Subscribe to RSSFirst New Wellington Trains Arrive August
Confirmation today that the first of Wellington’s new Matangi trains will arrive in August, and passengers will be onboard before Christmas.
The new trains will progressively arrive as they come out of the workshop until towards the end of next year.
Testing of the first units will take place on the Hutt Valley line, and could take a couple of months.
Peter Glensor, Chair of Greater Wellington’s Transport and Access Committee, says the unit will go from the port to Wellington rail yards for thorough testing.
“As well as a complete testing of the train, we’ll need to be sure that everything on the network – such as signalling, power supply and platforms – are working for the new trains.”
The new trains will run initially on the Hutt Valley line, then Johnsonville, followed by Kapiti. New trains will be running on all lines by June next year,
Peter Glensor says when there are sufficient numbers of new trains in service, they will replace the 12 English Electric cars that run on the Johnsonville Line. “So there will be a temporary reduction in the number of Matangi trains on the Hutt Valley line for a short time.”
The entire 37-car English Electric fleet will be retired when there are enough Matangi trains in service.
A decision on whether to replace or fully refurbish the GanzMavag fleet will be made by Greater Wellington later this year; a prototype refurbishment is under way at KiwiRail’s Woburn workshops.
Features of the new Matangi trains include:
- a modern, stainless steel body; a low floor multi-function area in one car of each two-car unit for passengers with wheelchairs, buggies and bicycles
- air-conditioned cooling and heating; doors operating on demand
- open movement between a two-car unit; hearing loops in all cars
- a public address system
- information systems with automated visual and audio next station information
2 Comments
sigh, can’t wait for the overhaul to be complete. :/
At least have theirs starting to roll out. We Aucklanders will have to bate our breath (I don’t care that Joyce has promised, swear to die, to fund it - I don’t trust them as far as I could throw a GanzMavag!).