Disruptions for Wellington commuters
BY TOM HUNT
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Commuters on trains and in cars faced delays on a wet Wellington morning, with road accidents and rail faults causing disruptions.
Police communications spokesman Cameron Pentecost said a nose-to-tail accident southbound on State Highway 1 between Churton Park and Johnsonville blocked one lane from 7.15am. No one was injured, and by 8.50am the scene had been cleared.
In a separate incident, further delays were caused when a car broke down at the bottom of the Ngauranga Gorge.
That had also been cleared and traffic was running as normal by 8.50am, Mr Pentecost said.
KiwiRail spokesman Nigel Parry said delays of up to 40 minutes on the Upper Hutt line between 6.50am and 8.10am were caused by a telecommunications failure near Trentham.
Buses brought in to take commuters from Upper Hutt to Trentham weren't heavily utilised, Mr Parry said.
The same fault also led to the cancellation of the 8.10am Plimmerton train, on the main trunk line north.
A mechanical fault led to the 7.27am and 8am Taita services in the Hutt Valley being cancelled.
One Stuff.co.nz reader complained of a 40 minute delay at Silverstream.
''Crazy. My toes are still frozen. If I had known it was 40 minutes late I would have driven and paid the $10 for parking,'' the passenger said.
The 8.10am service to Plimmerton was also cancelled. At 11.10am it was announced the services between Paraparaumu and Plimmerton were being replaced by buses.
Numerous faults in recent months have coincided with a drop in commuter numbers, but Mr Parry said he believed passengers were sticking with Kiwirail as they upgraded the Wellington network.
The upgrade included a new main line and an upgrade of the overhead line system which powering electric trains.
Passenger numbers had fallen over the seven months to February, but Mr Parry expected passenger numbers would increase once the upgrades were completed next year.
- with NZPA
- © Fairfax NZ News
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Yep it's absolutely ridiculous. I catch the 12.06pm train each day - the only one the coincides with a bus on either end.. Out of the last 3 weeks it has been on time once. You can almost gaurantee it will be 10minutes late....
MB(#73), operational reasons means things such as lack of carriages, not enough platforms, not enough staff or when running a particular service would cause further disruption to other services. I agree they should provide more information instead of just saying "operational reasons"
I also strongly agree with you about taking a stand when services are late. I have a way of not getting my 10-trip clipped, which sometimes works, but I will not share in case Tranz Metro is reading.
They should save the taxpayers by changing the txt alerts to only be sent when the trains are on time. Think of the money they`d save!
@MB As far as I can tell, "Cancelled due to operational reasons" means they don`t bother to pay reserve train staff so if anyone is sick / late they have to scrabble to get a crew and the train is delayed.
The reason people live in the Hutt/Porirua/etc when they work in the City, is because there is not enough room in wellington for all those people. Can you imagine if all those extra people were crammed into Wellington - you can sure as hell bet there'd be public tranport issues then.
Here's an idea, don't live in the Hutt if you're going to complain about public transport. No problem with it in the city
A telecommunications failure affecting trains? - That's a new one (or is it a repeat of a recent "signalling" fault up that way.....? Time to fess-up people....
stop moaning
This is beyond funny and is now downright hilarious!! HAHAHAHAHAHAHA
@67 Z One trip via taxi to where I live is $60, so it would be $600 per week! And assuming I work 48 out of 52 weeks it would cost $28,800.00 per year... $2500.00 would not even help. Where as I currently pay only $1,296.00 a year for the train!
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I saw the car this morning at the bottom of the Gorge, it didnt look like a breakdown to me as they were pour petrol into the gas tank!.