Last year the Rugby World Cup was excellent and with the exception of a bit of a hiccup at the start things generally went pretty well. I think that as a result we also we learnt a lot about how to better operate public transport when big events are on and I have seen signs of this recently with a few events at Eden park that I have been too but while we obviously need to remember these lessons there now seems to be new ones that we need learn.
Story 1 – Faults
So first story isn’t actually an organised event but a regular occurrence on the rail network and the outcome fits in with the rest so I will include it. Leaving work one day I made my way down to Britomart with the intent on catching the 5:36 train out west and upon arriving I learned that the previous train, the 5:24 had been cancelled. The 5:24 is probably one of the busiest pm peak trains as it is really the first train to leave town heading west after 5pm so gets a lot of workers on it. As I’m sure anyone can imagine loading up two services onto one is never going to be a pretty thing and the train was packed and standing room only right from town. Adding in a heap more passengers from Newmarket and people at Grafton and Mt Eden were being left on the platforms as the train was simply too full. Of course in this situation there is simply no way that train staff can get through the carriage to collect tickets. By the time the train had cleared out enough for staff to start moving through the carriages we were already past New Lynn but by that time hundreds had already hopped off the train.
Story 2 – Blues vs Crusaders game
This game was on a Friday evening just over a week ago. I was catching the 5:52 so things are normally a bit quieter than the earlier peak trains but leaving town the train was pretty full with a lot of supporters. Once again it was too much for staff to be able to collect tickets (but not quite as bad as the first story). We continued to pick up more people at the stations along the way until arriving at Kingsland a while later. At that point the a large number of people on the train disembarked to make their way to Eden Park leaving the train empty enough for staff to do their job. It’s also worth noting that travel for this game wasn’t free with a ticket.
Story 3 – Warriors opening game
This just happened today (and a shame about the result). Heading to the game things were pretty straight forward with the exception of the train being a few minutes late. There weren’t overcrowding issues like the previous stories but almost all non regular users thought they had free transport included and many didn’t have any cash and ended up getting free rides anyway. I will say it was good to see a lot of security maintenance staff on hand at various places to make sure everything went to plan. The RWC solution of splitting passengers between Kingsland and Morningside was again used and seemed to work smoothly. The issue was again heading home, with large numbers of people leaving at the same time the services get very full and there were only two of onboard staff to collect tickets. I didn’t get my ticket checked till just before we pulled up at Glen Eden and once again hundreds who disembarked before then got free rides.
I think that by now most people still reading would have picked up on the main issue I have had. That is that far to often when events happen people are getting free rides. Now I don’t blame the people getting the free rides as in most cases it simply isn’t their fault someone couldn’t get to them. What I do have an issue with is that because there haven’t been better systems put in place to solve this then the system is missing out on hundreds, possibly thousands of dollars. This might not be a great deal in the overall scheme of things but for a service that relies on extensive operating subsidies it wasteful. I also wonder if part of the problem is that people who only use trains for events like #2 and #3 are used to having trips as part of their travel from things like the RWC.
Integrated ticketing would definitely have helped in the first case but for the other two, when there are a high proportion of people who probably don’t regularly catch PT then something else is needed. One possible solution to all of this would be to have a few of the staff ticketing people either on the platform (or before getting to it) so that the onboard staff can just focus on getting people to their destination as soon as possible. Another solution would be to require the organisers of any event that is expected to increase demand for PT to fully pay for the services with free travel included as part of the ticket cost.
One other thing that annoyed me but wasn’t related to free trips was the attitude of some people on the the platform at Mt Albert on the way to the Warriors game. When the train pulled up a group of 5-10 saw that the carriage they were next to didn’t have many seats left. Rather than get on and stand (and it wasn’t crowded) for the 5 mins or so it takes to get to Morningside they decided to slowly walk down the platform looking for a carriage with more space and from what I could tell staff did nothing to try and hurry them up. If this happened at every station trains would almost always be late due to long dwell times. Perhaps we need to automate the doors more, once they are opened they only stay open for a set length of time, say 20-30 seconds at which time they close. Countdown timers like we see on some pedestrian crossings could be used to let passengers know how much time they have left and help to hurry them up.
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I am a regular comuter from Panmure to Britomart and Return. i.e seven days a week
There is a friendly group of us who cath the 6.14am to the city – and we run a book on how late the train will be today, or will it be cancelled? Bets range for $10.00 for four minutes late – to coffee and muffins for all the trains are cancelled.
Cancelled happened twice in the past week.
Given the millions of dollars being spent on the Panmure rebuild, I expect to have to walk twice as far from home to platform, but wouldn’t you think they could actually run to time? If they have to be late let it be because they actually saw an old lady running down the stairs and waited for her to make the platform. That would be comendable lateness given the extent of inconvenience already incurred.
What point in upgrading the hardware (buildings) if the software(trains) cannot keep to a timetable. Comuters have to clock in when they get to the office and a certain consistency would be good. Great even.
Then there are the strange events called Revenue Loss Assesments – to you and I ticket checks, at the disembarking point, Britomart. How is it that these, employing dozens of staff, always occur after a week when for assorted reasons “revenue loss” happens on over crowded trains when there are a) no ticket checkers on the train b) not enough ticket checkers c) rugby/league events where revenue loss never seems to be an issue- just pack em in and get em out?
The sooner we have a modern system where tickets are sold to the platform turnstyles, (see Melbourne trains for inspiration and a similarly a ring route which does not end at Britomart). I love travel by train when it works as it should.
Today I heard a muted and partly inaudible radio warning about work at Panmure meaning one should take alternative travel if possible. On arriving at Britomart to travel home not a single “helper” on the platform had any idea what I was talking about, and tho one tried to make a helpful phone call- the line was busy- and my train was leaving-on time!!!!
I have no idea what time I need to leave home before dawn tomorrow to catch the 6.14 train and negotiate the hurdles of reconstruction! Maybe I will just take the bus!
Is Auckland Transport planning on getting turnstiles at stations? It seems crazy that they don’t. This is the 21st century after all…
There will be gates at Britomart and Newmarket only. The rationale given is that around 80% of people using the network get on or off at those two stations for their journey so if they they have to swipe their card at least once for their journey and therefore pay as if you don’t tag you card at the other part of your journey then you will pay the maximum price for the trip.
But what of in the future when we have ten minute or better frequencies and faster trips. Surely there is only so much growth from shuttling workers into Newmarket and Britomart, the bulk of future patronage growth could only come from trips between local stations and to outer centres like New Lynn and Manukau.
I do think that fare gates should also be installed at least at New Lynn, Manukau and also Panmure. I guess the problem is the cost which I have seen quoted at about $500k per station.
No real hurry. Gates can be rolled out to additional stations when the time is right.
The simple solution to the problem of losing fares at large events is to encourage the organisers of such events to shell out for the cost of free transport to the events.
Maybe also look at suspending holding large events on Fridays until Auckland Transport have spare trains to throw on extra capacity. Maybe once the EMUs arrive the current carriage stock can be retained for event service only, and the locomotives can be hired from Kiwirail as needed.
By the way, it’s Auckland Transport missing out on all the fares – not Veolia. Rail is gross contracted and at the moment I don’t think Veolia have a revenue/risk sharing arrangement with AT.
I may be wrong but I think Veolia does have a revenue sharing arrangement with AT, but it’s obviously not providing a sufficient incentive for the former to have more staff on for events (Veolia must have done the math on the extra labour costs and figured the extra revenue did not outweigh the costs, unfortunately).
It would seem simple in the afternoon peak to have tickets clipped at Britomart rather than on the train. People waiting could be asked to sit in a certain portion of the train, while another carriage or two is left for those who are running late. These peoples’ tickets could be clipped as the train heads out of the station, and the rest of the trip could proceed as normal. That would go a long way to helping with the problem of fares being missed.
Surely the fare gates at Britomart & Newmarket aren’t too far away – as all of integrated ticketing is supposed to be up and running by the end of the year. (Do I feel a tui ad coming on?)
I guess I’ve learned not to expect too much 🙂
Last I heard the gates were planned to be installed (but not operational) at Easter. Not sure if that is still the case with the latest integrated ticketing sagas. Probably be Queens Birthday weekend now.
Surely they’re paying a hefty sum to employ people to clip tickets though? Gates make much better sense in the long term. Right now the need to be at Britomart, Newmarket, Manukau, New Lynn (and possibly Henderson?) In the future though, they should really be on all stations of the City Rail Link. And what about at Kingsland, to ensure those going to the games are paying? Or would that cause too many delays on game nights?
Now here’s a novel thought: Why does not Auckland abandon onboard fare collection altogether? Hardly any serious public transport systems overseas allow you to pay onboard the vehicle; it’s time the whole quaint but extremely inefficient process went the way of the dodo. Removing onboard cash collection would make services run so much faster. You would almost certainly attract more passengers from the speed improvement than you would lose (especially if you installed ticket machines on every platform). I hope people from AT (or AFIS?) have been to Edinburgh and seen how much faster buses load when you don’t get change (there they have an automatic money counter, so you can pay by cash you just don’t get change).
Yes. I don’t get the on board ticket collection, but then when i started to try to use trains in AK I just assumed it would be like London where I had been living…. surely it makes sense to offer tickets at the stations where people are commencing their journeys and are often waiting for the service. Automate this like pay and display and the bigger stations can have people selling them.
Then the employees on the trains are not handling money but are security and ticket inspection, and presumably fewer would be needed….? As we move to integrated ticketing it will surely be more about checking tickets and not selling them anyway.
“Now here’s a novel thought: Why does not Auckland abandon onboard fare collection altogether?”
Thought that was what the Hop rollout for rail was all about – tag-on/tag-off for smart cards and ticket machines for those with cash.
In Victoria all the VLine regional services have conductors who sell tickets, but only to those who board an unmanned stations. It’s still a paper ticket system, and the conductor checks the tickets, but it saves seeling lots of tickets on the train. Apply this rule to Auckland and those who board at manned stations such as Brittomart and New Lynn would already have tickets.
I hate this obsessiion in NZ that gates are the be all and end alll, personally I find we should look to Switzerland and Germany where they have arguably the best PT systems in the world and lo and behold have no gates. The issue in NZ is simply that at present there’s no ability to fine people for not paying. The Swiss system charges people 80CHF for the first, 160 for the second and 320 for the third offence. Considering an annual pass for PT in most cities is around 600CHF and 3000 for unlimited travel countrywide for a year it’s not worth the risk of not purchasing a ticket. In Germany I read fare leakage is only around 3%, showing that relying on random checks is a completely viable means to ensure people pay their fares – and doesn’t rely the installation of expensive and ugly fare gates.
I boarded the 7:35ish (Panmure to Britomart) this morning. There were NO fares collected in my carriage, all the way to Britomart and the train was absolutely packed. I was also on two or three trips last week when no fares were collected.
What annoys me is that the TM came down on a young passenger, since she though he did not pay the full fare (missed one stage). As it turns out he had the correct ticket.
Lastly, what is the advantage of having a monthly ticket? I’m more than happy to pay my fare share, but…
This situation is ongoing, worsening, and ridiculous. Auckland needed a proper ticketing system yesterday, if not years ago. Put in some machines at stations, print some tickets, and sort it out like everyone else does. It’s NOT THAT HARD.
You don’t need to wait for electronic ticketing either. But it does help immensely if you have zone-based ticketing; Sydney’s trains are a nightmare by comparison to Melbourne’s ease.
Part of the problem with the current setup is the rediculous amount of cash handling happening onboard. Far less in Wellington with similarly old fashioned ticketing. Things could be improved in Auckland by offering proper discounts for ten-trips (eg minmum 20%, preferrably more) and making those available only from ticket offices and agents. Rounding cash fares to 50c increments would help speed change making too. All these could have been done years ago …
Seems like everyone’s waiting (and waiting, and waiting) for integrated ticketing and the new electronic systems. It might be a while.
I should point out that this isn’t necessarily a problem that integrated ticketing can solve. When there are large crowds leaving an event there is a good chance that they aren’t regular PT users who would have a Hop card ready to swipe and at stations like Kingsland and Morningside even if you had fare gates they simply wouldn’t be able to handle the crowds. A simple row of staff issuing tickets at certain key points would work equally well. Both Morningside Dr and Sandringham Rd next to the two stations were closed to traffic so could have had them set up there.
I do not have a problem with event trains being covered by a levy on the tickets issued to the games, and sports fans travelling “free on the night”.
I do have a problem with the regular 24 x 7 commuters being treated like second class citizens when regular schedules are sacrificed and the real patrons of Auckland Transport are so inconvenienced by being shunted out the back door of Britomart.
Much easier to have regular schedules maintained and the sports fans taken to the alternate entrance. There is much more room for the crowds to queue up at the square outside the Westpac building.
A system of fining would require a major overhaul of New Zealand’s legal principles, which currently don’t allow for fines to be issued against persons by anyone other than the police. There is also no requirement for citizens to provide personal information to anyone other than the police, or for anyone but the police to detain citizens for non-compliance of requests for personal information. It would be a dark day indeed should private companies ever gain such powers in this country. better to just stick with the current system of telling them to get off the train if they haven’t paid.
I have heard that the NZTA are working through the issues to allow fines to issued. Also you forget that fines are issued by parking wardens for not just parking infringements but also if people have no Registration or WOF