Staff suspended after train went on wrong track

A train driver and signal box staff have been stood down from duty pending an investigation into how a Wairarapa-bound train ended up on the main trunk line out of Wellington on Saturday.

Toll national passenger manager Ross Hayward confirmed the passenger train that departed the city at 9.55am bound for Masterton somehow got routed to the main trunk

He said the company had no option but to immediately suspend the staff until an inquiry has been held and that it had been necessary to call in a relief driver on Saturday to take the train through to Masterton.

This alone had taken a half hour and contributed to the long delay in getting trains moving again out of Wellington.

Mr Hayward said although the train hadn't travelled all that far on the main trunk line before the driver realised he wasn't where he should have been, it had nevertheless meant that the train had to be backed back to Wellington station.

The bottleneck caused by the closing down of train timetables to straighten out the situation involving the Wairarapa train meant that passenger services to Paraparaumu and to Upper Hutt were put on hold.

Mr Hayward said it was 11.30am before services could be resumed.

The Wairarapa train at the heart of the problem eventually arrived in Masterton, very late but without further incident.

Mr Hayward said although a full inquiry was yet to be completed it had been established that the wrongly routed train had not posed a threat to passenger safety.

He said it was not a case in which the train could have been involved in a head-on collision with a train approaching from the other direction.

Any train approaching would have been on an adjacent set of rails, Mr Hayward said.

Mr Hayward said once the investigations have been completed a media release on the outcome of what was determined would be issued.

- NZPA