Emma Brummit, middle, says public transport in Auckland could have been better. Photo: Supplied
Auckland Transport is defending how it handled an influx of public transport users at the weekend, but concertgoers say the service was confusing and inefficient.
More than 20,000 people used trains and buses on Friday and Saturday night, many getting to and from Pink's Eden Park concerts.
The American pop star drew in more than 100,000 fans over her two shows, breaking attendance records for the venue.
But Dayanne Martins, 39, who came from Wellington to see Pink for the first time said the ride home from the concert was a mission.
"Coming out of the concert, that was a bit of a jungle. There were a lot of people in the queue, it was hideous.
"Between stations the trains just stopped, for like 25 minutes and we didn't really know what happened, nobody said anything."
She said while it took 15 minutes to get to the concert from Britomart station, coming back was a bit different.
"By the time we got out [of the concert] we took at least one hour to get to the station, fighting through the crowd and then standing on the queue."
Emma Brummit, 22, also came from Wellington to see Pink on Saturday.
She had to fight her way through the crowd of those waiting for the bus to be able to get to the train station line.
"There was this massive crowd of people leaving the concert getting all jammed up at the end of the street, where buses were coming.
"We had to squeeze in and out of people for 15 minutes to get out and try to make our way to the train station, where there was this very, very long line to get in."
Inside the train, the struggle continued, Brummit said.
"There wasn't room for anybody, and we were all quite packed on the train with a lot of people standing and not being able to hold on to things or standing right by the door.
"The train stopped for quite a long time in between stations, but they didn't tell us why it has stopped. We just stood there for almost half an hour."
AT public transport and operations spokesperson Rachel Cara said it ran extra train services and 55 dedicated buses to the city centre over the weekend, with a maximum 30-minute wait for boarding.
"For an event of this scale, moving more than 20,000 people in such a short space of time is a pleasing result and a testament to the hard work of our operators.
"The additional bus services we deployed to run to the city centre eased the pressure on the train network we experienced on Friday night."
Cara said apart from some delays in the buses heading from Eden Park to the North Shore, the operation was a success.
"We deployed 50 dedicated buses to run between Eden Park and North Shore which were utilised by 3254 passengers - about 500 more than Friday night's concert.
"The level of crowds in the area initially made it difficult for these buses to leave safely, which did set us back and cause longer wait times than we expected."
She said AT would be looking at how it could deploy additional services for future events of this scale.
Brummit said the public transport system in Auckland could improve.
"I think they could have been a bit more prepared, maybe they have a few more trains going and better signs, so people know where they were going.
"Because there were a lot of people unsure if they were on the right transportation, and you could see a lot of people asking where they supposed to be, because there were no signs if you are not from there."
Many people on the streets of central Auckland agreed and said buses and trains could do with a bit more reliability.
Sandeep said: "There is a lot of room for improvement, that's for sure. With the amount of fares they have increased, people should be expecting a better service as well."
Stariene, 20, said: "It's slow, they stop randomly. You don't know when it is coming and you have to sit there for ages."
West Auckland resident Shantey said: "With the amount of people in Auckland public transport needs to be better. They want us to rely more on public transport and leave our cars, so they need to make the service better, more reliable."
Meanwhile, commuters were warned of more delays coming up this this week due to the Western Line rebuild, with some trains running on one track only.
