I thought that last night’s RWC opening ceremony in Auckland looked good, and I’m sure that the fans that managed to get in enjoyed “party central”. But the aspect of the opening that is getting all of the headlines this morning is the public transport fiasco:
Trains fail city’s day of celebration
A day that began with hope and promise for Aucklanders eager to celebrate the start of Rugby World Cup 2011 ended in anger and frustration as the city’s public transport let them down. …
But at least 2000 missed the ceremony as trains backed up on the tracks to Kingsland station.
Last night, huge crowds built up at Britomart station in the central city as people waited for hours to catch a train home. It was still full at 12.30am, so several trains stopped at a re-opened emergency station at the Strand, at the bottom of Parnell Rise. Passengers then had to walk the rest of the way into town.
There were reports of long delays on buses at Eden Park, and thousands of people, including children, were left waiting. …
Thousands were crushed at the gates to Party Central during a three-hour wait – including a woman carted out by paramedics – and several frustrated party-goers jumped the fence. Malcolm and Laura Campbell vented their frustration after a five-hour wait. Mr Campbell shouted at security guards, “Where is your crowd control?” Mrs Campbell said authorities had a lot of lessons to learn from the organisation of Party Central. “This has been badly, badly, badly planned.” …
A police officer muttered: “Is this going to get a good kick in the paper tomorrow? Well, they f***ing deserve it.”
In other coverage: Stranded rugby fan: ‘I have never seen anything so disorganised’, and RWC transport chaos. In short, not a good look for our biggest city, and not a great advertisement to the world. A wise government would draw the obvious lesson – spend less time on the showy media image, and much more time on getting the fundamentals right…
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