Pink concert: Auckland Transport admits train issues following Eden Park event, schedules additional busses

After fans described leaving Pink’s first of three Auckland concerts as “absolute carnage,” Auckland Transport (AT) has scheduled additional busses for tonight’s final concert at Eden Park.

AT has also admitted the track issues that have hampered Auckland’s train network for months played a part in the delays.

More than 45,000 fans attended the American superstar’s concert at Eden Park in Kingsland, though upon leaving they were faced with 40-minute to one-hour-long waits for trains on packed platforms.

Auckland Transport Group Manager Public Transport and Operations Rachel Cara said the very high volume of people moving in a short space of time last night put huge demand on train services.

AT had taken into account that Eden Park would be hosting more than 40,000 people for the concert and had a plan to get people home as quickly and efficiently as possible, including running additional train services at maximum size as frequently as possible, as well as running supporting bus services – including direct buses to the city centre and North Shore.

Train services heading to Waitematā Station (Britomart) boarded at Kingsland Station and services heading West boarded at Morningside Station.

“This is why some passengers may have observed trains not stopping at the station they were waiting at, but these were full when leaving their designated station,” she said.

“Track constraints did not allow to run trains immediately after one another, as AT could not stack trains at Kingsland Station and insert them when needed, so there were gaps between services.”

Following the event, AT carried 16,000 passengers from Kingsland Station and 6000 from Morningside Station.

“People gradually left Eden Park after the concert and wait times at Kingsland Station were no longer than 45 minutes, which is what we had expected for an event of this scale,” Cara said.

She said that AT again had plans in place tonight and Sunday night to manage the high volume of people that will be travelling to and from Eden Park, and were making further optimisations to reduce wait times where possible, including putting on additional buses to the city centre.

But one concert-goer, who didn’t wish to be named, complained about the lack of extra train services.

It did put on extra buses carrying people to Britomart, but the concert-goer said she had to get to Newmarket.

She said she left the concert on a high, but when walking out to see a sea of people “totally jammed” in the tunnel to the train platform, she just thought, “Oh my gosh”.

“I would have thought the trains would have been ready to go,” she said.

“There should be … train after train trying to clear the backlog.”

“I really thought that for such a huge concert like Pink they would have done something more to get everyone home.”

The woman said she normally leaves before the end of concerts to beat the rush.

“But in the last song in Pink’s concert, she actually flies around the stadium and you don’t want to miss that,” she said.

It comes as Herald reviewer Lillie Rohan raved about the concert saying Australians showed they were crazy about Pink but that the Auckland crowd might just have outdone them in their enthusiasm.

“It feels good here,” Pink told her nearly sold-out audience.

“My cheeks are numb from smiling, I’m smiling way too much.

Pink’s newest tour solidifies her spot as the artist who has played the most stadium concerts in Australia and New Zealand.

“Thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you,” she humbly repeated after playing her hit tunes Raise Your Glass and Who Knew: “Thank you guys for coming to play with us tonight.”