Sign confuses

Editor,

The signage at Porirua railway station as you enter the underground tunnel tells people that bus replacements are in effect and northand south-bound trains are being replaced by buses.

This is 90 per cent of the time incorrect as it is mainly the northbound trains being replaced.

The sign is locked when no replacements are in effect but when they are, they remove the padlock which opens up with this message.

The problem is instead of having one sign for northbound replacements and one for the southbound they only have one sign for both.

This has been like this ever since the council spent $1.3 million dollars on murals. What good is that? An after-hours public toilet would have been a better investment.

If they can justify spending money on security to protect a bunch of pictures surely the extra cost of cleaning and maintaining these wouldn’t be an issue.

This has lead to a lot of confusion for the commuters as they don’t want to be waiting for a bus only to miss the train.

The security officers are helpful but they can only pass on what they have been told which seems to be very little.

There seems to be a very serious breakdown in communication with Kiwirail.

On April 20 I received a letter from Claire Mckenzie from Kiwirail in response to my complaint about misleading signage.

She simply stated the Tranz Metro communication team were looking into it but nothing has happened. How hard is it to replace the one sign they have with two?

It amazes me that a few years ago I paid $108 a month for my ticket and it jumped to $136 (before the new trains).

When I mentioned that was a big jump in price to the ticket seller he got upset and told me I have to remember that the price hasn’t increased for years now but neither has the quality of service. And now it costs $141.60 yet still no improvements in service. MARK BURGESS, Titahi Bay.

(Letter abridged) Kiwirail has advised us the correspondent’s suggestions have been taken on board and new signs have been designed and are awaiting installation. – Editor.

Although we are not able to talk about the specifics of this case, we can provide general information and highlight how unusual it is to have a claim where neither party is at fault.

In normal circumstances, if someone has comprehensive car insurance with us and causes an accident, AA Insurance would cover the costs to repair or replace both vehicles involved.

There are very rare situations where neither party is at fault and there is no legal liability.

In these circumstances, the insurer’s responsibility is solely to their customer.

As the third party in your story did not have insurance, the accident leaves them in a very difficult position.

We sympathise with this, however our responsibility is to our customer who has paid us a premium every year to protect them from situations like this.

We are well under way with this claim for our customer.

It is an unusual situation and we need to be extremely thorough in our investigations to reach the right conclusion.

This is certainly not a matter of trying to avoid responsibility; we are dedicated to our customers and always seek to do the best by them.

An unfortunate incident like this does highlight the importance of having your own insurance.

Having no insurance is a risk because you can’t assume that someone else’s insurance will cover you, even in some cases where you’re not at fault. SUZANNE WOLTON, head of corporate

affairs, AA Insurance. the people from cutting down the trees in the forest. This is where all the birds fly. Where will all the children go who want to have adventures?

JAMIE REDSHAW (age 8), Aotea.