There are reports that Auckland’s transport system has failed to get fans to the opening ceremony and first match this evening as packed trained have raced past stations without stopping and the ferries stopped running. Some have had to resort to walking up train tracks to get to Eden Park
One disgruntled fan wrote
The ferries have stopped running and punters cannot get to Eden park. The trains ahve stopped because passengers have used the emergency stop button and now people are walking up the train tracks to eden park .
Its chaos in some places. there will be some seriously pxxxxd off p\eople tonight
Anothers said
too late – capacity crowd and already closed- Opening ceremony: Auckland waterfront closed, reaches capacity…http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/headlines.cfm?c_id=1
it seems the train every 5 mins not happening according to news
Minutes before the ceremony started this appeared on Twitter
BreakingNZ #RWC2011 — Thousands of train passengers are currently trapped inside carriages at Eden Park and Newmarket Viaduct.
- MichaelC_RTE Michael Corcoran train services to Eden Park Auckland have stopped because patrons are pulling emergency cord, many may not get 2 game
#Rygby#RWC
- griffinator Feeling a bit sorry for the hundreds of ppl apparently trapped in trains stuck en route to Eden Park
#RWC2011
- lin_nah apparently ppl are still waiting for trains at britomart to go to eden park. have the trains resumed going?
TVNZ also reported on the traffic chaos, saying thousands of fans missed out on the opening night with many forcing their way off trains and climbing embankments. News video included
Auckland’s RWC train service ‘disgraceful‘
It was a case of ready, set, stop for 4,000 rugby fans tonight.
Train loads of people who had paid hundreds of dollars to watch the opening night of the Rugby World Cup, were left stranded by Auckland’s train system.
Many resorted to jumping off the trains and climbing up banks in a desperate attempt to get to Eden Park, while others had no idea whereabouts in Auckland they were.
Meanwhile, just the sheer number of people – up to 100,000 – is causing problems at the Auckland waterfront tonight.
It seems the size of the crowd was too much for some rugby fans, who felt the only way to escape being crushed was to jump in the water…more here
And finally, talk of the inevitable crime that resulted on the night, there were reports of poor crowd control, muggings and drunken teenagers. These are some of the comments that were left on Trademe forums:
- Didn’t feel like a family event by the time we left after the fire works 1 woman we passed on victoria st had been mugged by four kids (she was talking to the cops) Really badly lit there so went up queen st and kids were throwing bottles at cars – hence the taxi. This was about8.30 so not even late Stopped two fights too Oh and then actually feared that we would get crushed at one point BUt we had a great night 😀
- The potential for crowd crush was very real and quite frightening. We experienced this trying to leave the waterfront. What we thought would be an exit just wasn’t. I was alarmed at the regularity of sirens so early in the evening. and a lot of boozed teens about…
- I expected better crowd control. I have been to a packed wembley am several occasion and other huge events but they had a better police presence and better crowd control. I did expect the city to take better care of its citizens to be honest, especially when it was touted as alcohol free at the waterfront and a family event. But I would rather have been there than in my lounge I can sit in my lounge at any point in my life. This felt historic and it was only going to be a big event if people went so I wanted to be part of tha.
- I guess I expected a slicker operation where people were guided and informed and where key technical equipment that was pivotal to crowd pleasure worked because it had been tested earlier. Because of the dual screen failure more people had to be sandwiched into a smaller area to see the live coverage.
E2NZ.org 