No commuters means no customers in city
Businesses experienced ‘‘significant’’ effects from Tuesday’s derailment, with some experiencing downturns of up to a third in revenue.
Chris Wilkinson of First Retail group said there was a ‘‘flow-on effect throughout the city’’ from the derailment while others said the ‘‘ripple effect’’ echoed well beyond those who cancelled their commutes.
If you took the 20,000 stranded and assumed they had each bought a $4.50 coffee you could come to a ‘‘ballpark’’ estimate of the derailment’s impact but even that wouldn’t fully capture it, city councillor Simon Marsh said.
‘‘You can do a sum there but it’s the other people that will go to David Jones or the Old Bank to just do a little bit of shopping in the lunchtime period, [so] I have got no real idea what the impact would be.’’
National MP Nicola Willis said the derailment created a ‘‘ripple effect’’, disrupting thousands of businesses and families in Wellington beyond those unable to get to work.
‘‘If people can’t come into work at their plumbing business or electrical business, then people who they were going to do work for won’t get that work done.’’
Wellington Chamber of Commerce chief executive John Milford said office-based businesses had resilience plans but customer-facing businesses – in areas like hospitality or retail – had slim margins.
‘‘Say 20 per cent of the office workers have decided to stay home today and they then don’t do what they normally do, that will probably translate into a number of small businesses not making money today,’’ Milford said.
Wilkinson said a survey of city businesses and consumers in the Northern Lambton Quay area showed it was likely one of the hardest hit by the disruption.
The train was the most popular transport option for consumers in Lambton Quay and the survey indicated those commuters would have visited a business in the area at least once, he said.
Allan Blondeau operations manager for La Kloche, a cafe on Featherston St, said trade was down between one quarter and a third on a usual day.
Harmony Bielski, a hairdresser, whose ride in to the city from Waikanae was cancelled, wasn’t able to get into the city despite her workplace being willing to pick up a $200 tab for an Uber.
All Uber drivers in Ka¯ piti were busy and the app kept refusing her ride, she said. Her day’s client roll of 16 people will now have to wait two to three weeks to get their hair shorn and beards trimmed.
The only public transport detour available – train to Porirua, bus to Johnsonville and train from Johnsonville to the city – would have added an hour-and-a-half to her usual hour-long commute.