8 ELECTRIC RAIL

Finally local bodies got serious about building an Auckland rail network.

By this time, passenger services were limited and trains run down.

The ARC bought Auckland’s rail and contracted Tranz Rail to run it but when the contract expired in 2003, Tranz Rail did not bid for it.

The Auckland Regional Council decided to award Australian-based Connex the contract to run the then dilapidated diesel service suburban Auckland services from July 2004.

Headquartered in France, Connex is  the transport division of Veolia Environnement, and the service is now run locally by Veolia Transport.

Connex’s chairman, Bob Annells, said at the time: “ARC has made it quite clear it wants Connex to ensure delivery of more reliable and frequent train services, grow patronage and deliver a safe and secure passenger experience.

“Our challenge is to turn that vision into reality and we will deliver this via improved maintenance arrangements; optimising rolling stock to enable us to operate a more robust timetable; and by better communication with our customers when there are difficulties, thereby enabling them to make informed choices about their travel.”

A few days before Christmas 2008,  the Auckland Regional Transport Authority made an important announcement:

“The Auckland Regional Council, in an historic meeting attended by the full board of ARTA, resolved to approve ARTA taking a major step forward towards the purchase of a new fleet of 140 electric train cars for Auckland.
Electrification is part of a wider programme of public transport infrastructure improvements to take place over the next five years, including the achievement of 10-minute train frequencies in peak hours, new stations, opening the Onehunga branch and Manukau spur lines, strengthened bus and ferry networks, integrated ticketing and real time passenger information.

As a result of those improvements, rail patronage is expected to more than double to 17 million passengers per annum by 2016, contributing to an overall doubling of public transport use across rail, bus and ferries.

ARC chairman Mike Lee said the ARC was proud to have taken the decision to proceed with electrification after decades of delay.”

The Labour Government’s  2006 Budget included funding of up to $600m towards development of the Auckland rail network. This helped encourage the eventual green light for electrification of Auckland’s rail. It would  also help further projects such as the re-building of Newmarket’s historic but old railway station into the city’s busiest hub.

The ARA announced it was pressing ahead with the ordering of  a fleet of 35 electric trains trains and support infrastructure as the council’s half-share of the $1 billion rail electrification joint venture with the Government. The electric rail system would  run between the CBD and Papakura in the south and Swanson in the west. Trains would be powered by 25 Kva overhead wires.

Part of the sweetener was the introduction of a regional fuel tax starting at 2c a litre in July 2009 and rising to 9.5c in 2011 to pay for new public transport initiatives such as electrification. ARC’s justification for the tax included this: “Rail is extremely efficient at moving people. By 2030, 30,000 commuters could be travelling by rail to the CBD and across the region in the morning peak. Moving the same number of people by car would require around 120 kilometres of extra arterial road and motorway lanes costing at least $3.5 billion.”

Electric trains were planned to be a reality by 2013 and it was hoped it may be possible to have some electric trains running in time for the Rugby World Cup in 2011.

The two track limitation through the Britomart entrance tunnel – an illogical oversight by the planners – also caused a rethink on whether Britomart would best be a through destination rather than the end of the tracks. This led the Auckland Regional Council to reach agreement in principle with Downtown Shopping centre owners Westfield on continuing the loop under the area as a possible inner-city loop to Mt Eden via Albert St.

But Labour moved slowly on funding plans, despite urging from the Greens.
When National was elected in November, 2008, the Auckland petrol tax idea was axed and there followed many months of doubt about what would happen with both the plan for electric rail and a proposal for integrated ticketing.

Auckland stations are being upgraded

In March 2009, Transport Minister Steven Joyce confirmed the government’s commitment to the electrification of Auckland rail, which was to have been funded through the regional fuel tax.

“After double tracking, electrification is the important next stage in the development of Auckland’s rail network. Rail is an important and growing way for Aucklanders to get to work each day. “ONTRACK’s electrification plans will proceed unchanged.”

He said that the purchase of electric trains was to come out of Auckland’s regional fuel tax but would now be supported by crown funding – either via a capital appropriation or additional debt funding, until such time as patronage levels reach the point where regular passenger transport subsidies are sufficient. The new Key government decided in principle that now that KiwiRail has been re-purchased by the government, it should be the owner of the new crown-funded passenger rail stock in Auckland and Wellington.

On November 24, 2009 came the statement Auckland rail commuters hoped for: Cabinet approved funding of $500 million for the purchase of electric trains.

Transport Minister Steven Joyce said the confirmation of this funding would see the procurement process underway early in the new year, with the first electric trains on the ground and operational from 2013.

“After double tracking, electrification is the important next stage in the development of Auckland’s rail network. Rail is an increasingly important way for Aucklanders to get to work each day.”

How electrification will look at Papakura | KiwiRail image

The administration of Auckland’s suburban services will also be changing.

It’s presently complex aand involves a number of agencies. Veolia runs the trains under contract from the the Auckland Regional Authority (ARTA) under ARTA’s Maxx label.  Infrastructure and essential things like the signals are owned and managed by the Government’s Ontrack / KiwiRail.

Besides money from public rates, ARTA receives funding to subsidise these services from the Government funding agency, Land Transport.

Administration will change again following  the transition from the existing seven territorial authorities and one regional council, to a single unitary super-city authority for Auckland and 20 to 30 Local Boards and the creation of a new Auckland Transport Authority, to be known as Auckland Transport. Funding is also changing with the imposition of a farebox recovery scheme.

Over Christmas 2008 and 2009, train services were replaced by buses while major improvements to Auckland’s rail stations and tracks were made and steps taken to prepare for electrification.
A sign of the progress is that in just a few years, Newmarket’s old signal box and platform has been transformed.


The opening of Newmarket’s new railway station on January 18,2010, is visible proof of how big improvements are happening.

Newmarket is expected to be the most popular Auckland station after Britomart.

Construction is underway on the formation for the 2km long Manukau rail link, the first new rail route built in Auckland since the Eastern line in 1930. It connects with the southern line at Puhinui and extends to Davies Ave in Manukau.

And Onehunga’s line is also to be re-opened.

On December 7, 2009, a contract with French company Thales to develop integrated ticketing was announced.
The key details:

  • The capital cost of the project has come in at $47 million- a lot lower for ratepayers than had been speculated. Snapper has insisted theirs would mean no cost to tax and ratepayers. ARTA says the fact that NZTA is developing a core system for New Zealand means a greater contribution has come from central government, lessening the impact on the pockets of Auckland ratepayers.
  • Thales strategic partner, Octopus will supply the core central clearing house system.
  • It will be based on Thales’ successful implementation of the Netherlands nationwide transport OV Chipkaart – see what’s in store from my earlier post here
  • The card will be extendable in that it is able to move into small payments such as coffee purchases, parking meter charges and other small retail charges as they arise.
  • Auckland gets it first and then its rolled out nationwide

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