News Release

15 November 2012

Mayor expresses alarm over rail failures

The Mayor is seeking an explanation and assurances from KiwiRail after two serious rail outages in Auckland in the past 24 hours.

Hundreds of commuters experienced major delays this morning after a telecommunication cable was damaged overnight. This came after a fault in the Auckland signalling system halted trains for around 40 minutes during the evening rush hour last night.

KiwiRail has apologised for the disruption and has launched investigations into the two unrelated incidents.

Len Brown wants an explanation as to how the outages occurred and an assurance that everything is being done to prevent a reoccurrence.

“Aucklanders are taking to public transport like never before,” says the Mayor. “We need assurances from KiwiRail that they are doing everything they can to ensure there is no repeat of this disruption.”

“As Aucklanders look forward to electrification and the arrival of our new train fleet, they need confidence that train services are reliable and on time.

“I have already spoken to KiwiRail Chief Executive Jim Quinn. I appreciate his apology to commuters and I have confidence that KiwiRail will seriously investigate the cause of the two outages and work hard to prevent a repeat.”
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