It does help explain why there are so many problems with ensuring the trains run on time.
I’m not sure about train failures. Would KiwiRail track those? Probably not as usually it would be Veolia’s problem or ARTA’s problem?
That’s what happens with decades of underinvestment.
I’m surprised there aren’t more.