Vandals disrupt Wellington train services twice in two days

Friday, 23 February 2018

A carriage had to be removed from a peak-hour train service from Plimmerton to Wellington on Friday morning because of graffiti. (Pictured is an old Ganz Mavag train. (File photo).

Vandals have disrupted peak-hour commuter train services in Wellington twice in the past two days.

The latest service to be affected was the 7.14am service from Plimmerton to Wellington on Friday, which ran with one less carriage because graffiti needed to be cleaned off.

The same service operated under-capacity on Thursday morning, after it was spray-painted overnight on Wednesday.

TransDev spokeswoman Emily Liddell said train carriages typically held about 225 passengers.

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* Old trains to be shipped off**

Customers were told ahead of time and advised to catch the earlier 7.03am service to avoid being caught in the rush, she said.

'Of course, we don't have any control over it.

'It just happens and then we have to deal with it and get it out and cleaned as quickly as we can.

'But it does unfortunately have an impact on passengers.'

The graffiti needed to be cleaned off to avoid encouraging copycats, she said.

Both carriages had since been returned to service.

The vandals were quick and that meant security cameras often did not catch them in the act, she said.

Anyone who saw somebody vandalising trains, or in an area where they shouldn't be, should contact police.