CURIOUS CITY
Keeping Wellington’s trains on track
Making sure Wellington’s commuter trains are where they need to be at any given moment is now an around-the-clock operation. There is little chance of any runaway trains along the rail network that services Wellington, Hutt Valley, Porirua, Kapiti and Wairarapa given the immense number of cameras that now monitor it.
There are 650 security cameras across the network, as well as 10 on each two-car Matangi train unit and cameras at 37 of the region’s 48 stations.
All of them send information to a new control room near the platforms at Wellington Railway Station, where Transdev keeps an eye on the comings and goings of all commuter trains. It moved into the new space in September, but all the bells and whistles weren’t in place until April.
The final piece of the puzzle was the installation of 24-hour CCTV security camera screens, which are monitored constantly by two security staff in its rail monitoring centre.
Transdev service delivery duty manager Mark Jackaman said the old monitoring centre was in the suburb of Johnsonville. It was not a 24/7 service and information could take minutes to receive Wellington’s control room.
‘‘This is the one place where we’ve got a team of people based 24/7 to keep an eye on the network, to make sure it’s running on time, to make sure our staff are where they need to be, and trains are dispatched on time.’’
Its impressive new headquarters also include a large office space with eight live boards monitored and updated by staff members, and an emergency planning room.
Every train station has a duress point alarm, which connects train users to staff in the control room. Among the live screens in the main office is a real-time information screen, a navigation system, a departure board and some CCTV screens.
‘‘The benefits are that we can monitor the trains and make sure they’re running on time, we can monitor our customer needs and provide better reliability, better punctuality.’’
The control room has a 12-hour emergency power supply system and a generator that can run for as long as needed. It is staffed by two service delivery managers and several service co-ordinators, whose duties include making decisions about how to respond to disruptions.
The new control room also has an emergency planning room. It had only been used after November’s magnitude-7.8 Kaikoura earthquake and subsequent flooding but had proved its worth.
‘‘If we do have a natural disaster, we can get everybody in one space, co-ordinate a response and plan for recovery as quickly as possible,’’ Jackaman said.
There are also the security guards in the rail monitoring centre and two communications advisers. The unified and spacious office means the company could deliver a better and safer service to the public.