KiwiRail says the final stages of the City Rail Link construction will cause more disruption, but it will be worth it in the long run. File photo. Photo: LDR
The rail industry is trying to manage a crisis in trust and reliability, as KiwiRail prepares to carry out 18 years of maintenance in one year.
At a conference of industry heads in Auckland yesterday, there was excitement around completing a rail rebuild and opening new networks, while also questions over how to confront unhappy travellers.
Between speed restrictions, construction nightmares and cascading signal faults, Auckland's rail commuters are not short of headaches.
But KiwiRail chief executive Peter Reidy told the room of railway leaders that the situation was getting better.
"In Auckland we're starting to see a big improvement. The mayors been quite clear with us in terms of expectations with ourselves and AT (Auckland Transport), and we've certainly got together and we are seeing a definite improvement."
He said that in 2025, there will be 18 years worth of maintenance undertaken in a single year across New Zealand.
"We know a lot of it is lagging and catch up, and so what were doing particularly in this city is years and years of under-investment, in the next three-four years."
The big focus was on getting up to standard for the City Rail Link, which is set to open in 2026.
"There will be disruption," Reidy said. "You don't get major infrastructure like this unless you actually knock it off, so we're really keen to do that."
Despite trust and confidence in the service reaching new lows, KiwiRail said reliability had improved - in Auckland the service was 97 percent reliable this year, up from 85 percent last year.
But commuters' level of trust and confidence in Auckland Transport has been stuck below 30 percent for months.
Martin Kearney - the chief executive of Auckland One Rail, the city's metro rail operator - said the industry should not be afraid of admitting a mistake.
"Sometimes, we don't like to say sorry here because it feels an admission of guilt. But saying sorry doesn't have to be an admission of guilt, it's sorry for the customer experience, and that's okay."
Auckland deputy mayor Desley Simpson agreed - she said the industry should not assume people understand why construction had to happen.
"You think it's business-as-usual, from a trained build network operation, but actually the layman's going: 'Well, why didn't you fix it from the word go?'."
Kearney said rail operators and regulators needed to work together through the next stage of disruption caused by the City Rail Link.
The new operations centre in Ellerslie was helping.
"We're already seeing improved communication, improved recovery from incidents taking place. And actually, for our leadership as well, we're seeing that come together as one industry."
The final hurdles for Auckland's metro rail are coming - and while headaches will continue for Aucklanders, the industry hopes they will soon benefit from a world-class railway system.
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