Tranz Metro Record: Nearly 150,000 rail passengers for RWC

Nearly 150,000 rail passengers for RWC a Tranz Metro record

KiwiRail's Tranz Metro has posted a new record for the number of people carried on the network in one weekend having transported 46,972 passengers to and from Wellington for the Rugby World Cup quarter final weekend.

This number topped last weekend's record of 41,790 passengers, adding to a total of 148,438 passengers carried by Tranz Metro on match days hosted at the Wellington stadium.
"Passenger numbers for rugby games at the Wellington Stadium normally peak at around 4,000 people and 7,000 a day for the hugely popular Wellington Sevens tournament. We more than tripled this number on both weekends with very little disruptions or delays," says Tranz Metro Manager Scott Brooks.

"While the temporary suspension of upgrade work on the metro network has assisted with the smooth running of services, staff have worked hard and put in a lot of extra time to ensure our services have run really smoothly on and around match days.

"In addition to our usual weekday passenger numbers, we've been carrying much bigger passenger numbers in the weekends, and our on-time performance statistics over the last four weeks is 95 percent, which serves to emphasise just how much work has gone into our services. We've also been using Matangi trains more effectively, and have been operating 8-car Matangi during our busier periods.

"There has been a great team effort from everyone involved, with considerable energy coming from the Passenger, Network and Mechanical teams to get us to this point. I have been really impressed with the team spirit and the positive attitude within both my team and the wider KiwiRail fraternity," Mr Brooks says.

During the Rugby World Cup matches at Wellington Stadium, Tranz Metro ran both timetabled and additional services with extra capacity to cater for match crowds, including special late night services for the weekend games.

Although Wellington won't be hosting any more games, Tranz Metro will be building up its services for the semi-final games and will run special midnight services next Sunday.

ENDS

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