Subscribe to RSSWellington Train Service Shut Down In Rush-hour
So we thought we had it bad with old diesel trains and a totally inadequate signal system. Can’t wait until that electric train service arrives like those lucky commuters in Wellington, we thought. Well, this morning’s rush hour service in the capital has been on a par with the worst in Auckland. The entire system has been shut down.
The problem? An overhead power fault. KiwiRail, at first, closed only some lines and rail passengers had to queue for buses but now the entire system has closed while they try to work out the problem. They say they don’t know the cause.
And they’re warning Wellington commuters things may not come right at all this morning - hopefully by noon.
Replacement bus services are being stretched to try to fit in the passengers from each train so people are told to expect to arrive late to their destination.
The problem was first reported about 6.30am at Kaiwharawhara and the Johnsonville line was still operating but that has now closed as well.
Wellington commuters will have to use buses on some lines during the weekend but this is because of development work being carried out in the Wellington rail yard.
PHOTO CREDIT: Petone station - taken by John Nottage who has awesome train photos on Flickr
3 Comments
It was a shambles, first all shut down, then JVL running, then all shut with limited buses to replace trains. But for subscribing to the delay service there would have been no information at all as there are not the announcement poles like in Auckland…
Steve, sorry you had a bad day. Sadly there are no electronic boards at suburban stations in Auck - only at Britomart. Unless there is a loudspeaker announcement (infrequent and often unhelpful as it is usually a general broadcast to all stations), you have no idea when the train will arrive at the station. There are electronic boards for Stagecoach buses but they are flawed too -the official explanation is that if drivers dont activate the GPS, their whereabouts are not transmitted. There is a mobile txt service available for rail but I cancelled after messages arrived way way after when the info was relevant.
There is an LED display at Sylvia Park just above the door near the Sony Store, but it appears to be similar to the bus ones in that it mainly regurgitates the timetable and has little to do with the reality we face of missing/running early/late services.
Its a shame that when planning a trip on a train or a bus, its become a habit to always aim for an earlier time than I should really need with a later backup that should still get me there on time, if the first one doesn’t turn up.
Poor on-time-performance is not just tolerated but expected.