A few weeks ago in a post about dwell times I mentioned that from July 20 all services all lines will be operated by electric trains (with the exception of the Papakura to Pukekohe shuttle). Regular rail users may have started to see advertising appear on platforms announcing the change and as part of that there are also new timetables with tweaks made to all lines – the Eastern line is almost completely unaffected.

The new timetables can be found here

Just having a quick look through them I’ve noticed a few things worth to noting:

Western Line

It seems that all Britomart bound weekday trains leave about 1 minute earlier than the current timetable. Swanson bound trains are mostly the same with a few exceptions.

In April AT increased the overall journey time to Britomart by three minutes. They’ve now shaved one minute off that. Let’s hope with the other improvements they’ve highlighted as coming over the next six months or so that can come down much further.

There has been a change to the timing on parts of the timetable. Most noticeable is that is an extra minute at Newmarket station for the driver to walk the length of the platform – although this comes from less time allocated between Grafton and Newmarket.

As has long been heralded, the introduction of an all-electric fleet will see trains no longer stop at Waitakere. Interestingly AT have decided to leave Waitakere in the timetable but shown as a bus replacement. I wonder if this is just a transitional thing until the next timetable change. On the change AT say

Electric trains will end at Swanson on the Western Line. A connecting bus service (route 139) will operate between Waitakere and Swanson departing from:

Waitakere

  • Bus stop on Township Rd outside Waitakere Station

Swanson

  • Bus stop in the Swanson Station car park

There doesn’t appear to be any changes to frequency or how late the trains run.

Southern Line

As mentioned the Southern Line changes see the introduction of a diesel shuttle between Papakura and Pukekohe – this is something that already occurs on weekends. Britomart bound there appears to be either a four or nine minute window to transfer services. Assuming trains are on time then in the evening peak those heading toward Pukekohe have a roughly a 7 minute window to transfer.

July - 15 timetable Puke Shuttle

The departure times and running times from Papakura and Britomart seem unchanged.

Onehunga Line

Departure times from Onehunga on weekdays are all three minutes earlier while running times in this direction have been reduced by one minute.

There appears to be no change for departure or running times for trains from Britomart to Onehunga.

While most of the changes are fairly minor – the tweaking of times suggests this could be about improving when trains reach various junctions – the timetable change is significant as with the changes to Waitakere and Pukekohe it likely represent the final structure of the rail network until City Rail Link is built. That doesn’t mean we shouldn’t see more improvements though. We know that improvements to frequencies need to come with the roll out of the new bus network and of course Western line desperately needs to move to 10 minute peak frequencies.

Further, the completed roll-out of the electric trains removes one of the major issues AT have mentioned – running a mixed fleet – this means they should be able to focusing on the long list of changes they’ve identified to improve the reliability and speed of services over the coming year – the next few months are shown below but head to the link for the next year.

EMU + Rail improvement action plan 1 - Jun - Sep

Just what happens to the old diesel trains remains to be seen. The AT board report says some have already been retired and sent to Taumaurunui for storage – presumably until AT can find someone to buy them. Si if anyone wants a nostalgia trip on the old diesels I’d suggest you do so quickly, they have less than two weeks left before being retired from service.

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50 comments

  1. Disappointing no run time improvements in this timetable. Was on southern line train on weekend and was only going 75k-80k between major stations, when on previous trips can get up to 110k on these same sections. Also saw another southern EMU sitting at Newmarket for a few minutes waiting for the timetable. Looks like they could knock a few minutes of timetable easily, especially on weekends/evenings.

    1. That’s supposed to come in the next few months apparently. I can kinda understand however why they would want to stick to current run times with the first timetable though.

  2. Another major step towards Transit in Auckland.

    When do the last of the EMU arrive and the next tranche get ordered?

  3. Taumaranui? On the main trunk line?
    They’re not going to be lonely there. That’s where everything old and unwanted goes to die… I think I saw the Silver Star on a siding there – it hasn’t been running since the 1970s or so. Still parked up. Probably being butchered for parts…

    What they should do, of course, is send them down south to Christchurch, which has horrific traffic issues, and a train line heading north that is only used twice or three times a week by the TransCoastal. Commuter trains desperately needed there, from the new suburbs to the north, to the slowly growing new centre.

    1. You’re right about them not being lonely… they will likely very quickly find themselves with a new coat of paint…. from a spray can in the form of graffiti.

      1. Excellent! Finally, finally, our city’s rail system will shed its 20th century baggage and enter properly into the 21st century.

        1. Its a damned pity for all that money they are slower than the diesels they replaced. It would be hilarious if it weren’t so stupid and as of yet no one is being held to account!.

          Going into Onehunga for example they get down to a jogging pace from Galway St level crossing to the platform. Same at TePapa. Hopeless

        2. The units themselves are not slower. They are being hamstrung by other factors.

        3. The trains aren’t slower, the operational and ‘safety’ measures are though.

    1. You could time it to within 2 minutes, but then what if the train is a minute or two late? And what about slower/disabled people? I think it should be around 3-5mins ideally.

      1. I think transfer time should be 3-4 minutes; depending on whether the connecting service leaves from platform 1/2 or platform 3 (I am wondering if this is why the wait time varies on the new timetable). If a pukekohe service is running late, delay the electric at papakura; which causes the same net result as what we have now… a train running late on the southern line, If we build lots of padding into that wait time, its the same concept as padding out a timetable – you shouldnt make all services slower for the benefit of 5 or 10% of them.

        I am very concerned that Pukekohe may see a major drop in patronage – transfers are internationally shown to be detrimental to passengers opinion of a service, a concept which I am currently researching in Auckland, and finding to be valid. For a passenger to accept a transfer, they need to receive a significant benefit, such as travel time savings of 10-30%. They are having their travel time extended over 10% at Pukekohe,

        A good example in Auckland of the affect of transfers is in Panmure; I have been surveying Botany bus users, who travel to the Lower CBD (i.e. near Britomart, the viaduct and or lower queen street). At peak hour, these travellers choose between a 85 minute bus journey, or a 50 minute journey if they transfer (including wait for a train at Panmure interchange). Despite the opportunity to save over 30 minutes, around 30% don’t transfer.

        1. That may be because they get penalized financially at present if they do transfer. Transfers are a fact of life in a lot of larger cities. I have to transfer every single day, you get used to it.

        2. AT would happily extend EMUs to Pukekohe but NZTA won’t come to the party and help fund the $100 million cost, so either AT pays the entire bill themselves and things will move slower or NZTA could actually start funding needed land infrastructure that isn’t merely a road and it will happen sooner.

    2. I would rather wait 7 minutes than a potential 1 hour wait if it leaves before the connecting service does. Hopefully they communicate and/or TM’s don’t give all clear before connecting service comes and people have enough to to cross the bridge if required. Though given what I’ve seen Transdev are not this organized, the amount of times i’ve missed a transfer between west and south at Newmarket due to late running is ridiculous, despite often 5-10 mins of “time to transfer”.

  4. I wonder about the bus service to Waitakere. Would it not be more useful going the extra few kilometres on to Kumeu/Huapai via Taupaki? The combined time of train and bus would probably be still less than the time taken via the North Western motorway, especially at rush hour, and the journey would be a lot more pleasant.

    1. Totally agree here, I would use it every day, would prefer it as a train as thats far more direct and fast, and huapai patronage would justify it, especially at peak, but at least a bus from Huapai to Swanson would be OKish, gotta get the roads right though, some roads like Kay Road (I drive down here every morning to get to Swanson) would be a bit brutal.

  5. Shaving 1min off is good, but its still longer than before. Hopefully a sign the bugs and dwell are going and hence those added minutes are only temporary. Hopefully finally having a standardised fleet helps for disruptions on the line; a lot easier to sub-in capacity when all units are the same.
    One thing I’ve noticed heading out of Grafton towards Newmarket is the trains often pull out of the station, only to stop about one train length down the line (I’m assuming this is holding for other traffic at the junction near Newmarket). Would it not be faster to hold the trains at the platform and only start up once to save a bit of time? Guess the EMUs won’t need to rev up though, and they can certainly accelerate.
    Anyone know whether anything is happening with the retired ADK DMUs? Good memories on those, Doubt MoTaT would consider them though

    1. Trains from Grafton to Newmarket are held at the Newmarket home signal owing to congestion at the junction, a frequent occurrence. Ordinarily they are allowed to creep down at 20 k’s to the next signal although if it’s a 6 car it then blocks the Kingdon St crossing until that signal clears. Newmarket is a choke point as it is.

  6. Kiwirail is a poor future thinker. Why not use the diesel units in Christchurch and or establishing a service to Papakura from Hamilton?
    The reason not is that they need to built platforms I presume.
    SImon Power will say they are clapped out and old, but then we still require diesel units to Pukekohe….

    1. The government ruled out funding rail in ChCh, Kiwirail aren’t interested in setting up commuter rail themselves, they’ve got enough costs as it is. Besides, the units are owned by AT/AC – should Aucklanders start running train services down there? It’s not going to happen because we have a government uninterested in funding Public Transit, and only interested in building motorways in ChCh.

      1. And AT is only interested in selling the entire fleet of the carriages being stored at Taumarunui in one job lot, so Christchurch has no show (nor anywhere else in NZ).

  7. Will the last ever service to Waitakere be on the night of Friday the 17th? Anyone keen to be on the final journey?

    1. I was also disappointed, still no extra night services either to put it on par with the NEX and many buses which finish at 11pm-Midnight times, surely this is practical now as services are electric which negates need for fuel, removes noise issues for nearby residents and etc. Also we still have the stupid last train to Henderson only; on Mon-Thurs. Surely if last Papakura and Manukau services go all the way to their usual dest, so can Swanson?

      Guess we have to wait for the 10-15 min 7am-7pm frequency improvements next year before we will see any later/earlier services added?

  8. The inclusion of the 139 bus in the train timetable is a small step in the right direction for how timetables should be. Along with integrated networks and fares, there should also be integrated timetables. They should show the actual times though, not just the letter B.

    I wonder if they’ll install a bus timetable at the Swanson bus stop finally? Despite Swanson station being for trains and buses, there’s never been any bus timetable or info provided there.

    Also have to wonder how long the 139 will run for. A rural bus running after midnight (Fridays). I think AT will cut back the hours within a few months, then eventually abandon Waitakere altogether, as they have with other communities as part of the New Network. It’s just a token service as small compensation for ending a 133 year old rail service, the first passenger train abandonment since the scrapping of the Northerner.

    1. I agree, they should just put the actual times and shade them with a note at the bottom “shaded services are bus service 139 operated by ritchies transport holdings” rather than “B = bus at this time, that time and this time and that time between this time and that time blah blah blah”.

      Not sure about swanson stop, pretty sure it doesn’t even have one of those spinning timetable things that most stops have; as i’ve had people ask me what time the bus comes on multiple occasions, I just pull up the PIDS on my phone and tell them. Surely a bus interchange stop would have a PIDS or at the very least a spinny timetable or sign timetable. But eh, we are all pretty used to being treated like crap out here now, not sure Matt will care until the rough treatment starts to reach Sturges by way of Henderson 3rd platform.

      1. That third platform at Henderson just for late running trains is a travesty of a project. No money for new services, but plenty of money to build expensive infrastructure that equates to an ambulance at the bottom of the cliff. How about the novel concept of not having so many late running trains that you regard it as acceptable to build infrastructure for them? Or better yet, perhaps they could try to grasp the simple concept that if you have trains running 15 minutes late when your timetable has 15 minute frequencies, the best thing you can actually do is keep them all running 15 minutes late and just cancel the last service of the night. From the customer’s point of view, everything is just running on time.

        1. Too complex for AT/Transdev to perform, because apparently we are totally different to other countries that run higher frequency services on less infrastructure, with more patrons and less disruptions.

  9. “Pukekohe shuttle run by SA until September then ADL”. Does this mean that the ADLs are off for their promised refurbishment July – September?

    Weekday one hour frequency to Pukekohe off-peak is nothing short of farcical. One middle-of-the-day cancellation will result in a minimum 2 hour wait. These shuttles are running with old equipment that has recently had its maintenance scaled back. So these cancellations are a very real possibility. And as us Pukekohe folk are well aware, you can’t always pull rail replacement buses or taxis out of a hat.

    My back-of-a-cigarette-packet calculations seem to indicate adding another 9 shuttles* to the schedule would see half hourly services off-peak in addition to the 20 minute peak time services already on the schedule. Meaning that roughly every second arrival/departure from Papakura would have a connecting Pukekohe shuttle.

    *more on Fridays if another couple of shuttles are added to meet Papakura’s Friday-only late trains.

    1. Given they have 10 ADLs, what are they going to do with the rest with frequencies are that low, as such low frequencies wouldn’t need 10? Surely they could squeeze in more shuttles? (and Waitakere on the other end…)

      1. Completely agree, but Huapai would give more patronage and they could take the AT HOP equipment from Westfield once it closes soon…

        5 ADL’s is more than enough redundancy for both ends.

        1. I nean 5 either end. Maybe 7 pukekohe and 3 huapai tho as huapai cant do a leak frequency boost due to single track and doesnt really need to. Huapai only needs 1 ADL actually but im just saying for redundancy purposes.

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