Wairarapa’s new trains prioritised

A new $300 million train fleet for Wairarapa rail commuters and a long-awaited one-card payment system for all public transport have been bumped up Wellington’s priority list.

The one-card system, known as integrated ticketing, would allow commuters to use a single card or device on all of the region’s buses, trains and ferries.

The new diesel-electric trains are expected to drastically improve the notoriously unreliable commuter rail services in Wairarapa.

The two initiatives were the big movers as the merits of various Wellington transport projects were discussed by several of the region’s mayors at a meeting yesterday.

The upshot was that integrated ticketing and new Wairarapa trains – initially ranked at Nos 17 and 22 respectively under Greater Wellington Regional Council’s Regional Land Transport Plan (RLTP) – were thrust into the top 10 list of priorities between now and 2021.

It was decided at the same meeting that transport projects would be bracketed into three ‘‘bands’’, rather than individually ranked.

Falling into the second band (Nos 11 to 20) were ticketing gates at park and ride facilities, and the development of near real-time travel information across the region’s transport network.

An integrated ticketing system has been talked about in Wellington for years, with the latest target date being 2020-21.

It was recently ranked outside of Wellington’s top 20 transport priorities, despite public submitters ranking it joint-second on their wishlist.

Regional council chairman Chris Laidlaw said the original list was a ‘‘mish-mash’’ lacking any real coherence, and the ranking system had since been tidied up. ‘‘The direction of travel is very clear and I’m 100 per cent behind it.

‘‘Our preferences are very much in line with the GPS [Government Policy Statement on Land Transport], so the stars have aligned in that respect. Now we have to make sure that we get the funding and get on with it.’’

The council announced in February it was seeking $300m for 15 new electro-diesel multiple units (EMDUs) for the Wairarapa line, with funding to be applied for as early as 2019-20.

The trains would be able to run on electricity along the electrified parts of the Wellington network and on diesel outside of it. They would also be more compatible with other units on the network.