A director of Auckland's transport agency says a failure of planning was behind crowd and transport problems on the opening night of the Rugby World Cup.
The agency is considering compensation for those who failed to get to the opening match between the All Blacks and Tonga at Eden Park because of train failures.
Festivities on the waterfront were also swamped by a crowd three times bigger than estimated.
Mike Williams says problems caused by holding a free party in the downtown during Friday night rush-hour were compounded by seriously under-estimating the turnout.
"I don't think it's a clever idea to have a party on the waterfront on a working day during rush-hour. And that's fundamentally what happened by putting party central where it is. It appears there was a wild under-estimation of the likely turnout."
Auckland Transport's board expects to consider a report on the evening's events at the end of this week.
