Auckland Transport Seeks to Enhance Rail Network Reliability Amid Expected Patronage Growth

Auckland Transport and its partners have invested heavily in the Auckland rail network over the last 18 years with patronage growing from approximately 2.5 million trips per annum in 2002 to over 20 million trips in 2017.

With Auckland being one of the fastest growing cities in Australasia, with an anticipated growth of an additional 300,000 people over the next 10 years, Auckland rail patronage is expected to climb even further.

In the next six years further investment in the City Rail Link, increased rolling stock, third main between Wiri and Quay Park, electrification between Papakura and Pukekohe, and broader investment in public transport will likely see patronage grow three or four-fold to 60 to 80 million per annum over the coming decades.

The number of services operated over the network will increase significantly which will place greater demand on infrastructure and increase the impacts of infrastructure failures. A series of recent failures, and trends indicating an increase in resulting delays have impacted on service levels expected by customers.

There has also been an increase in consequential delay post incident due to timetable changes increasing service levels and narrowing headways between services. In that context it is critical that the railway infrastructure is capable of safely and reliably delivering on this growth.

Failure to deliver a safe, reliable and resilient network will undermine both the confidence and achievement of the targets that Auckland Transport has for rail and more broadly public transport in Auckland.