Train drain: numbers on Wellington trains collapse

Saturday, 17 August 2024

Train commuters have slumped in number since Covid, though they remain largely happy with the service.

How does this work?: Wellington commuters love their trains, with trip satisfaction levels well over 90%, yet the numbers using them has plunged.

As per usual, the answer is Covid, the pandemic that laid waste to numbers working, shopping and eating in the city centre has also eroded the numbers using trains to get there.

Since 2020 commuters have turned into work-from-homers, with traffic on Mondays and Fridays especially falling away. Rail boardings in June were 25.8% lower than June 2019 numbers (pre-Covid).

Covid has also laid waste to Greater Wellington Regional Council rail budget predictions, which transport committee chair Thomas Nash says have now been reworked.

Greater Wellington regional councillor Thomas Nash.

The fare revenue budget shortfall for the 2023/24 financial year (to 30 June 2024) was $43.4 million - $7.1m due to the extended half-price fares scheme, and $36.3m due to reduced patronage compared with assumptions set pre-Covid.

But the same committee meeting presented with those figures on Thursday, received the latest Metlink survey results of more than 2800 commuters, and that had trip satisfaction with rail at 96% and overall satisfaction with the system at 79%

Rail service reliability was 97.9% in June, and 97.1% for the year to date, but fewer rail commuters (66%) were happy they were getting value for money than their bus (72%) and ferry counterparts.

Nash laid the blame for the conundrum of much love/fewer tickets sold clearly on the pandemic, and pointed toward a brighter future.

Johnsonville line commuters are the most satisfied.

'We are around about 80% of what we were pre Covid,“ he told The Post.

“That's about 20% down, which is sort of one day week, half the number of people are coming in on Monday and Fridays, so that adds up to one day a week.'

Greater Wellington transport chair Thomas Nash says the needed improvements are coming

As well, the infrastructure needed upgrading, with tracks needing work and new trains set to arrive. Bus numbers were bouncing back more quickly, he said.

“The reason rail was struggling is that we haven't seen the kind of improvements in frequency and reliability that we have seen with buses,” Nash said.

“Basically, the clearest link between user transport and other improvements is reliability and frequency so until we get the improvements we've been planning for and working on we can't expect huge numbers to come back onto rail.

“That means KiwiRail getting funds to do the work to rails and renew the ageing rail assets on the metropolitan network, and also getting the new trains that we've got the funding for from the Government.”

Last month, a co-funding agreement to buy 18 four-car trains was announced between Government, the NZ Transport Agency Waka Kotahi, KiwiRail and the councils, based on a business case prepared by Greater Wellington.

That deal was expected to lead to the doubling of peak-time passenger services on the Wairarapa and Manawatū rail lines.

Wairarapa commuters were the least satisfied, with 100% of Johnsonville line commuters surveyed saying they were satisfied.