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Counters at Wellington Railway Station after the Ed Sheeran concert on Thursday night were packed with travellers wanting tickets.
Great concert, but many travellers could have done without the hassles trying to leave.
Ed Sheeran concert attendee from Palmerston North, Tim Guerin, father of Pippa who made it onstage with the pop megastar , said delays leaving the venue after the show were frustrating.
He said they had to wait over an hour in their car trying to get out of the gig.
“It was a nightmare getting out of the stadium car park. We had a 2-hour journey turned into three. We didn’t get home ‘til about 2am.”
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A spokesperson for Sky Stadium said because of the sheer size of the crowd, they exited people via the northern spiral for the first time onto Aotea Quay.
“This was far more successful than we expected with around 10,000 availing of this and therefore took longer than we had thought it would.”
They said the main issue causing delays for motorists was when the car park exit reopened, the phasing on the traffic lights was wrong.
SUPPLIED
When he needed help with the words to one of his songs, Ed Sheeran got Pippa Guerin up on stage.
“It took too long for this to be rectified.
“We apologise for the inconvenience this caused some patrons and we will improve these processes for the next large event.”
Some train commuters said on the Wairarapa Commuters Facebook page that it was “an absolute shambles” at the Wellington Railway Station trying to get tickets for the train to Petone.
”Huge queues of people trying to purchase tickets as they’re not accepting cash on the trains,” one commuter said.
WCC spokesperson Richard MacLean admitted there were “some issues” on Thursday night with traffic being backed up trying to get out of the stadium.
Charlie Post/Supplied
Motorists have been stuck in a long queue on both sides of the Remutaka Hill road as crews work to clear a broken down truck.
“There was a massive crowd and we always prioritise pedestrian safety. We had to let thousands of people get out of the stadium safely on foot so there was always going to be delays for motorists”
“We did try to prioritise the traffic light phasing after the concert ended but we could’ve done better. We had spent a lot of time trying to get that right and we’ll be reviewing that for future events.”
Some Wairarapa travellers experienced delays in getting to Wellington on Thursday afternoon after a truck broke down on the Remutaka Hill Rd blocking traffic for over two hours.
