KiwiRail has this afternoon issued an apology after electricity arcing led to the cancellation of dozens of train services in Auckland this morning.
All services on the Western and Onehunga lines were cancelled after electricity began arcing from overhead electric lines under the Broadway overbridge shortly before 4am.
The power was turned off while KiwiRail investigated the issue.
"I apologise to Auckland rail commuters for the disruption caused to services this morning," KiwiRail chief operations officer Siva Sivapakkiam said this afternoon in a statement.
"Our people had to make that call and I support their decision. Though it caused disruption, the safety of passengers and the public has to be our top priority."
Auckland's train network shut down this morning due to powerline faults. (Source: 1News)
He said it was caused by contaminants which had "got on the insulator" due to the high humidity and recent weather.
The insulator was cleaned and power was restored by 8.15am, he said.
Sivapakkiam said KiwiRail "took action" soon after they were made aware of the arcing.
"We had track crews mobilised by 4.15am and contacted the train operator Auckland One Rail at 4.25am," he said.
"The short amount of time between the fault being discovered and commuter trains starting this morning seriously limited Auckland Transport and Auckland One Rail’s ability to put alternate public transport in place.
"This issue is not related to the disruption in Wellington earlier this week. Our Track Evaluation Car will be back in Auckland next week to undertake its scheduled assessments."
All services have now returned to normal schedules with minor delays and minimal cancellations, Auckland Transport said.
'Hugely disappointing'
Earlier this morning, AT said in a statement it was frustrated with the outage.
"It's hugely disappointing and frustrating that we are not able to operate our services as usual this morning.
"Because of the short notice of this outage our teams have only been able to arrange for a small number of rail replacement buses, so we’re encouraging our train customers to consider using one of our scheduled bus services instead this morning.
"Once power has been restored today and our trains are up and running we will be seeking more detailed answers from KiwiRail about the cause of this morning’s outage and what steps they will take to prevent such issues happening again in future."
In a statement, Transport Minister Michael Wood called this morning's train timetable disruptions "incredibly frustrating for Auckland commuters".
He said a rapid review into KiwiRail — announced on Monday after the breakdown of a critical piece of equipment led to a major reduction of services in the capital — will look into whether the state-owned operator is "adequately focused on providing customer service that is fit for purpose".
"It's important to note that while the review was triggered by the events in Wellington it is not limited to those events."
KiwiRail woes
It comes after KiwiRail caused widespread disruption to Wellington train commuters after a failure of maintenance scheduling was compounded by KiwiRail's only high-tech track evaluation machine breaking down.
Early investigations showed the breakdown of the EM80 machine was only the straw that broke the camel's back, forcing trains to run slow, services to be slashed and capital commuters to jam up motorways with their cars instead.
"The primary mistake was that the EM80... should have been scheduled to do its track evaluations well before the compliance period ended on 30th April," chairperson David McLean told MPs this week.
KiwiRail's Interislander ferries have also been hit with frequent breakdowns, including the Kaitaki losing power outside Wellington Harbour in late January.
It was forced to drop anchor in Cook Strait.
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