Waterloo train station. New Metlink buses first business day in operation, some delays to services. Photo: RNZ / Rebekah Parsons-King
- The Wairarapa train line which runs between Wellington and Masterton has suffered from delays for months
- Greater Wellington Regional Council chair Daran Ponter says infrastructure issues such as points failures, signal faults and rusty rails have caused the problems
- The council says staffing shortages have also caused three services to be bus replaced till further notice
The head of Greater Wellington Regional Council is describing disruption on the Wairarapa train line as a "continual pain day in and day out".
The route between the capital and Masterton has been plagued by issues for the first half of this year.
For 46 days between 26 December and 10 February, Wairarapa commuters had all their trains replaced by buses due to KiwiRail renewing tracks in the Remutaka Tunnel and other maintenance.
In February RNZ reported that just 17 percent of Wairarapa's trains were on time for most of February.
Two months later in April that improved to just under half the services being on time (42.7 percent).
Greater Wellington Regional Council have pointed to several issues that have caused disruption.
The first was that there was a lack of staff on the Wairarapa line which had necessary specialised training for the Remutaka Tunnel which had resulted in three services a week being bus replaced till further notice.
The second was that the regional council believed the number of infrastructure issues such as points failures and signal faults had become a near-daily occurrence on the line and rail work causing delays for trains.
Those responsibilities sit with KiwiRail which triggered the regional council to write a please explain letter to the rail company.
In that letter the council states the state of the line was "unsustainable" and underminded public confidence.
Regional council chair Daran Ponter told RNZ he would be less concerned if he could see improvement on the horizon.
"We're just seeing continual pain day in, day out. I get a situation report on the Wairarapa line every working day of the week.
"That picture and those situation reports really hasn't changed at all over almost a three-month period."
Ponter said he was frustrated for commuters that this disruption had happened after the Remutaka tunnel work.
"This set of new problems that we seem to have walked in [to] makes those sacrifices that they made in the December and January period all for nothing really."
He acknowledged that the staffing issues needed to be improved but that the infrastructure issues which he said included "rusty rails" laid with KiwiRail's responsibility.
In a statement, Transdev, which staffs the services, said it's moving staff around to cover the shortages.
"To address staff shortages, we have escalated efforts to reallocate qualified personnel from across the Transdev Wellington network. This includes pursuing secondments, adjusting rosters to improve coverage, and fast-tracking the recruitment and training of train managers. As per our plan, another train manager was certified this week."
RNZ has approached KiwiRail for comment.
At a council meeting on Thursday regional councillors will discuss the possibility not charging for the services that have been bus replaced until further notice.
It would also look at offering free services at least one way on the Wairarapa line for a short period of time.
Council staff have not recommended the latter option due to issues such as the creation of a precedent and that it could encourage people to use the line at a time where it was not working well.
