KiwiRail reveals further problem that led to Wellington’s train fiasco

KiwiRail admits there has been an "unacceptable level of disruption" for Wellington commuters. Photo / Mark Mitchell

KiwRail has revealed there was another problem that led to significant disruption on Wellington’s train network and confirmed a red flag about the looming chaos was only raised with senior managers on Wednesday night last week.

This week trains have been operating at a 70km/h speed limit, effectively halving the number of usual services running in the capital.

KiwiRail initially said this was because its only specialist track evaluation car, which measures tracks across the country so trains can operate safely, was broken.

This meant the tracks on Wellington’s Kāpiti line could not be inspected in time (by April 30) to remain compliant and avoid speed restrictions.

But this afternoon KiwiRail said there was also a scheduling problem. The tracks on the Kāpiti line weren’t scheduled to be assessed until May anyway - outside of the compliance period and irrespective of the broken evaluation car.

This was the scheduling arrangement in place going back to at least mid-March and KiwiRail said the fact the implications of this were not recognised at the time appeared to be a critical systems failure.

The Government has launched an independent review and KiwiRail has launched its own external review.

KiwiRail chief executive Peter Reidy said a combination of factors led to the disruption in Wellington, including a mechanical fault and scheduling problems.

There have been obvious system failures within KiwiRail and the state-owned enterprise will be making changes, he said.

“Again, we apologise to the people of the Wellington region, and we are working as quickly as possible to fix this situation.”

KiwiRail has confirmed the looming compliance issue was only raised with senior managers on Wednesday evening.

“When leaders learned of the issue last week, we immediately launched a recovery programme to minimise what we recognise is an unacceptable level of disruption for Wellington commuters,” Reidy said.

“Urgent priority was given to repairing our track evaluation car and getting it down from Auckland.”

KiwiRail chief executive Peter Reidy says there have been obvious system failures and the state-owned enterprise will be making changes. Photo / Duncan Brown

Metlink was then told and Greater Wellington Regional Council chairman Daran Ponter didn’t mince words when he said it was a “monumental failure” by KiwiRail.

“It’s not clear how long KiwiRail have known about this but to only give Wellington three or four days’ notice before the restrictions are in place is simply ludicrous,” he said on Friday.

KiwiRail’s external review will look into who knew what and when and why the problem was not escalated further up the chain to senior management earlier.

Reidy said KiwiRail expected to finish track assessments on the Kāpiti line tonight, allowing blanket speed restrictions to be lifted and for commuter services to return to normal on Thursday morning.

“I do want to thank my team, whose hard work over recent days has managed to reduce the disruption in Wellington from a worst-case scenario of lasting for weeks to a matter of days,” Reidy said.

“We take full responsibility for what has happened. We are commissioning an external review to understand how we ended up in this situation and to ensure that it is never repeated.”

KiwiRail has gone to market to replace its track evaluation car which is 41 years old.

The new one will require less maintenance, have less downtime, and will achieve higher productivity rates.

Given this, KiwiRail has decided one new car for the entire country will be able to meet work requirements on all rail lines along with good schedule management.