Power fault shuts down rail barriers

SHORT CUT: After waiting for almost 30 minutes, motorists started driving around the barrier arm at the top of Victoria Ave. Photo / STUART MUNRO

A power fault created havoc for Wanganui commuters on Thursday morning, causing rail crossing barrier arms to come down and stay down for about half an hour.

The problem was traced back to a power outage at one of the transformers servicing one of four controlled crossing in the city.

"When power was lost it tripped a circuit in one of those boxes," a KiwiRail spokeswoman said.

"But when one goes out the others automatically respond and the arms will drop."

She said it was a system aimed at maintaining safety at all those crossings and whenever there was fault at one crossing, the half barrier arms automatically came down on all four controlled crossings in the city.

KiwiRail maintenance crews had the problem sorted but not until traffic was held up for at least 30 minutes.

One driver the Chronicle spoke to said he had been stopped at the Victoria Ave crossing for 25 minutes waiting for the barrier arms to raise. In the end he and other motorists drove around one end of the barrier arm to continue their journey.

The crossings affected by the power cut included the one at the top end of Victoria Ave, and the others on Purnell St near its intersection with Ingestre St, on Guyton St and on Somme Pde at the Wanganui East rail bridge.

KiwiRail apologised to any motorists delayed by the fault.

The company has an ongoing programme to upgrade controlled crossings and last year the Purnell St crossing was the latest to undergo an upgrade because of increasing train traffic on the branch line from Castlecliff to Aramoho.

It costs $200,000 to install half barrier arms, flashing lights and bells at each level crossing.