25 March 2022
File Ref: OIAP-7-23532
Iain Palmer
By email:
[FYI request #18696 email]
Tēnā koe Iain
Request for information 2022-016
I refer to your request for information dated 27 February 2022, which was received by Greater
Wellington Regional Council (Greater Wellington) on 28 February 2022. You have requested the
following:
“Can you please provide the following information for each of the approx 60 services per week of the
Wairarapa Connection Rail Service between Masterton and Wellington over the last five (5) years?
- Overall available seat capacity*
- Total number of carriages on the service (or buses, if bus replaced)
- Total passengers through the Rimutaka Tunnel**
- Total onboard crew
- On-time performance
- Number of Bikes and electric scooters
- Number of wheelchairs
* This would exclude any seating in carriages that are closed/out of use on the service.
** this would be the count departing Featherston southbound or Maymorn Northbound
In addition, can you please provide the mix of the staffing on the Wairarapa Connection rail service
both currently, three (3) and five (5) years ago.
- full-time train managers
- part-time train managers
- full-time passenger operators
- part-time passenger operators
- split shift train managers (work in, head to another job, then work home)
- split shift passenger operators (work in, head to another job, then work home)
- any other staff (and role description)”
Wellington office
Upper Hutt
Masterton office
0800 496 734
PO Box 11646
PO Box 40847
PO Box 41
www.gw.govt.nz
Manners St, Wellington 6142
1056 Fergusson Drive
Masterton 5840
[Wellington Regional Council request email]
Greater Wellington’s response follows:
Please see
attachment 1 which contains:
1. Train data – this has all Wairarapa Rail Line services from July 2017 onwards. The Actual
Consist Size is the amount of carriages Metlink recorded, and the Punctuality column has the
delay group, if it was cancelled, bus replaced, or no data. The Actual Consist Size is the best
representation of train size.
2. Patronage data – has all the high counts and at select stations- Upper Hutt and Featherston,
depending on direction of travel. This is the closest Metlink has to counts through the
Rimutaka tunnel. Refer to Upper Hutt (instead of Maymorn) for northbound trains, and
Featherston for southbound trains. Unfortunately we can’t guarantee that the bike and
wheelchair count is accurate as this is based on a manual count for each trip. Additionally,
please note Metlink only started recording those figures recently. Metlink do not record the
number of electric scooters on board services.
Seats:
The below table has the different carriage types. Metlink do not record the carriage makeup of
each train – the approximate average that is used in Metlink’s capacity reporting is 59.
Vehicle
Maximum Maximum
*The letters in this table are the trains designation:
seating
capacity
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_Zealand_British_Rail_Mark_2_carriage
capacity
(seated
and
standing)
SW Carriage
64
81
SWG Carriage
37
47
SWS and wheel chair Carriage
37
54
SE Carriage
69
90
SEG Carriage
40
61
SES and wheel chair Carriage
44
69
For rail services which were replaced by bus, Metlink have recorded which services were replaced
by buses but not how many buses replaced the service.
Page 2 of 3
Your request for information on ‘
the mix of the staffing on the Wairarapa Connection rail service
both currently, three (3) and five (5) years ago for:
- full-time train managers
- part-time train managers
- full-time passenger operators
- part-time passenger operators
- split shift train managers (work in, head to another job, then work home)
- split shift passenger operators (work in, head to another job, then work home)
- any other staff (and role description)’
is refused under section 17(g) of the Local Government Official Information and Meetings Act on the
grounds that the information requested is not held by the local authority, and Greater Wellington
does not believe that the information is held by another local authority, a department, a Minister of
the Crown, or organisation.
Additional Information
The information relating to the staffing part of your request may be held by Transdev, the rail
operator.
If you have any concerns with the decision(s) referred to in this letter, you have the right to request
an investigation and review by the Ombudsman under section 27(3) of the Local Government Official
Information and Meetings Act 1987.
Nāku iti noa, nā
Scott Gallacher
Kaiwhakahaere Matua | General Manager Metlink
Attachments (1)
Page 3 of 3
