Sunday trains come to Swanson

It's been a very long time coming, but Sunday 3rd November 2013 finally saw the commencement of permanently scheduled suburban passenger trains to Swanson, on Auckland's "Western Line".

To the best of my knowledge, this is the first time suburban passenger trains have operated on a regular basis to Swanson on Sundays.  There has of course been many occasions in recent years when trains have operated to Swanson and Waitakere on Sundays for special events, and during the Rugby World Cup they operated every Sunday for several consecutive weeks, but they have never been permanently scheduled.

Swanson Railway Station

The new services are being provided by a mix of ADL class DMU's, and 4-car SA sets.

In the more distant past, it has been possible to travel by train this far west on Sundays, but I'm not sure one could describe it as a proper suburban service.

In 1947, there were four trains that you could travel on from Waitakere to Auckland.

0630hrs - Passenger train ex Waitakere.
0739hrs - Passenger train ex Helensville.
1542hrs - Express train ex Whangarei.
2136hrs - Mixed train ex Whangarei.

In the opposite direction, you had three choices from Auckland:

0651hrs - Mixed train to Maungaturoto.
0915hrs - Express train to Whangarei.
1000hrs - Goods train with Carriage attached, to Whangarei.

Travel options by train may have improved in the 1950's, but certainly by the mid 1970's, there were no longer any rail travel options on Sundays west of Newmarket.

Over the past decade, since Britomart opened, there have been many improvements made to the Western Line timetable, but these have focussed on weekdays, with weekends being largely ignored. The same Saturday hourly service that existed at the time Britomart opened (in 2003) was continued right through to November 2013.  Sunday services on the Western Line commenced between Britomart and New Lynn several years ago, and these were extended to Henderson in 2010, but despite completion of the double track project, service remained non-existant to Swanson and Waitakere.

The renewed effort to extend Sunday services developed this year as Auckland Transport came under growing political pressure to reverse declining use of the trains that was being experienced region-wide.  The Western Line is very popular on Saturdays in particular, despite the hourly service, and getting more trains on the line throughout the weekend, was the most obvious opportunity for growing patronage on the network.

Video of the very first permanent Sunday service, 0622hrs Sunday 3rd November 2013

The new Sunday timetable has trains departing Swanson, for Britomart, hourly from 0620hrs to 0920hrs, then half-hourly from 0920hrs to 1920hrs (departing at 20 and 50 minutes past the hour), then back to hourly until 2120hrs.

The new timetable has also doubled the Saturday service frequency from hourly, to half-hourly, operating to the same times as the Sunday timetable, but with later evening services, and of course the trains on Saturdays operate to Waitakere.

Swanson, looking west

Interestingly, there is enough time in the Sunday schedule for the trains to operate to Waitakere and back within the period that they will remain parked at Swanson.  However, with Auckland Transport not wishing to grow rail patronage at Waitakere station, in preparation for post-electrification closure, it was decided to terminate the new Sunday services at Swanson.

Meanwhile, Auckland Transport have announced that trains will no longer operate from Helensville for the annual Santa Parade event in the city.  These trains have operated for many years now, but unfortunately, Auckland Transport chose not to promote these services in 2011 and 2012, which saw patronage almost disappear in 2012.  They are now citing this decline as their reason for cancelling these services, along with a rather dubious claim that the railway between Waitakere and Helensville is no longer available for passenger trains, despite the recent operation of several excursions on the line.

Despite the latter, Auckland Transport has done well to improve Western Line frequencies.  Already, there has been a notable increase in patronage on Saturdays, and while Sundays has not been as significant, it is growing as well.  With the advent of electric trains to Swanson from 2015, patronage is sure to skyrocket.