We should be steaming mad at unreliable trains
While the Wellington Bustastrophe took a short break over the Christmas holidays, it was back with a vengeance on Monday, with more than 30 services cancelled in the eastern suburbs alone. Meanwhile, our train system overheated – literally. Last week saw record temperatures which caused equipment to malfunction, lines to sag and the need for disruptive and timeconsuming manual track inspections.
On lines where the trains were running, they had to travel more slowly than their normal slow speed because of the heat. I had the pleasure of travelling on a very old steam train last year, and I’m sure it went faster than some of our commuter units are having to currently travel.
As record-breaking temperatures hit, the weather copped all the blame. After all, when has Wellington recorded 30 degrees Celsius, with even hotter temperatures in the Hutt?
We’ve known about climate change for some time and 30C isn’t that high when you consider that trains run successfully in Europe, North America and Asia at temperatures well below zero and well over 35C. But we can only dream of being as reliable as India.
Last Tuesday’s cancellation of the Johnsonville and Hutt Valley lines was a disaster, with hundreds of commuters stranded and Metlink scrambling to source buses. One Upper Hutt commuter took more than four hours to get home.
The Ka¯ piti line was not affected because it has a modern system that can deal with higher temperatures. The good news is that, after years of noninvestment, there are now Government funds for KiwiRail to do the same to its Hutt Valley and Johnsonville lines.
But what has bothered me over the last few weeks is the number of train services cancelled, reduced or replaced by buses because of ‘‘staff availability’’. Didn’t Transdev Wellington, which runs the trains, win the contract because it put in a superior bid to KiwiRail? Yet this multinational company can’t even provide enough staff to service the contract they won. Why not?
Was there a pestilential outbreak that only affected people who click tickets? Was there an international train conference in Dhaka that every Transdev employee just had to attend? And why does Metlink not inform us just what ‘‘staff availability’’ means? I’m sure if there was a good reason, most Wellingtonians would be sympathetic.
Does Transdev not have a pool of employees and a strategy, as most efficient businesses do, to cover for staff sickness or unavailability? Or is it that if you pay peanuts you get services cancelled due to ‘‘staff availability’’?
Last Tuesday, on the day of the big shutdown, we even had the spectacle of a service being cancelled because of staff availability then the trains on the line being cancelled anyway because of the heat. It would be funny if it wasn’t so sad.
And where is the outrage from our Greater Wellington regional councillors about our rail service? Can they all still be overseas on holiday? When the Auckland trains recently failed, the mayor issued a public apology.
I suspect what happened is that Transdev, like our bus companies, deploys as few extra staff as possible in order to keep costs down. When someone is sick or unexpectedly absent it’s cheaper just to cancel or downgrade a service. If I’m wrong, I would love to be corrected.
So surely Transdev must pay some whacking big penalties if it cancels a service? Our bus companies do now, but it would depend on Transdev’s contract. Previously bus companies didn’t pay a penalty but lost their fee. I suspect it’s the same with Transdev.
But even if they did pay a penalty, we wouldn’t know how much because, according to Greg Campbell, chief executive of GWRC, such information is ‘‘commercially sensitive’’.
What has been the public reaction to the rail cancellations? Commuters were furious, yet many, so used to cancellations and replacement bus services, were asking ‘‘what’s new’’?
One of the saddest comments was from a commuter who wanted to take public transport but, given it was so unreliable, wondered if the best idea would be to ditch it and just concentrate on building more and better roads. That wouldn’t work, but it’s sad that even people who want to catch trains and buses are losing faith.
As for the rest of the city and its representatives, rather than vent our anger about the trains, we spent the week arguing about WCC councillor Chris Calvi-Freeman’s move to ban tooting in the tunnel. As we build expensive convention centres, advocate for longer runways, and try to attract even more tourists to the city, perhaps our next tourism campaign could be ‘‘Come to Wellington – Subject to Staff Availability’’. At least it would be honest.
Where is the outrage from our Greater Wellington regional councillors about our rail service?