Train plus text service break down

A TRANZ Metro locomotive, and its text notification service, broke down simultaneously on Monday on the early-morning Masterton to Wellington commuter run.
The 6.30am, Wellington-bound train ground to a halt at Waingawa, leaving Wairarapa Line trains running 20 minutes late throughout the day.
"We put as many passengers as possible on the next train and bussed the rest of the people to Wellington," Toll corporate affairs manager Sue Foley said.
"The locomotive did break down and we apologise. It's just as frustrating for us as it is for the passengers."
Tranz Metro's Metro Alert free text notification service crashed because of a Toll "computer glitch", Ms Foley said. "It was completely our fault. It seems that if one thing's going wrong, everything's going wrong," she said.
Masterton man Chris Colvin, who stopped using the Wairarapa Line service eight months ago, says the Metro Alert is "useless".
Mr Colvin said the text notifications are often late, which makes the service redundant.
"Quite often what they're texting about is old news, it'll say something like 'the 7.30 train is running late', but you won't get the message till 9.30," he said.
"It's never sent me a text in time, it's feast or famine, you might get three texts in one morning or nothing for three weeks."
Mr Colvin has been trying to unsubscribe from Metro Alert for eight months.
"Every time I try to quit it says 'you are not subscribed to this service and you can't quit'," he said.
"I'm stuffed if I'm going to ring them to get it cut off. I refuse to ring them up, I'm not wasting a phone call."
Mr Colvin finally got a Metro Alert text that was, if not on time, at least relevant.
Mysteriously, during the interview for this story, he was notified that his efforts to break free from text bondage had been successful.
It seems Mr Colvin will no longer need to suffer under the burden of any more "useless" text notifications.