Wgtn Rail 86%, Auck 82%

in Trains by Jon C — October 13, 2010 at 9:26 am | 5 comments

Wellington commuter services continue to fall short of their performance targets.

Tranz Metro’s performance target is to have 95% of our services arriving and leaving within 3 minutes of the scheduled time but the latest figures show all lines are falling short.

In September the figure was 86% with none of the lines reaching 90%

This was actually a slight drop on the previous month, August, which got to 87% but better than June (78%) and July (79%).

Hutt Valley was the best performer last month (89%), Johnsonville was 85% and Paraparaumu (84%).

The Wairarapa service, managed 80%. The third line into the Wellington railway station is helping. The Wairarapa figure was a big leap from June (61%) and July (61%) and only the second month this year it has reached 80%.

Overall,  services have all been affected not just by the ageing present trains but by the ongoing work to prepare the lines for the new Matangi electric trains, which are well on their way with testing.

This week, for example, some night trains have been replaced by buses so that that work can continue.

Here are Auckland’s for September:

The explanations:

Staff safety measures were in place while work upgrading platforms on the Western and Eastern lines was carried out. This made some journeys longer than usual during these periods.

Cancellations during the month:

• Train breakdowns and faults resulted in 95 cancellations
• Track and signaling problems resulted in 2 cancellations
• Other issues resulted in 43 cancellations during the month

Performance in September was influenced by:

• Two significant train breakdowns on Wednesday 22 and Wednesday 29 delayed 79 services including 41 cancellations.
• On Saturday 17, Sunday 18 and Wednesday 22 severe weather conditions in Auckland meant 224 services were delayed and 26 were cancelled.

Tags: Matangi Tranz Metro Wellington