CAPTION: A Wairarapa commuter train on its way to Wellington. PHOTO/FILE
BECKIE WILSON
Young children were forced to sit on the floor and women holding babies had to stand on an overcrowded Wairarapa train as it left Wellington on Tuesday afternoon.
A video taken by commuter, Grant Jackson, was posted on the Greater Wellington Regional Council Facebook page demanding answers on what the council and Wairarapa MPs were doing to solve the overcrowding situation.
But the council say standing is a “reality on peak services in Wellington – as it is around the world”.
Wairarapa MP Alastair Scott said those not giving their seats up for women with babies have “no manners”. Likely Labour list MP Kieran McAnulty was not surprised by the jam-packed carriages and said capacity issues should have been solved at least five years ago.
Mr Jackson, who works in Petone, had been commuting from Masterton five days a week for the past year and said overcrowded carriages was not uncommon.
“It has definitely built up over the year, and it varies – Tuesday’s are always busy but every now and then you just get a crazy one, and that was [Tuesday],” Mr Jackson said.
“And there are people like sardines just packed in, it’s really upsetting to see pregnant ladies standing, and elderly people standing, and kids and mums just shoved on the floor.”
Those are the most vulnerable passengers on the train, he said.
“If there was an emergency I would hate to think what would happen.”
While the women and children on Tuesday’s 4.35pm train out of Wellington were offered seats by other passengers later in the journey, “they had the kids settled and bags on the floor, and it’s tricky to move around”.
Mr Jackson moved from Tauranga to Masterton about a year ago, and one of the draw cards was the ability to commute to Wellington.
“I think a good suggestion for Metlink and the regional council would be to sit down and have a meeting about it and I would like to suggest they have that meeting on the floor of the train at 4.30pm on a Tuesday.”
The video was shared 27 times, with many comments, including replies from Mr Scott and Mr McAnulty.
Regional council acting general manager of public transport Angus Gabara said offering a seat to the elderly and parents with young children was “a common courtesy”.
In June, the council announced it was working to make the two carriage types used on the Wairarapa line, SE and SW, compatible to boost capacity.
Mr Gabara said he hopes to trial these modified carriages next month.
At the same time, discussions around the purchase of Auckland Transport’s surplus carriage were underway.
“We have made inquiries with Auckland Transport about its surplus carriages, but at this stage it is not cost-effective to buy and convert them,” he said.
The council is working on business cases with KiwiRail and the Crown that will provide more peak time capacity, he said.
Local MP Mr Scott said, referring to the video, “people sitting down should be standing — that’s bullshit”,
Bad manners were obvious on Tuesday’s “not hugely crowded” train, he said.
While “this is a regional council issue”, the government has already committed to funding double-tracking at Upper Hutt which will improve the Wairarapa service, he said.
“When parliament gets back together, I will get regional council back into my office and get an update from them — I’ll give them a call actually,” he said.
Mr McAnulty said solving capacity issues needed to be done five years ago and now it needed to be a priority.
“When I was commuting to Petone [nine years ago] that was quite common on a normal day, but also during school holidays it was exacerbated and it is a real worry,” Mr McAnulty said.
Specific funding from government for the Wairarapa service is what Mr McAnulty believes would fix the issue.
“It is quite a complex situation, we have on one hand GWRC and NZTA and then Kiwi Rail, and Transdev as the operator — there needs to be more capital funding put into the carriages,” he said.
If he is confirmed as an MP he will continue to commute.
“I have just as much interest in this personally as I do as a representative of Wairarapa in Parliament.”
I would think that the full carriage has a fare cost of a certain amount. If it has extra passengers then the cost per person should be reduced. Surely the government can get better managers for this public utility and then some sensible outcomes might be forthcoming.
It’s way past the time when the tracks should be doubled to the mouth of the Rimutaka Tunnel and the
electrification extended to Masterton. In off-peak hours (say 0900 to 1500) a 2-car “Matangi” unit could service Masterton and in the peak up to six-car trains every 30 – 40 mins would be ideal. This would also allow a service to Masterton (once again a 2-car “Matangi”) to run every hour to 2300 or on Friday and Saturday Midnight. There would be a need for about eight more new “Matangi” units to cover this extra service. Its common sense, but you can’t expect much from politicians can you?
If you don’t expect anything useful from Alistair Scott then you wont be disappointed. This has been a long standing (pardon the pun) problem, hes been MP for years and done absolutely nothing for the Wai re the train service issues. But then he hardly takes the train…. thats just for us minions. Nope, he’ll do his usual thing and stick his head in the sand, just poking it up occasionally to ensure he gets his parliamentary allowances…… until the next election.
Why can’t we have a train service like the one that goes to Waikanae every half hour and electified if they can spend 10 million on the Kaimai tunnel in the bay of plenty they spend that on the line from Upper Hutt to Masterton its been hear longer than the Kaimai tunnel.We should have the same commuter trains like that of the other regions of wellington.
It’s public transport, it’s cheap per km. it’s what purports to be rush hour round here, it’s not pretty but ALL the services are crowded. Get used to it!
In these days of equality everybody is equally entitled to the seats.
Surely if the MP for the Wairarapa was more concerned he wouldn’t wait until parliament reopens to do something (whatever little) about it, or is this the last we’ll here from him until the next election.
With the growing number of people moving to the Wairarapa it is imperative that the issue is addressed now. To say that commuters can expect to stand at peak periods is just not good enough and shows the limited thinking that has become all too common. We are not talking about a 10 minute journey here, but a commute that is nearly 2 hours if you live in Masterton.