Wairarapa commuters had all their trains replaced by buses for 46 days. File photo. Photo: RNZ / Rebekah Parsons-King
Just 17 percent of Wairarapa's trains were on time for most of February, despite a big track upgrade, with staff shortages being blamed.
For 46 days between 26 December and 10 February, Wairarapa commuters had all their trains replaced by buses due to KiwiRail renewing tracks in the Remutaka Tunnel and other maintenance.
After that upgrade services were set to return to normal, but new data provided by Metlink shows after the track opened only 17.18 percent of trains arrived at their station within five minutes of their scheduled time.
In a letter penned by Greater Wellington Regional Council chair Daran Ponter last week to rail operator Transdev, he said the root cause for the delays appeared to be staffing shortages.
Ponter asked Transdev to tell the council what measures were being taken to resolve "now regular cancellations, delays and bus replacements".
He asked for information on when the problems would be resolved.
Three days later, Transdev chief operating officer Peter Lensink wrote back and said restoring reliability while maintaining high-quality customer service was its top priority.
"We are acutely aware that these disruptions, following the recently completed renewal works, have compounded the challenges faced by our passengers.
"To that end, this week we held a dedicated workshop to assess available solutions."
Lensink said unusually high levels of long-term illness and sick leave had been the main reasons for the latest disruptions in Wairarapa.
He said the company had worked on a "Wairarapa recovery plan" which would outline medium and long-term interventions for the line.
But Lensink said there was a lack of funding currently for additional leave entitlements for sick leave and the Matariki public holiday.
He said that the funding shortages meant they were unable to provide the staffing and service needed.
"While we are proactively working to mitigate these impacts on the Wairarapa Line, we cannot guarantee similar challenges won't arise elsewhere on the network while we devote our resources to this task."
In a statement to RNZ, Transdev said that running the Wairarapa line required special safety training for the Remutaka Tunnel and shunting in the Masterton yard, and currently only six of the 12 train managers assigned to the route have that training.
The company said that was because of sickness and other leave.
It said recruitment and training would continue this year, and in the meantime staff availability would be managed daily.
Regional council transport committee chair Thomas Nash told RNZ there had been "very, very poor" levels of service.
"It hasn't really been a service that people can rely on, and this is fundamental for public transport."
Photo: Supplied / Metlink
Nash said commuters in the region were furious.
"We've had a very large number of complaints which are totally reasonable for the most part."
The staffing shortage comes after Wellington train services were significantly disrupted last year when as part of industrial action workers took all their breaks and refused any shift changes or overtime.
Nash told RNZ if staffing levels were run "too close to the bone" services would not run reliably.
"It's this question of seeing these public services and the workers within these public services as an investment, not as a cost.
"If you invest in them properly, you'll get a return on that investment."
Wairarapa commuters had faced significant disruptions on their trains in recent years which included vibrations on the tracks causing speed restrictions to be put in place.
Work to fix that problem was completed in October last year.
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