Better Event Trains

Sometimes it might not feel like it, but our public transport system is significantly better than what it was 10 to 15 years ago. However one area where Auckland Transport continue to really struggle is with events and the most recent weekend was no exception with complaints about trains from the Pink concert. The Herald reports:

Pink wowed 45,000 fans during the first of her two Auckland concerts at Eden Park last night, but the city’s train network has left some with a sour aftertaste.

Fans have described leaving the concert as “absolute carnage” as they faced 40 minute-to-one-hour-long waits for trains on sardine-squeezed platforms.

Photos and videos show large crowds stretching from the platform down staircases onto nearby streets.

One concert-goer, who didn’t wish to be named, said it didn’t appear as though Auckland Transport put on extra train services.

It did put on extra buses carrying people to Britomart, but the concert-goer said she had to get to Newmarket.

She said she left the concert on a high, but when walking out to see a sea of people “totally jammed” in the tunnel to train platform, she just thought, “Oh my gosh”.

“I would have thought the trains would have been ready to go,” she said.

“There should be … train after train trying to clear the backlog.”

AT did put on extra services, effectively running a normal peak schedule with a train every 10 minutes in each direction for over an hour, but that’s not enough.

The reality is it is very hard for most transport systems to cope with the sudden and massive influx of passengers at the end of an event like a concert. Though some of the issues also sounded like they were due to the dynamics of large crowds preventing some people from even getting to the train station.

Some people also had a good experience with the Herald reporting one of those in a separate article.

They also include AT’s response:

Auckland Transport Group Manager Public Transport and Operations, Rachel Cara said the high volume of people moving in a short space of time last night, putting huge demand on train services, and plans were in place to ease the strain for the next two concerts.

“Eden Park is the biggest stadium in the country and hosted more than 40,000 people for the concert. Auckland Transport (AT) accounted for this and had a plan to get people home as quickly and efficiently as possible.”

“This included running additional train services at maximum size as frequently as possible, as well as running supporting bus services – including direct buses to the city centre and North Shore. Train services heading to Waitematā Station (Britomart) boarded at Kingsland Station and services heading West boarded at Morningside Station.”

“This is why some passengers may have observed trains not stopping at the station they were waiting at, but these were full when leaving their designated station.”

Track constraints did not allow AT to run trains immediately after one another as we could not stack trains at Kingsland Station and insert them when needed, so there were gaps between services, she said.

Following the event, AT carried 16,000 passengers from Kingsland Station and 6000 from Morningside Station.

“People gradually left Eden Park after the concert and wait times at Kingsland Station were no longer than 45 minutes, which is what we had expected for an event of this scale.”

So around half of people at the event caught a train, and presumably thousands more by bus. That’s pretty good and certainly shows that Aucklander’s will use public transport.

But some of AT’s other comments need a bit of investigation.

Despite the claim of running trains at the “maximum size” I did see a report of them still only using a 3-car train on at least one service. This has been quite common at peak times too in recent years even though we have enough to run every service with 6-cars.

What concerns me is the suggestion of running at the maximum frequency and that track constraints preventing more trains from running. My understanding is our signalling system was designed to allow up to 15 trains per hour per direction – a train every 4 minutes. So the constraints then are likely to be a combination of two things:

1. AT and Waka Kotahi are concerned about running additional trains on the Western Line due to the impact they’d have on level crossings, mainly due to impact that would have on cars and a concern it would lead to safety issues.
   I’ve even heard that AT even ran a trial of CRL frequencies, which is only an extra two trains per hour per direction, one Sunday morning but abandoned it after concerns it was having too much impact on cars.
2. Our network, and particularly the Western Line, could perhaps best be described as skinny. We just don’t have lots of extra space in the existing rail corridor for additional platforms or sidings which could store trains for events. As such, AT need to run those event trains all the way from Swanson – note: this is the Saturday timetable but it was the same on the Friday night.

One of the changes AT made for the Saturday night was to have trains skip stations between New Lynn and Morningside which would allow them to save a little time and trains to Kingsland faster.

The solution tonight is Waitematā bound trains are skipping Avondale, Mt Albert and Baldwin Ave Stations to wait in the wings at Morningside Station. https://t.co/dP8VYYbm8K pic.twitter.com/72mCZET0I3

— Grady Connell (@TheGradyConnell) March 9, 2024

One of the few places where there is additional space in the corridor is Morningside. The station has two additional sidings on the southern side of the station which can be used to store trains. It also has space on the northern side which is often used to store machines and material used for works around the rail network.

Next to the Morningside station is also a level crossing and as I highlighted earlier in the post, removing level crossings is important if we want to run higher frequencies after the CRL opens. AT say that if they were to run their future planned timetable with 24 trains an hour through the crossing, that barriers would be down for 51% of the time.

Mayor Wayne Brown suggested last week that he thinks removing level crossings is more important than the government’s planned motorways.

Asked whether the east-west link was a priority for Auckland, Brown said no, adding that it was way down the list of priorities in the integrated transport plan.

“If you take $2b to do the east-west link, that’s $2b that’s not going to be spent somewhere else,” he said.

To illustrate the trade-offs at play, Brown added: “Would that $2b be better spent doing all the railway crossings so that the city rail link actually works?

As such, one thing I’ve been thinking a bit about lately is whether we can combine the removal of level crossings with other objectives, and not just transport objectives but also housing ones.

So here’s what I was thinking about for Morningside, assuming that Eden Park continues to be used for major events. I’m not sure how technically feasible it would be so would be interested to hear thoughts from people who might know.

1. AT/Council buy up the buildings on immediately north of the station. These are all buildings ripe for redevelopment and already have Mixed Use zoning which allows for apartment buildings.
2. AT grade separates the level crossing by realigning it to Inwood St. This would have the added benefit of making easier for people coming from north of New North Rd to access the station rather than having to divert to the signalised crossing east of Morningside Dr.
3. New sidings are added north of the station which could be used to store trains for events or possibly even everyday usage. This way at least some additional services could be stored closer to Kingsland.
4. Working with Eke Panuku, an apartment building/s are added above the site creating hundreds of homes right next to a train station that will be only a 10 minute train ride from the centre of the city once the CRL opens. While I doubt it would cover the full costs, the proceeds from the apartments could help to pay for the other aspects of the development.

Could this help with events, is it even possible and where else could we remove some level crossings (either by grade separation or closure) while also achieving other outcomes that will help the city?

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