Dear Wellington Regional Council,

Metlink currently provides information about punctuality on the train network in this form on its website : "The rail punctuality measure records the percentage of services arriving at key interchange stations and final destination within five minutes of the scheduled time" (https://www.metlink.org.nz/our-metlink-b...).

However, recording the percentage of services which are punctual - and by implication, late - gives an ambiguous picture on how lateness is actually impacting upon the passenger base. A better way of measuring this impact would be to weight the punctuality data using the number of passengers on particular services. Thus, if a train is late during an off-peak trip, when passenger numbers are likely to be low, the impact is relatively small. But if a train is late on a peak service, then the impact is much greater. If such a weighted analysis was made of all late services, then a clearer overall picture of the impact of lateness would emerge than what is suggested by the information currently provided to the public (e.g. 88.4% of services were on time on HVL during November 2019).

Here are my requests for information:

1. Does the WRC/Metlink already perform any weighted analyses of train punctuality in the way - more or less - described above?

2. If so, please provide a summary of what information and reports it holds.

3. If not, can you please advise if you would be able to undertake this analysis using the data you already hold (i.e. for every service, both passenger numbers and punctuality data) for the purpose of this OIA. As I realise this might take some time, only a sample experiment would be necessary: services on the Hutt Valley Line for November 2019.

4. If you do hold the data, but are unable to accommodate my request, could you please supply the raw data for all services on the Hutt Valley Line for November 2019, as well as information on how the data is gathered. It would be most useful if the data was in the form of an Excel spreadsheet.

Yours faithfully,

Michael Brown

Dear Daniela,

Thanks very much for your reply and the information.

Yours sincerely,

Michael Brown