Wairarapa commuters at Carterton. PHOTO/FILE
Train commuters to have their say
Wairarapa train commuters will get to have their say on public transport later this year.
Greater Wellington Regional Council chairman Daran Ponter said public engagement for Wairarapa, Porirua, Kapiti Coast, and Hutt Valley later in 2020 was the next step in his case for more investment for railways.
Late last year, Ponter urged central government to increase investment.
He said train passengers would be “packed in like sardines” without further money for rolling stock for the Wairarapa and Palmerston North lines.
“With over 14.3 million passenger journeys counted in 2018/19 new rolling stock is essential in catering to passenger growth,” he said.
The rising use of the entire Metlink network had 40 million users travel during 2019, Metlink general manager Greg Pollock said.
That included travel on bus, ferry, and rail.
“This has been a good start in terms of improving performance and I applaud our operators and their drivers as well as customer service representatives who worked hard to turn these results around quickly,” he said.
“However, we know there remain a number of areas in the network where we need to focus on doing better.”
Passengers grizzled after timetable changes in 2018, but a survey of more than 3000 travellers showed they were satisfied with their trip nine times out of 10.
A Wellington survey showed commuters were happier with most of their journeys in 2019.
More trains in general during the week and especially on the weekends
Wish there were xtra trains on a weekend to an from wellington
Would be nice for gold card holders to be able to go out and return for free or reduced fare. To get back atm cheaper we have to pay to Petone them catch the last train from Wellington.