The new electric hauled trains are great but guess what they don't appear on the timetable- (only on separate notices) perhaps because it is a trial service but what use is a trial if it is not operated in such a way as to test its use properly!

It is quite popular but every day at Waterloo when I catch it I hear people saying "this is the Wairararapa train." They are scared to catch the electric hauled service because the carriages are identical and catching the Wairarapa train results in being inflicted with a surcharge.

Not only that but the other day I caught the 5:15 service to Taita, which had standing passengers, because I just missed the new electric service. Several people who could have caught the new express to Waterloo and therefore not been on the crowded unit had not done so, probably not knowing it existed or perhaps not realising once again that despite the identical carriages to the Wairarapa line it is a local train with no surcharge.

Also bus passengers are not always able to catch this train because the timetables are designed around the existing multiple-unit service. One consolation for the Wainuiomata bus running ahead of schedule is that it gives us a chance of catching the new express, but that is at the expense of passengers who get left behind in Wainui as discussed in my earlier post.

Nothing much has changed

Just looked at my blog haven't updated it for a whole two years and guess what we still have exactly the same problems with buses from Wainuiomata running early and with buses to Wainuiomata leaving the station when the connecting train has just arrived.

I won't even go into the behaviour of certain drivers as it would put me at risk of legal action.

Thanks all for reducing the chances of doing anything about global warming by encouraging everyone to find alternative means of transport.

I don't think anyone from the authorities reads this blog, hopefully one day they will catch up with it! It would be good to get some feedback from others too (on any problems with the transport service on any route) as this blog was intended to wake the authorities up to the dissatisfaction of other commuters and they won't get the message if I am the only voice.

I note that there are other commuter blogs in England but to the best of my knowledge there are no other ones in New Zealand. Let's make our voice heard!

Hope the bus company's New Year's Resolution will be to implement the commitment to
customer service promised about a year ago.

The next few days..

Monday morning got a call from the bus company following up my complaint that the bus was a few minutes late!  

As mentioned in my previous post the complaint was that the bus left ahead of schedule (leaving me 
and maybe others behind) or did not run at all.

The wrong message had obviously been conveyed by the coordinating organisation, the one that is supposed to be responsible for giving out reliable transport information. This despite the fact that I had been on the phone making the complaint and if the bus had been 5 or 6 minutes late as alleged by them I would have been still on the phone then! Lady from the bus company pulled out the stuck record of "I do apologise" they are getting better at apologising but not much good at fixing problems.


Monday afternoon saw a shocking site, a lady was shut in the door of a trolley bus as it was leaving the stop Spoke to her and found she was a visiting tourist, what a wonderful impression she will take away of Wellington and New Zealand!


Bus tonight had no destination sign at the front, same bus has been like that for at least a week. Hope they maintain the brakes and steering better than they do the signage!

At least one instance in the last few days of a driver indicating right as he pulled over to the left at Waterloo bus station. They forget to switch the right indicator off once they have negotiatied the right turn into the interchange. Maybe minor but there are so many examples of wrong or non-existent indicating that if you or I did them in a private car we would be fined at least. Not to mention the risks to themselves, their passengers and other cars if they do not indicate correctly.

Got a bus this morning to Waterloo station, bus was running a little late and arrived just as a train was in the station (not one the bus is required to meet, it really is intended to catch the next one. Managed to sprint across and catch it, other passengers were not so lucky and had the door shut in their face.


Big fuss today because a UN economist has said we have to reduce global warming or face serious consequences. Mention was made by our government of the need to put more money into public transport. What seems to be overlooked is that the reason people are put off public transport unless it is efficient and properly run, now matter how much money is poured into it. This means properly coordinated timetables, safe, courteous prompt and efficient service and immediate action to rectify problems. Until they do people will pay the extra to use private transport even if it costs them more. Surely the fact that at rush hour people are peepared to sit in queues in private cars rather than be treated like sheep on public transport says something is wrong?

Diary of a Wellington commuter

I have become very concerned at the standard of public transport in the Wellington, New Zealand area.

On the fact of it most of the timetables appear to provide a very good service.

Howeve it often completely overlooks the fact that people need to have reasonable connections 
from one service to another.

But in fact the service is not what it looks on paper.   There are frequent breakdowns, 
late or early running services , and it seems there is very little that can be done to get them fixed. 

The complaint procedure is set up so that if you complain to the central agency they will blame the transport operator and  where possible vice versa.  

Most of the bus system is run by one company  (split into more than one company to make this less obvious) so there is little competition so they basically are free to do what they like.   

One would think that with the services being contacted to a central agency the operators would be accountable to the central agency to provide an acceptable service level and if not it should be retendered to allow another operator to meet the standards.  This does not appear to be the case.

I have become so frustrated with the inability of the Wellington commuter to get anything done to either improve the service or change the operator that I have decided the only way is to set up this public site to record my experiences with system in the hope that making public the poor standards might just shame those responsible into doing something.

In order not to be liable for slander or libel I intend to simply record factual experiences of my daily travels on the trains and buses, with any comments related to the facts of the situation.  

Let me start with two which occurred just this weekend and spiurred me into getting this into action.

(For any from overseas reading this diary bear in mind that we are some time ahead of the rest of the world for time zones, so do not be puzzled if you see things reported which appear to have happened the day before you read them!)

On Friday 27 October I had a requirement to be in the Upper Cuba Street area by about 6:30 p.m 

Until recently this would have been one section costing $1.     But now they have increased the fare to $1.50, the city zone ends at Victoria St by the Manners Mall despite the fact that the area up to the bottom of Brooklyn hill is still very much part of the city.    Normally rather than pay the extra 50 percent just to go the extra few hundred metres, I  get off at the Mall.   However time did not allow this this time, so I paid the extra so I could go the extra distance.     But then when we arrived at the mall (in a trolleybus) the driver was unable to proceed as a broken down trolleybus was parked in front of us- incidentally  the driver of that bus had not even put its hazard lights on.   It became obvious that there would be delays by the time the driver sorted this out and picked up the waiting passengers, so I ended up having to disembark there wasting my extra 50 cents and rushing to my destination.  I intend to claim back my fare, will be interesting to see what happens.  Seems a lot of fuss over 50 cents but a 50 percent increase deserves better, the city zone should cover the city centre!

Today Saturday I tried to catch a Wainuiomata  bus due at about two minutes to the hour, to safeguard privacy I will not be more speifiic. 
   
I was there before 5 minutes to the hour. 

It became obvious I was not going to catch the bus.

Either it had run already, was late or was not going to arrive at all.

I rang the transport inquiry number and asked them to find out whiich they could not or would not do, so I told them if they wouldn't I wanted to make a complaint.  Among the statements made was that the buses often run 10 minutes or so late on a weekend, as if this was acceptable, so I pointed out that it was cause for complaint either way.   The bus did not turn up, it was by now pointless for me to pursue my journey as I would probably have missed the purpose of my journey.   As I have a monthly pass no financial loss to the company in my case, but it is no wonder this particular service is underutilised compared with other ones.   It will be interesting to see what the response if any is to my complaint

Another issue is the optimisitic timetabling of Wainuiomata buses so that commuters have at most 5 minutes  to transfer from northbound trains to Wainuiomata buses, and the incredible fact that if the train is late you can say goodbye to your bus for sometimes up to an hour in this age of modern communications.   No doubt I will have examples of this happening before long.