Normally when we talk about accessing public transport it’s about improving how easy it is to get to, such as how easy is it to cross roads in a station/stop’s walking catchment, is it possible to cycle to safely, do bus connections work, or even whether are there new routes/connections that could be made to fix the gaps left by how our streets were designed.
However, for many people in our society, the way we’ve designed out public transport network means they also need to question if that access will be available when they want to travel. That group includes, but isn’t limited to, people who aren’t able-bodied, especially those that use wheelchairs or other mobility devices, as well as parents pushing a pram and even just people who’ve travelled on a train with a bike.
The reason people need to question that access is that, when it comes to our Rapid Transit stations, many have been designed with access only via stairs/escalators plus lifts. Unlike in most buildings where multiple lifts are included – which helps to provide some redundancy should one fail – in order to save money on PT projects, there is often only a single lift. And if that lift breaks, the people who rely on it for being able to access public transport can no longer access public transport.
The occasional outage that might last a few hours is bad enough. But late last year, long outages of the lifts at Henderson caught my attention after trying to access the station multiple times with my son in a pram.
One time I was there with my son, and having clambered down the escalator with my son and his pram, I found a mum with a newborn and toddler in tow trying to work out if she could get up the escalators. In the end, she gave up and went home. The staff member manning the gate could have come and helped but he was too busy playing on his phone to notice.
The situation at Henderson became so bad that some people on Twitter started asking whether AT should just post when the lift was working, and:
The announcements about this lift are getting longer than War and Peace.
— Jane Marple (@PhillipLaings) February 12, 2024
These outages are serious, particularly at a station like Henderson where people are travelling to access employment, education, shops and services to enable them to live their lives. Also note how AT’s proposed solution is to travel to another station – but they don’t mention how you can get from there back to Henderson. This is something they could easily add to their comms – although in the case of Sunnyvale it’s a 2km+ walk. This is a huge barrier for people already facing barriers to access.
So I asked Auckland Transport for some data on lift outages around the network, and yesterday I got that data. The results are startling.
Over the last year, the lifts at Henderson have been impacted for a combined 167 days. Some of those impacts are short, with the lift unavailable for only a few hours. But in other cases, one or more lifts were out of action for more than a month at a time. The lift up from the platform to the over-bridge was the worst, with impacts on 101 days – that means it was out for over a quarter of the year. It’s also possible the situation is even worse, as the date I took the first image above (with the cones outside the lift) doesn’t show up in the data.
At Henderson, the lift from the overbridge down to Railside Ave wasn’t much better, with 56 days of disruptions, while the data shows the lifts to Platform B at Akoranga Station have also been highly unreliable, with 77 days of disruptions over the last year.
There are quite a few other stations around the network that use lifts to provide mobility access; and that they’re not in the data provided by AT hopefully suggests they’ve been reliable.
In the case of Henderson, there is a plan to build another overbridge at the southern end of the station as part of an upgrade to support the City Rail Link. That should at least provide a backup option. But there doesn’t appear to be any similar access improvement plans for any of the other stations that rely on lifts to provide access.
In the short-term, AT really need to sort the lifts at Henderson and Akoranga. Extended outages like those shown by this data are simply not good enough, and create major issues for those that rely on that access.
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Important that there is access for all to rail stations, but does anybody know when the trains are going to return between Pukekohe and Papakura, is it 2026?
Later this year I believe, that’s when the line between Papakura and Pukekohe is supposed to be finished. Even the signs in trains say two new stations are supposed to be complete next year (Ngākōroa Railway Station and Paerātā) and the last at Drury the following year. They line should open before the new stations though.
Only asking, as a Kiwirail representative at a recent public meeting was talking about waiting to 2026 for the last station to be completed, and then reopen the line for a commuter passenger service.
Hey Matt, can Greater Auckland find out, as we feel in Pukekohe, that we are left off the radar!
Sylvia Park & Newmarket is out of action a fair amount of time too but not in that data.
I did ask for all stations and the stuff provided covers two years and also includes lifts at AT’s carparking buildings – there are quite a few on these two but also there are generally multiple lifts so less of an impact. It even includes the pedestrian bridge at William Harvey Pl
I suspect that the elevator problems are related to our city’s general electricity and water hui. New Lynn was famously flood able despite being our best transit station. AT must be trying to catch up, although with no budget, making every excuse to avoid remedying anything properly. Hence the excessive public service announcements proclaiming WE ARE NOT THERE YET 🙁
This is the way we function, we fix stuff, with number eight wire, then wonder why the logs are floating down the river and destroying our trucking network.
We are silly little humans!
Rail is clearly our only mass transit salvation and the current politicking in Wellington will of course cost us more time and money than COVID and lockdowns.
For the people, by the people; but our democracy is highly questionable at the moment and it is difficult not to see Fascism amongst it.
Fascists do not like less than perfectly abled robots, methamphetamined pilots; it is a shame considering how far forward we have moved recognising that all humans have the right to be their own version of human!
Nothing to do water – That lift isn’t ‘broken’ – although last time I was there it had a sign on it saying ‘out of service’. It’s on the wrong side of the gate line. It’s shut so anyone that want’s to use it has to ask. So demeaning
Most of the issues with our stations are due to gates being added well after our stations were designed.
Ellerslie was out of action for about three weeks earlier this year. For most of that time there was no signage, the doors on the lift simply didn’t open.
At least Ellerslie has the alternative option at the South end of the station, Henderson has nothing but a lift and an escalator.
Matt L the other Question you should have asked in about the Escalators at Henderson as they seem to be forever out of action when I pass in the Train to Ranui .
As for those security they all should have their phones taken off them and just given a company phone for emergencies i.e what is called a dumb phone , that way they can do the job they are employed to do .
They literally get paid minimum wage to either do nothing all day (and I say this in the sense that there is no intellectual or emotional reward for this work, not saying that they are lazy), or get put in situations that are way more stressful/dangerous than they should have to deal with. Give them a break.
wow David picking on a group which are probably amongst the lowest paid AT staff. We need to call AT to account but focus on the highly paid execs and senior managers rather than the security staff. I have a disability and they often help me.
Not picking on them but everytime I’m on/at Station they are playing with their bloody phones and they may be underpaid then why is they cab afford that sort of Phone and the contract that goes with it ?
wow double down on those who may be less fortunate than you why not.
I definitely support your comment. Everytime I use the train (at most of the smaller stations) they are always playing on there phones. When I’ve approached them to ask a question they are so dam Rude and in a rush to get back to whatever is on there phone. Just imagine if we were did this at our jobs NOTHING WILL GET DONE. I have complained to AT but they have done nothing about it.
Note to Architects and Designers – whenever designing somewhere that requires a lift (train stations below ground, and offices / apartment buildings above ground), ALWAYS design for TWO lifts, so that if one is out of order, the other can still be used. Its basic common sense and good practice. Don’t argue, just do it.
Won’t help the people trapped on the platforms in this case, but it is just a good practice to make sure that this does not happen for future cases. London Underground learned this lesson years ago – it is penny pinching and bad practice to just design for single elevators – all their modern stations have multiple elevators.
“ALWAYS design for TWO lifts, so that if one is out of order, the other can still be used. Its basic common sense and good practice. Don’t argue, just do it.”
This comment in my view very much misses the point. We have a transport funding system that systematically cuts (“value engineers”) these elements. As an architect who tries to be generous and add another elevator, or a mobility / pram compliant ramp is likely to be told by the project manager or funding case reviewer to remove the “extra” stuff – or it gets moved into a “future expansion stage” which never happens.
I’d say that in more than half the cases, its’ not the architects / designers fault. If anything, they argue for more and get told to shut up.
Heck, we have a minister who has just proposed making funding footpaths on NEW roads discretionary, in effect, by splitting all such funding into a totally separate category which has been massively cut in budget while the roads budget was increased.
No wonder driving is the only viable option for many people in NZ.
It is bit like building the Harbour bridge in the first place finding 4 lanes is not enough. It seemed we do everything in NZ is in half measure. Always build it double for the future capacity.
“It is bit like building the Harbour bridge in the first place finding 4 lanes is not enough.”
Not planning for extra and extra and extra cars is GOOD. Why beggar ourselves for that. And the harbour bridge traffic growth half a century ago – car share since actually declined, especially after the busway – opening should not be the go to example.
We in fact still do too much of that – planning for car growth. Every new sub-division or intensification project still has to assume serious masses of new car trips and is then challenged as to whether we shouldn’t add more lanes!
The Harbour Bridge example you should mention is the repeated lack of adding footpaths and bike lanes or bus lanes. Thus driving a need for more car lanes…
See https://www.greaterauckland.org.nz/2021/05/05/the-auckland-harbour-bridge-clip-ons-planning-disaster-or-best-practice/
Good debunking of that harbour bridge myth.
With any project like this, there will be someone whose job is make sure that as little money as possible is spent, even if, as in this case, there is greater value from having reliable lifts that always work.
“The Cheapest Possible Option” is *not* the same as “Spending Public Money Wisely” but the way that these things are incentivised means that the cheaper option will almost always prevail, to a detrimental effect.
Also, beware the law of unintended consequences, for example, Kaiwharra station was closed because the cost of making it DDA compliant was deemed to expensive. Does it help DDA people that nobody at all can use the station now ?
Another issue with the lifts is that many of them are too small to comfortably fit standard bicycles in, let alone larger e-bikes
I took a 2.5 meter (non E) Cargo Bike to K Road to get a lock fitted.
I got on the Train at Sturges Road and off at Kingsland thus avoiding lifts that it would not fit.
All done in the middle of the day so as not affect others wanting the space.
It was a fun trip!
And Don’t the companies have a 24hr on call Tech that can come and fix them right away ? , or is that too hard .
“And Don’t the companies have a 24hr on call Tech that can come and fix them right away ? , or is that too hard”
24hr support – especially from a reliable company who actually does it instead of only promising it – by nature is more expensive. Our PT system and our local rates base is under constant cost pressure. No wonder this stuff gets de-prioritised. Gotta find the money to finish the transport’s minister’s Pakuranga fly-over after he removed the fuel tax money, after all.
The data provided includes when the job was logged, when the tech arrived and when the lift was put back in service.
Arrival times seem to generally pretty quick and most of the instances shown on here where the lift was impacted on a day, it was put back in service within a few hours, so that doesn’t seem to be the issue. It’s the week/month long faults that really concern me.
Is it AT’s fault criminal morons keep attacking these public facilities. Wrecking lifts, smashing electronic signs and other glass panels. It’s a real plague.
It’s not AT’s fault – but it IS their responsibility. If they conclude it’s too hard to keep up the maintenance, stop doing elevators, and build ramps.
But as I said above in other comments: Fat chance, because the initial costs are much higher – and according to our transport minister, grade-separation is a priority for state highways for cars, not for pedestrians wanting to get to PT!
I didn’t go through them in detail but a lot of the issues, particularly the longer outages at Henderson, reference water in the pit of the lift shaft because there was no pump to clear it out. A few of the longer outages even note the need for plumbers. That seems a design issue rather than vandalism.
Did anyone find out what the cause of the problem?
– was it lack of maintenance?
– was it not suitable for heavy use?
– was it designed for indoor use rather than outdoor use?
– was it vandalised?
– if it was vandalised is there is a CCTV which can pick the person who did the damage
Matt provided some added context above in the comment section on the causes.
Someone keeps posting on here about road safety not being popular to spend money on and “the majority” didn’t vote for it so that’s just democracy, deal with it.
Well this is a great example of why our democracy isn’t really supposed to be set up for that to be the case. It’s possible “the majority” dont know or care about lifts in train stations. But many of the people who depend on those lifts are also probably highly likely not able to drive. Our society shouldn’t be set up to punish people who have as much ability to contribute and pay taxes but can’t use the infrastructure “the majority” use. Especially in a world now that actually has better design options, pioneered of course overseas.
Shocking that we want to spend thousands of millions of dollars on new roads and are penny pinching on accessibility.
Funny the same people who probably don’t care about this would be screaming ‘but what about disabled people!’ if you proposed a car free street.
It’s even more fun when the lift AND escalator from the platform are not working, and there is no announcement for passengers a huge waste of time and money having to turn around and go home. This sort of inaccessibility makes people use their cars and give up on PT.
Also a friend told the station staff that the lift to the carpark wasn’t working the other day.. they just shrugged and said it’s a council lift and there was nothing they could do. It is the only step-free public access to the station on that side, so AT needs to get its act together and talk to council about who to call if there’s a fault.
I don’t think Wellington has a single lift (or even escalator) on its entire rail network (someone correct me if I’m wrong). It’s just ramps, ramps and ramps, and sometimes stairs as well. With ramps you the passenger remain largely in-control, whereas with lifts (often two are necessary, to get up, over, and down) you are at the mercy of these being operative. The easiest ramps to negotiate are those that pass under the railway as the height-difference between rail-level and a pedestrian-subway is about half that between rail-level and an over-bridge. A few stations in Wellington also have access via level-crossings which seem to work OK when train-frequencies are not too intense.
Yep, ramps are much more reliable, albeit they are much more expensive to build and take more space. Thus the short term saving of choosing elevators, and then these ongoing issues…
Underpasses are tricky to make safe and appealing though, especially in less-used stations. Yes, they need much shorter ramps, which is the key upside…
Ramps are often exposed to the weather. Penrose for example. They all have pros and cons.
How are ramps more expensive?
We’ve also had cases where ramps were removed in favour of stairs and lifts e.g. Ellerslie and Mt Albert.
Zippo – there’s no inherent reason why ramps can’t have Shelter on it. Ellerslie’s did before it was replaced with stairs
As an electric wheelchair user one of my primary concerns is what happens in an emergency. If I am upstairs or down and the lifts cannot be used, eg fire, bomb threat or earthquake etc. Our wheelchairs are our legs. Would a non-disabled person agree to being evacuated but they must leave their legs behind … no!
Railway stations are designed to allow non-disabled people multiple ways to exit in an emergency but to save money ramps and emergency railway crossings are not being created to enable us to independently exit buildings … simple things like always ramps with handrails instead of stairs so design is all inclusive. When it comes to saving money versus people we lose.
Oh how I look forward to the day but know I will not live to see it.
I’m sure in an emergency people would all pick you up and run.
Yes, Lorri. This would be top of mind if I was designing a station. Relying on lifts instead of ramps provides no resilience for emergencies. Of course people who cannot use steps would feel uneasy; their needs are being ignored.
Bit of a coincidence but I have just come home from Middlemore Station where they are building the supports for the new ramps that’s are being installed at the North end. I was amazed to see a reinforced cage which must have nearly 20 metre long being lowered into the ground. Maybe the ground is soft but it’s not a surprise that new stations are costing so much. Or maybe that’s standard engineering but I can remember installing the stubs for electrical pylons which were not even half as long. And surely they would need to carry far greater loads than a pedestrian ramp. I wonder how deep the old hardwood piles at Papatoetoe were. Can anyone remember what was at Middlemore prior to electrification I can remember the pedestrian level crossing.
At the Southern End they use to have a Walkway across the tracks , not sure about the Northern End .
On another matter,I wonder what monitoring or enforcement takes place at Homai with all the freeloaders?How much longer is it going to last before there is some action or enforcement?
There is another vital area where it seems that AT has to lift their game. It seems that Baby Brown has had a dream that it’s vital to lift the productivity in suburban streets (PiSS). The government will achieve this by allowing motorists to drive faster.
It’s obviously important because this seems to be occupying more of the Minister’s time than most other transport issues.
It transpires it may have been a wet dream because there is the sticky issue of speed around schools. Nothing it seems that $91k a time won’t fix.
I am wondering how this might play out. I suggest that any trial might begin at our local school because this is at the end of a no exit street; and this plan looks as though it is heading up a blind alley.
Matt, I don’t suppose they included stats for the lift to the Jacob’s Ladder Bridge?
The lifts and escalators at Henderson are about to be fully replaced later this year and these issues (in this location) will be sorted for good. The escalators in particular were never designed to be outdoors (they are indoor escalators) so the frequent failure is as a result of weather damage.
Also – the planned station upgrade will have an Overbridge at the south end for emergency use only (it’ll be locked otherwise). Access will still only be via the North end escalators/lifts.
Just wanted to add, the proposed total closure of pedestrian at-grade crossings. In the case of Oneills Road Swanson, this means either a detour via Swanson Station (IF the lifts are working) or a detour via North Candia Road that involves crossing a busy road with no pedestrian crossings, at a busy roundabout or at the occasional courtesy crossing with mid-road refuge. Their response to a plea for a bridge or underpass? No money. Strangely there is no shortage of funds for speed tables and raised crossings along Swanson Road. Closure of Oneills will effectively preclude local residents with pushchairs from accessing the local daycare, and add to traffic as parents drive their children to school. Point made.
Lift breakdowns have a huge impact on those who are dependent on them, but the same applies to egress if there is a disruption in the power supply, for instance. Trains now accommodate a large variety of mobility equipment and these passengers frequently cannot be evacuated other than via lifts. This could so easily be overcome if evacuation was available via a track crossing, accessed at the end of platforms.
Kia ora Vivian. I remember you and Chris working on that project across the region.
Which level of ARTA, Ontrack, Transport Ministry, etc would have needed to agree for multiple lifts per station to be standard disability access? I could not get anything done through the Council side.