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:
- 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. - 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.
- 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.
- 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.
- 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.
- 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?
Why didn’t they jump on the surface level LR that Labour delivered before the America’s cup?
I drove and parked the car close to Eden Park on Friday morning then biked to work. We got the bus and train to the concert which was very good aside from the packed service to the shore stopping at every station on the way! We didn’t train home afterwards as we were worried about it taking too long with small children!
Getting on the train afterwards has been hit and miss for me in the past.
I will never forget in 2009 in Glasgow getting the train after a concert. There was one huge line to the station kept in check by police on Horseback. They ran a dedicated non stop train which worked well.
Good post. I also heard about the Pink first night debacle and thought it was unfortunate that AT does not see the huge PR opportunity these events provide. It saw a similar situation after the Rugby World Cup last year.
The event ticketing / PT arrangement gets people into trains who had never tried them before. ( I observed people on Saturday evening explaining the rail system to their companions. ) These situations should be managed to ‘wow’ these new users so that they think of PT as a real option. Trains should be filled and depart with a sense of pace.
Hey Paul. Great point. We got the train to the cricket from Glen Innes the other week and the guard there was making people pay for tickets even though it was clear to many of us that travel to the game was free. These were people without Hop cards. Really frustrating for everyone involved.
This was happening with bus drivers at previous events. I heard so many stories of people having to argue with the drivers. Sometimes this led to the bus load of eventgoers chanting out support for each new passenger.
Come on, AT. At this point, you either have a problem with oversight of the bus and train operators’ events planning, or you aren’t trying.
I’ve found even when they run trains the info is lacking too.
When the Auckland marathon is on, they’ve put an extra early train but only tell you when it leaves the furthermost station so if you’ve trying to get on a different station you don’t have an exact timing.
It was “not possible” to deliver enough extra services because the rail network operator staffing levels has drop to the point that it rely on overtime, standby and denying weekend leave to run an normal timetable with not cover for sickness, disruption, special events. Track layout had always allowed for stacking trains at Morningside and Kingsland before, but there aren’t the crews to do it today. New staff in training, but CRL testing will begin soon and remove up to 10% from the normal roster.
We can take some inspiration from how the Australian capitals do event transport.
Perth built a 6-platform station right next to its huge new stadium, with trains running to nearly every part of the network back-to-back after events.
Melbourne has several train stations including Flinders st a short walk from the MCG.
Sydney has a dedicated station for the Olympic park, with trains running shuttles to Central.
As for Eden Park, unfortunately Kingsland station is very space-constrained, so it’ll never achieve quite the level of service of the Aussie capitals with only two small platforms. But some stabling at Morningside and a standard playbook and staffing for event days would definitely help.
Would be great to see more consideration like this. Travelled back to Manly after an NRL Grand Final and even the bus system was super impressive.
I suppose some thought should be given into number of large scale events at Eden Park to make the changes worthwhile.
It’s a real pity that Labour dropped the ball with Light Rail up Dominion Road.
Kingsland may be somewhat limited in its capacity in its current form, but an alternative mode of public transportation on the other side of the park would really help move punters out of the area following a concert or sports match.
Sort of like this then…
https://collection.motat.nz/objects/103577/eden-park-tram-loop
I thought only communist countries had good trains. 😉 Couldn’t possibly happen here.
ah yes Prague, what an amazing tram service! I did not use the trains.
Both are great, running 24/7.
yeah Melbourne, perfect example of communism in action
The MCG to Flinders St train station is around 1.5km. Hardly a short walk.
Yes, Richmond with 10 platforms is the closest station and is where most people head. It’s amazing watching Richmond station clear the crowds after a match.
Providing staff to help organise the train stations should be included in the cost of putting on the event ( it might well be already I guess ) that should cover overtime if necessary. I’ve been a victim of this previously but it beggars belief that it can’t be resolved given that it is very well known when Eden Park is full. ‘Close’ the network for an hour at the end of the event and clear the decks. No city bound trains on the western line and no southern line trains past Newmarket. It appears to be a simple enough task…just a matter of prioritizing the event for an hour. Until the CRL happens there is still the issue of one way in one way out of Britomart
Seriously? Close the rest of the network for an hour so that an event can be cleared. Next think you will be saying to close the commuter ferries when a cruise ship docks or departs. Those pesky commuters cause so much trouble for other folk just wanting to have fun.
They’ve closed through trains on the Western line numerous times for events and used both platforms at Kingsland for Britomart bound services every few minutes.
Not sure why it didn’t happen this time.
I did have excellent experiences post the fifa world cup games that had similar crowd numbers so it is definitely possible
Is this more reason to ditch Eden Park? How much does all this infrastructure and services to get people from Eden Part to City cost, compared to if the stadium was in the City in the first place?
It is difficult to see how spending billions on a new stadium would somehow end up saving Aucklanders money.
Obviously this alone wouldn’t cover the cost, but it should be part of the equation. Another big factor is that Eden Park can’t host many events due to resource consent – how much could a concert like Taylor Swift have added to the Auckland economy, multiply that over many years.
I am not a fan of a waterfront stadium (what a waste of a prime view), but somewhere in the city might make sense.
Its why Quay Park is the best of the proposal. Not right on the waterfront, but downtown in an area needing redevelopment.
If not that they should redevelop Penrose to be a new stadium, as well as housing, commercial, a green lung, perhaps even a test cricket oval over time.
Its currently serviced by two rail lines, could eventually have a closer station, and there is the potential for another on a Avondale-Southdown. Good vehicle access via the state highways passing by. No event restrictions.
The Eden Park transport problem happens because it is in the wrong location. A central city stadium would allow crowds to access all 4 train routes plus every bus and ferry route, just as 100k or more city workers and students do every weekday. Quay Park would be perfect.
Also, a lot of punters would walk to bars and restaurants after the event, thereby spreading the demand on the transit services out over a longer period. This happens to a small extent in Kingsland but would be a much bigger factor downtown.
Even with CRL and 5-minute frequency Kingsland will only be able to shift a maximum of around12k people an hour.
Yes. I take the view that if you are at Eden Park then you have made a poor decision.
Plonked in the middle of downtown or a city fringe suburb is a terrible place for a stadium. Put it somewhere with a decent parking lot for 10,000-15,000 cars, good motorway access, shuttles and sattelite parking and if possible a nearby train station. That’ll take pressure off the low capacity and overloaded train network.
The suggestion of linking a grade separated over ridge to the Inwood Street intersection is definitely worth thinking about as it allows room for longer approach ramps (approx 90metres) versus previous thinking about ramps along Morningside Drive (which would be limited to about 70 metres and unacceptably steep). Other alternatives involve lowering the rail line by a few metres but that would force a complete replacement of the Morningside Station and other consequential changes.
Are Kingsland platforms long enough to run nine-car trains? Could be a quick win.
I took the event bus to CBD after the concert on Saturday, but it was a slow run especially on K road.
I had one experience with Eden Park and trains during the World Cup last year: Kingsland express to Britomart and Morningside Westbound. I thought it functioned quite well.
We live in a city so these tastes of real city intensity are very healthy.
The logistical complications for Auckland Transport need to be recognized, and if they are genuinely moving as many people as possible, then we should be less critical, given that the rail network is our best mass transit device.
From experience, trains run well, ferries suffer from wharf infrastructure issues which slows them down at peak times, and buses are doing a wonderful job of picking up the slack for the CRL and cancelled Light Rail.
We still require light rail as a city, and we need to keep pushing for it. Travelling south of Onehunga is impossible at peak hours, Mangere Bridge Bridge is a congestionator, and we cannot all afford electric bikes to use the beautiful bridge next door.
I have submitted to the GPS and hopefully all of us can do this, it does offer a decent word count to express a personal view, and if there enough personal views, that might add up to more than a few persons, which is what the population of Auckland is; ever so slightly more than a few persons!!!
‘given that the rail network is our best mass transit device.’
Actually cars are our biggest mover of people in Auckland, followed a long way back by buses, with trains being a very distant third. Trains are however managing to edge out ferries.
I was there on Saturday, there was one 3-car train running out west before the next 6-car came. It was not every 10 minutes as the trains took so long to load with all the people. In Morningside the issue is that every time a train passes the pedestrian gates close which stop people getting onto the platform to board the train. With trains in every direction this hampered boarding efforts.
9 car trains from Kingsland through the CRL to Britomart would be a massive help.
In all, the trains weren’t that bad. When you have 45,000 people leaving a concert of course there is going to be a wait. I only waited for 2 trains before I got on one to head out west, it was more the fact that we waited 20 odd minutes for the first one to arrive and in that time 3-4 were passing us going into the city.
Okay, this is my hood so a few comments on feasibility:
If you’ll look on your map you’ll see that there is a large traffic island between the entrance to Inwood St and your proposed deviation of Morningside Drive. That is because at the moment Inwood is a “semi-one way street”. You can turn left into it coming north-east up NNR, but you can’t turn right into it going south-west down NNR. (You can only get there by turning into Western Springs Road 200m up the road.) So realigning Morningside Drive would be an absolute nightmare traffic control-wise. As a cyclist in that part of the world, I would fear for my children’s safety if I had to watch for cars turning both left and right into Inwood.
A secondary problem is that buying all the buildings north of the station would wipe out a great noodle place, lol;
You are correct.
The link to Western Springs Rd is more of a loop, traffic coming to Morningside (including shops such as Kmart) turns left at Inwood St and right onto Morningside Dr. Leaving the area involves a right turn and left turn at Western Springs Rd. It would be a significant (but not unwelcome) change to simplify things. But this way would mean significantly higher traffic on Western Springs Rd. Not good for safety, particularly for cyclists.
Note also that traffic to Great North Rd can no longer use this as a shortcut as the right turn from Tuarangi Rd onto GNR is no longer available. As a resident of the area I don’t want this reintroduced!
My assumption was that the intersection would be signalised rather than remaining as free left turns.
And the zoning is mixed use so how about the noodle place coming back into a ground floor shop?
I would have thought the whole top end of Morningside Drive would get closed in this situation, with a single four-way intersection at Inwood St. That would actually be really good.
Could you turn the new intersection into a 3 (4) phase light. First phase, pedestrians. 2nd, right hand turn from GNR into Inwood/Morningside, and left hand only out. 3rd phase, straight ahead and left turning traffic on GNR. 4th, straight ahead and left turning traffic on Western Springs Rd. Would mean any right turning traffic from Inwood would have to go to the Western Springs Rd intersection further up (as current), then turn left, and any right turning traffic from Morningside would have to continue straight onto Inwood, then go right onto Western Springs Rd, and join GNR a block later.
Or, just have light phasing where there wouldn’t be an issue, with a dedicated right turn from GNR (and left turn from Inwood/Morningside), then straight ahead on GNR, then a Inwood phase (without left if there isn’t a dedicated pedestrian phase), then a Morningside drive phase (without left if there isn’t a dedicated pedestrian phase). It should have a dedicated phase for pedestrians (Barnes dance) due to the proximity to the station anyway. Then ATOC can pick and choose the frequency of each cycle based on demand.
The new bridge can have dedicated protected cycle lanes, footpaths, 1 traffic lane headed towards St Lukes, and 2 headed to GNR (1 for left turns, 1 for straight and right). Inwood St is wide enough that killing the parking/moving the lines has enough room for dedicated cycle lanes, 2 lanes heading to GNR, and 1 towards Western Springs. Then they can put another cheap roundabout like the one at Mountain View a few blocks away.
No reason a level crossing removal project shouldn’t make life better for all road users, pedestrians/PT users/cyclists/drivers etc.
I went to Pink on Friday night and whilst it was a little bit chaotic when everyone streamed out the stadium it seemed to be more related to AT staff not really knowing what was going on. All up its wasn’t a disaster, people attending the concert didn’t know where to get buses from or where they were going to.
Better comms and briefing would have helped a lot. Pushing out the no parking zones / street closures a bit further would have helped. There was still too many cars around to justify the number of people they carried.
I went to Taylor Swift in Singapore 5 days previously, experience was obviously night and day, the stadium has two walkable MRT stations and cleared 60,000 really quickly.
The MRT there is a wonder with 6 min frequencies and all built over the last 30 years, there’s a lesson for us if we’re bold enough to grasp it.
“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.”
Before ASR was installed it was possible to queue trains almost coupling to coupling by using stop and proceed signals. Can’t be done now because the new signals don’t allow it.
I have never really had any major problems at Eden Park and the anecdotes above indicated it wasn’t bad either. I think from here its tinkering around the edges with better comms, longer train sets (if possible). I don’t think any major decisions should be made until the stadium direction is agreed.
Eden Park probably only has about 8 of these nights this year. Other than big concerts and a couple of AB tests, you are not going to get more than 30k to the stadium for any event this year. So reconfiguring rail lines etc seems a bit of overkill for a station that might not be around in 10yrs time.
However once the decision is made we need to have RTN to and from the station (wherever it is) as a key consideration. Everybody has a whinge at rugby etc when talk of a new stadium comes up, but they will only be a minor user. Concerts and other night-time events drawing larger crowds than 95% of rugby games will be the future.
From my experience the worst thing with getting home on the train is not getting out of Kingsland, it’s getting a useful connecting train home if you live on the Southern or Eastern lines.
Most potential passengers leaving Eden Park , ( and new PT users) , would head to Kingsland Station, to catch a train, especially if that is where they got off of the train before the concert
Here are some solutions:
1. Run 9 car trains from Kingsland Station to Newmarket, then into Britomart Station
2. Run 9 car trains from Kingsland Station along the western line to Swanson
Then turn them around and run them as an express back to Kingsland Station where they can reload.
3. Have a fleet of express EVENT BUSES waiting on Sandringham Road that head WEST to StLukes and to Pt Chev ( where they connect to the Outer Link and to the frequent 18 )
4. Have a fleet of express EVENT BUSES waiting on Sandringham Road that head to Lower Albert St ( where they connect to the ferries, to the NX1 and to North Shore buses )
5. Have a fleet of express EVENT BUSES waiting on Sandringham Road that head to Victoria Park ( where they connect to the Link Buses and to the NX2 )
6. Have a fleet of express EVENT BUSES waiting on New North Road that head to Ponsonby Road then to Victoria Park ( where they connect to cross to the Newmarket to North Shore buses, Link Buses and to the NX2 )
7. At the conclusion the concert have PA announcements within Eden Park, advising where to catch your train or buses
8. Include a map of the EVENT buses with every concert ticket sold
9. At the end of the concert display the EVENT bus map on all of the screens within Eden Park
10. Update the AT Mobile App to have a special section and a landing page screen called EVENT Buses. This screen only appears for a few days before the event and on the day of the event.
11. Update the AT HOME PAGE to have a special section and a landing page screen called EVENT Buses. This screen only appears for a few days before the event and on the day of the event
12. Create and promote a “walking bus route” from Eden Park, across Bond Street and into the City
13. Deploy AT staff from all departments including the Executive Team ( so they can experience first hand what it is like to be out on the streets )
14. Install some easy to read signage inside buses and trains for 2 weeks prior to the concert ( all buses and trains already have A3 sized poster frames, that can be used )
15. Install A1 sized EVENT transport maps on all train platforms two weeks prior to the concert. All stations already have these poster holders.
16. Run EVENT messages on the screens that are already installed inside all of the Link Buses for two weeks
17. Create a fit for purpose SPECIAL EVENT web site that is only used during special events, called. http://www.ATSpecialEvents.co.nz. This shows the upcoming events and a map of the special Event Buses and Event Trains
18. Replace the TeReo audio messages on all buses, with a special EVENT audio message that says. For Special Event and Concert Buses, visit http://www.ATSpecialEvents.co.nz
Perhaps if AT wasn’t so busy restructuring every few weeks, they would be able to retain their staff who know how to do these things.
I think Matt has nailed it. I have in my various roles highlighted the value and importance of Morningside Ave and key neighbouring level crossings to be a key focus for the level crossing removal project. As stated, the value uplift would cover a decent amount of the cost, it would allow for the potential developments to also work with Eke Panuku and Council in general to make the necessary changes to support a kind of TOD. The reality is the benefit of having Morningside Ave as a thoroughfare will likely produce resistance, but in the grand scheme of land use outcomes here and massive uplift in volume of people in the area, this would likely create a higher scale benefit for the businesses and wider community. It would also make high density development even more feasible on the feedback loop basis.
I have seen comment elsewhere that the normal practice of running a special event timetable from Kingsland to Britomart was not done for the Pink Concert because there was also a Warriors match at Mt Smart so AT decided to retain normal timetable patterns.
This seems like it’s more likely to be the issue. AT not bothering to put in place their decent plans for PT for the stadium. FIFA game last year (similar sized crowd, 42k vs 45kish) was great PT wise, had trains stacked up at Morningside, they filled them then the next one left.
Only consideration (which they may even do?) they should have is rail replacement buses running from Kingsland to Morningside for regular Western Line passengers. Or from Mt Eden to Baldwin, then they can during the game use the space between Kingsland/Morningside to stack trains, as well as the westbound track between Mt Eden and Kingsland, and the eastbound one between Baldwin and Morningside.
Then, as they do, you can have 1 train filling, with 1 train departing then arriving from the stack continuously at both stations until the crowd is gone, then back to normal service. They already do this well normally. The walk from the stadium to the station should probably have had the roads shut, but it’s great at reducing the surge as people naturally spread out when walking due to different walking speeds.
Scant mention of the Warriors game – trains from Onehunga and South fizzled on the night and there were no replacement buses. Piss poor. Pink fans got the better deal.
Interesting that level crossing closure for 51% of the time is deemed unacceptable. The red lights at a typical four-way intersection are red for an average of 51% of the time. That’s sort of how they work. But a level crossing is probably allowing more people and freight to cross while the gates are down than occurs at most road intersections.
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