Say sorry and then heads must roll

Sat, 10 Sep 2011 1:57p.m.

Auckland Mayor Len Brown, who drove to the game rather than try his luck on the train, also needs to explain

By Duncan Garner

Here’s the good bit first. Eden Park looked a picture. The opening ceremony was slick. But the accolades must stop there.

Party Central didn’t work. It was too small. Organisers completely underestimated the number of fans who descended on Queens Wharf. It needs to be sorted immediately.

But the biggest disgrace, debacle and embarrassment was the transport system. RWC organisers responsible for the transport bungles need to fix it, face the public, tell them what happened and then resign so they’re never seen again. We have egg on our face. It’s shameful. Organisers have had three years to plan and sort this issue out. They failed monumentally when the world was watching.

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I was at 'party central' with friends before the game. We tried to get a train from Britomart, but we were locked out. Many others have told me the same story. I then tried to find the promised ‘free’ buses to Eden Park. I could only find buses to Papakura and Pakuranga. We walked for 30 minutes up Queen St and found one solitary bus to Eden Park. It got us to Kingsland and we walked the rest of the way. But others were not so lucky.

3 News has interviewed ticketholders who did not make it to the ground because the trains stalled, broke down and didn’t make it. Auckland couldn’t cope. People paid hundreds of dollars for their tickets. They should have made it to the game. RWC Minister Murray McCully refused to apologise on The Nation this morning. He says ‘hundreds’ of people were let down and missed the game because of the hopeless transport system.

He says he wants to find out what went wrong and sort it out. That’s not good enough. It should never, ever, have got to this.

People who missed the game because of transport issues should be refunded and given some of the tickets that haven’t been sold. Imagine their disappointment last night.

So those responsible - the RWC transport organising committee –need to come clean and tell the public what went wrong. Auckland Mayor Len Brown, who drove to the game rather than try his luck on the train, also needs to explain. But someone’s backside needs to be kicked. Hundreds of rugby fans were let down last night. And that’s not good enough Mr McCully.

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25 Sep 2011 10:13a.m.

Bob wrote:

I clearly remember the first time the Edmonton Oilers were in the Stanley Cup final (which they won) - pretty big thing for Alberta and for Edmonton. Going to the game guess who was jammed into public transit along with us peasants - Premier of the Province, Peter Lougheed. NZ still has lessons to learn!

16 Sep 2011 09:50a.m.

Scotty wrote:

Duncan why are you so concerned,with how Len Brown got to the game.
Perhaps you could give us full list all VIPS and their mode of transport.
Key -Helicopter
Mc Cully - motorcade
Joyce- Mediaworks -limo
Smith- ambulance
Williamson- Paddywagon

14 Sep 2011 08:46a.m.

Kevin wrote:

So if anything with the RWC goes right its all because of the amazing National government. If something goes wrong its Labours fault, in this case the Labour leaning Len Brown gets the blame for not improving the public transport in Auckland in the 10 months he has been Mayor.

13 Sep 2011 10:39p.m.

incognito wrote:

I thought I'd use public transport in Nz when I first came here 3 years ago and was so utterly disappointed always late and sometimes buses didn't even show. I had to abandon that idea and become one of the polluters ( I bought a car )even though i live in the city. Aucklands transport system is even more unreliable than the service in a 3 world country.Speaking from experience. For those of you blaming the drunks that pulled emergency buttons , I think that only escalated the problem not caused it. I was supposed to meet up with a friend at 2pm to get on the queue to the waterfront and her train got to the city at 3pm "due to over crowding" The city couldnt suddenly expect to handle masses on the transport system when they havent managed it for years...

12 Sep 2011 04:45p.m.

Warrs wrote:

Should of but ground on Water front Oh two hard for kiwis we have to build something good and great for the city !

12 Sep 2011 03:21p.m.

Mark wrote:

Wellington has the infrastructure to support it? Now that's a laugh. Exactly how much do you expect Mayors and PMs to micro-manage? The problem is with Veolia, alone. And just to clarify this is not about Auckland not coping, as much as you lot still resent the fact Auckland is hosting. It is about a train operators poor operational preparedness and some drunken idiots. Pull your head in.

12 Sep 2011 01:19p.m.

AAMC wrote:

@Chris. How many terms did your business oriented Banks have in power? What progress did he make on public transport? Your business oriented mates have obstructed public transport in Auckland since 1949. Do your homework. Tourism minister John Key, Transport minister Steven Joyce and ultimately Rugby World Cup minister Murry McCully should be held to account. As I'm sure you would be proclaiming if the Left were in government.

12 Sep 2011 12:55p.m.

Bryce wrote:

@ Chris. Blaming Len Brown? Left wing? History lesson for you - the National govt in the mid 70's reversed Labour's promise to build a network of light rail to service Auckland.

12 Sep 2011 09:34a.m.

cherie wrote:

Clarke you are correct the Brown (Left) party won. They were the ones who said they had it under control. Clarke I bet you that most left supporters wish you wouldnt post comments. Not a good look mate. You need to calm down a bit suck it up and come to the facts. National will get back in because people like them. They like what they are doing and Labour have nothing but silly taxes to offer. Or maybe at the last minute they can do what they did last time and offer something like interest free loans so the country can be crippled by debt again.

11 Sep 2011 07:57p.m.

Clarke wrote:

@Chris The polls said there would likely be a right win in Auckland.. the same polls that are saying National will win. However Brown (the left) beat the hell out of banks (the psycho right) and the polls were very very wrong. Its easy to explain why, but people like you dont have the intelligence to understand why unfortunately. But you will see the same result in the general election as there are some very specific reasons why the polls are over representing the strength of the rights vote. Come election day they should be about as right as they were in the Auckland local body elections. The lefts vote in Auckland was much much higher than the polls predicted. Polsters can't accurately guage the lefts support during a time of hardship and recession as poorer people give up their phone lines before the rich and wealthy. And polls like the Digipoll, Colmar Brunton and the Roy Morgan polls are phone based and they ignore undecideds and dont check to see if people who are answering the poll questions are elligible to vote. This general election is set to be the same as the Auckland Mayoral race.. the rights vote was about 20-30 percent over represented in current polls as it was with the Aucklad mayoral race.