With the dust settling on the first day of Auckland One Rail operations on the newly extended electrified line to Pukekohe, it’s been a busy couple of days of media/PR events as well as kicking off the service, early this morning.
Of course there has been an immense amount of work that has gone in to get that operation up and running and it’s been a pleasure to see the teams come together to achieve that.
After handover over the renewed line from Papakura to Pukekohe by KiwiRail last week, a herculean effort has begun to train all our drivers to learn the alterations that have occurred and be fully competent on the route. Although this continues, it’s been a fantastic start and only good planning by the team has enabled that.
Naturally that challenge continues as we concentrate on drivers from our our northern and western depots and it’s fair to say the plan is under constant monitoring and review, but remains firmly on track!
But those train crew need a place to book on, get their notices and bulletins to digest, as well as have a suitable area for breaks. Having been handed over by Auckland Transport, it was great to see the new depot facility, fully furnished, this morning at 0345. But furniture is just the start. Getting the whole depot ‘operationally fit’ has been the task of the week and to be able to have it looking spick and span is testament to our fine driving team.
It is fair to say a great deal of proverbial ‘blood sweat and tears’ have been spilt right up to the departure of that first train this morning and often doesn’t get seen at media events.
So, hats off this morning to Vince Ah Kuoi and Danielle Ah Kuoi who had everything in place and supported by the depot supervisors oversaw a smooth morning book on. To the wider driving team who are ensuring that the driving team are suitably competent to run the timetable in full and all of those involved in the lead up to this event.
Of course coming together as one is the mantra of Auckland One Rail and hence the Safety, Assets, Customer and People and Culture teams have all played more than their part in getting this across the line. Not forgetting of course the commercial and financial teams along with the project teams making it all happen.
#auckland #aucklandonerail #aucklandtransport #kiwirail #pukekohe
