Grinding Away At Line Improvements

Tuesday, 16 July 2024, 6:28 pm
Article: Emily Ireland - Local Democracy Reporter

The grind continues on the Wairarapa Line, with one kilometre of work being done each night to improve vibrations for commuters.

In the meantime, punctuality of the Wairarapa rail service has dropped to 6.5% for May and will continue to be impacted by a high level of speed restrictions across the network until work is completed.

Work to improve vibrations on the Wairarapa Line began in May following an independent investigation that found there were issues with how carriage wheels interacted with newly-laid rail tracks.

The solution being pursued by KiwiRail and Greater Wellington Regional Council is to grind down the new track and re-profile carriage wheels.

A KiwiRail spokesperson said recent rail testing on areas experiencing vibration had shown improvements.

This testing was done at a speed of 70kmh.

Metlink’s rail network delivery manager David Mawson said a four-carriage train with re-profiled wheels would test the line later this month.

“We’ll see if the train can run at normal speeds without any abnormal vibrations,” he said.

If successful, wheel re-profiling would continue for the rest of the fleet.

“Once all carriages are re-profiled and full train testing is completed, KiwiRail can assess lifting the track speed back to normal in the areas where the speed restrictions relate to the vibrations being experienced by passengers,” Mawson said.

“Trains are continuing to operate at safety speeds in other sections of the Wairarapa Line due to KiwiRail’s signalling and level crossing projects, and usual maintenance.”

This week, the KiwiRail rail grinder will continue to make its way north of Cornwall St in Masterton at a rate of about 1km per night.

It was expected to reach the end of the Masterton line later this week.

Once this section between Featherston and Masterton is complete, the grinder would be taken back to South Wairarapa to re-profile the section between Featherston and the Remutaka Tunnel.

“We expect grinding of the Wairarapa line north of Upper Hutt will be finished by early next month,” a KiwiRail spokesperson said.

There were 55,545 Wairarapa Line boardings in May, down 5 per cent on the same month last year, latest statistics from Metlink show.

The statistics also show reliability of the Wairarapa Line was 93.4 per cent.

The rail reliability measure shows the percentage of scheduled services that depart from origin and key stations, meet the size for the scheduled service, and stop at all stations in the timetable for the service.

– LDR is local body journalism co-funded by RNZ and NZ On Air.

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