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.