Disruptions set to continue
Disruptions look set to continue for Wellington rail commuters today following a day of widespread cancellations yesterday.
About 20,000 commuters were left stranded yesterday morning after a KiwiRail freight train derailed in the junction outside Wellington Railway Station on Tuesday evening.
Last night, Metlink said there could be continued disruption this morning as train carriages were rearranged, reducing capacity on some services and requiring others to be replaced by buses.
Speed restrictions were expected to be in place at the junction for the rest of the week, causing possible delays in and out of Wellington on the Hutt Valley, Ka¯ piti, and Wairarapa lines.
‘‘We will do everything we can to return to a regular train timetable. Please check before you travel.’’
Metlink spokeswoman Emily Liddell said concession rail pass holders would not be compensated for the cancellations.
Derailments were very rare, Liddell said. The most recent one to occur on the Wellington network was in the Wairarapa rail yard in January. Another one occurred several years ago in the Wellington yard.
Several factors could cause a train to derail, including a damaged track, an obstacle on the track, and what type of train – diesel of electric – was involved.
While some services resumed yesterday afternoon, traffic was congested north of the city in the evening peak as many took to their cars with the morning trains cancelled.
By mid-morning yesterday, rail operator Tranzdev said it had only 10 surplus buses at its disposal to run as train replacements.
Reduced services resumed on the Hutt Valley and Ka¯ piti lines from 4pm, but all remaining Melling services were cancelled and two out of three Wairarapa services
were replaced by buses. The Johnsonville line was unaffected by the incident because it runs on its own line in and out of the station.
Crews worked overnight Tuesday and throughout yesterday in an effort to get trains operating again before the afternoon rush-hour.
KiwiRail chief operating officer Todd Moyle commended the driver of the train for stopping 200 metres after the derailment, which he said was a relatively short distance for a train.
The derailed carriages, containers, and pieces of damaged tracks had been quarantined for the investigation.
The train was a mixed freight train travelling to Auckland. There are no reliable or efficient alarms that can be used to detect train derailments, Moyle said.