The announcement of funding for new trains for the Wairarapa Line and the Capital Connection from Palmerston North should have been the biggest front-page story this month. Instead, it was over shadowed by news of train delays and cancellations due to a KiwiRail maintenance failure. This really was a great pity because the announcement of new trains simply was the best news we’d had for a long time.
You see, our old trains truly are coming up to their use-by-date and can’t be recycled anymore. They were built in the seventies and have been overhauled and refurbished multiple times. These trains were made well before many who travel on them were even born and replacing them was our top priority. When the pre-budget government funding for new trains was announced it’s fair to say that Greater Wellington Regional Council and Metlink breathed a collective sigh of relief as there was no Plan B, or at least not one that looked even vaguely affordable for funding by rates alone.
So, looking back a few years, an awful lot of effort has gone into the work and lobbying that finally delivered the result we wanted. Firstly, additional government funding has meant major investment in the Wairarapa track and rail infrastructure by KiwiRail, which was critical if we were to run new trains. It is pointless buying new trains that can go fast if the track is not safe enough to go fast on. Years of minimal investment in our line by various owners is finally being rectified.
Then there was the question of what sort of trains do we want? That did bring out the chorus who believe we should electrify the Wairarapa line and simply run the metro Matangi’s over here.
There are three reasons why this is not a good idea. It would cost multi millions to electrify the line before we bought even one new train; we don’t have any spare Matangi’s – they are all busy servicing the metro lines and they don’t have toilets. Lastly, a new hybrid train set that can run off the grid does give us some resilience if there was a major power outage.
So, the plan is to buy hybrid trains. They will be faster, quieter and the services more frequent than what we have at present. We will have more off-peak services which will please the Gold Card holders and those who don’t need an early start.
The down side is that ordering and building our new trains, like all good things, takes time. The tender process will begin shortly but we’ll be travelling in our ‘heritage’ carriages for a wee while yet.
