Auckland RWC transport woes addressed - Joyce
Last Friday night's transport problems in Auckland will not be repeated, Transport Minister Steven Joyce says.
Last Friday night's transport problems in Auckland will not be repeated, Transport Minister Steven Joyce says.
Mr Joyce, who stopped short of giving an unconditional guarantee that Auckland transport would run smoothly for the rest of the Rugby World Cup, said he had received a report from Auckland Transport on what went wrong, which addressed issues identified.
As a result, there would be an extra 100 buses available to Auckland transport operators, should there again be problems with Auckland's rail system, Mr Joyce said.
An extra bus service would also run between Britomart and Eden Park, to take pressure of the rail system, he said.
On top of that, 40 more security staff will be stationed at Britomart, bringing the total number there to 100.
The additional cost of these changes would initially be absorbed by Auckland Transport, he said.
While Mr Joyce had confidence that the measures and steps being put in place would help to resolve any issues as they arose "the proof of the pudding is in the eating".
He said most of last Friday night's transport woes resulted from far more people using the public transport system than had been predicted.
"This was a particular event with a much higher level of demand than was anticipated."
If a situation arose that required the 100 extra buses to be called on, Mr Joyce said other bus services would not be disrupted.
Colin Williscroft
Wed, 14 Sep 2011
Wed, 14 Sep 2011
© All content copyright NBR. Do not reproduce in any form without permission, even if you have a paid subscription.
Auckland RWC transport woes addressed - Joyce
16906