Long wait for electric trains almost over

  • Breaking
  • 23/04/2014

Almost a century ago, transport officials proposed electrifying Auckland's nascent rail network. Tomorrow those plans become reality, with the public launch of the city's first electric trains.

All 5000 tickets for the inaugural rides, which start at 10am, were snapped up within 24 hours. Passengers will be taken from Britomart to Newmarket and back on the first of the 57 new trains to go into service.

Auckland Transport media manager Mark Hannan says the upgrade has been a long time coming. The current diesel-powered trains were purchased from Perth at scrap metal prices after the West Australian city electrified its network in the early 1990s.

"Our catchline is smarter, better, quieter, all those things," he says. "They're much more efficient, they use a lot less energy, they are much, much quieter and they are much more reliable."

The first of the electric trains will be taking fare-paying passengers on the Onehunga line from Monday, and by the middle of next year all of the old locomotives will be history.

But why has it taken this long? Mr Hannan blames politics for the slow progress. Plans to electrify the rail network in the 1920s, 1950s and 1970s – each tied in with a proposal to put in a central loop route – all came to naught.

"It's only in recent years that there's been a commitment to upgrading the rail network in Auckland," says Mr Hannan.

After a brief dip following the 2011 Rugby World Cup, patronage on Auckland's trains is rising once again, reaching 11 million trips in the year to March. Prime Minister John Key has said patronage will need to hit 20 million a year before the Government will consider bringing forward the construction of the City Rail Link, currently scheduled to begin construction in 2020.

In addition to speed, reliability and efficiency boosts, the new trains will allow services to be more frequent, even more so once the City Rail Link is built.

"We can only get a certain number of trains into Britomart at any one time," says Mr Hannan, "but over time there will be more services, particularly in off-peak times.

"Britomart is probably pretty busy at the moment especially in the morning and during the afternoon drives, but we'll be looking at more off-peak during the day and during the weekend."

The total cost of electrifying the rail network has been estimated at $1.14 billion – and Aucklanders are getting a bigger bang for their buck than originally planned, says Mr Hannan.

"When we ordered them, the New Zealand dollar wasn't as strong as it is now," he says.

"Each train is three carriages. The original plan was that we were only going to get the front carriage and the back carriage, and we were going to recycle the ones in the middle – so it's meant that we can actually have totally new trains, rather than having to match them up.

"We haven't had to cut corners."

Auckland Transport is putting on entertainment for the trains' launch at Takutai Square, and will have a valet service for bikes and prams available, as well as mobility parking.

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source: newshub archive