Transport chaos on the opening night of the RWC. My first question was 'what was the back up plan?"
It seems almost unbelievable but according to Head of Auckland Transport Committee Mike Lee the transport company had no real Plan B.
The city-wide failure saw thousands of fans stranded in trains, and about 2000 ticket holders miss the opening ceremony and kick-off of the All Blacks-Tonga game, or in some cases the whole event.
Some were stranded on Auckland's North Shore as ferries were shut down due to large crowds swamping the terminal at Queen's Wharf which was overloaded as an estimated 200,000 partied in the central city.
Mayor Brown said the turnout on Friday exceeded estimates, with 200,000 people packing the downtown area and 90,000 taking public transport to Eden Park "when we thought we'd have about 30 or 40,000".
He said: "We asked people to come to the game, we asked them to come downtown. We said 'come to the party, party central, this is the place where it's going to be a fabulous opening ceremony. Come downtown or go to the game' So they did - in huge numbers."
Brown said he has asked for a "no holds barred" report from Auckland Transport, and then decisions will be made about compensation and to "make sure that we do our very best to deliver a seamless experience from this point on."
Brown had already promised things will be fixed in time for this Saturday's game at Eden Park.
But they were told 18 months ago about the expected numbers. Just thick!!
