Wellington NZ

[David McLoughlin <davemclNOSPAM@iprolink.co.nz>]

As some of you may recall, I said I was going to Wellington, capital of
NZ (I live in Auckland, 600 km to the north) from early morning Saturday
July 8 to the evening of Wednesday July 12. I was taking my
seven-year-old daughter there for the Saturday and Sunday as she had not
been there before. I expressed concern that the trolleybuses no longer
operated at weekends and evenings despite contracts for subsidies
requiring them to. On all my previous weekend visits to Wellington over
the past three or so years there had not been trolleys running.

Well, we flew in to Wellington at 10am on Saturday and of course, no
trolleybuses were operating. All services were worked by diesel buses
despite the contracts specifying trolleybuses. My daughter was really
annoyed as she wanted to go on a trolleybus. Her brother (now 10) was
denied the same chance three years ago when I similarly took him to
Wellington on a weekend and all services were diesel despite the
contracts specifying trolleys.

No trolleybuses operated on the Sunday, either, with all services again
being diesel despite the contracts that trolleybuses must run.

My daughter and I travelled extensively all over Wellington over the two
days, and there were no roadworks or any other obstructions that could
have affected trolleybus operation. The trolleybuses were just parked in
the depot and only diesels were running. There was no sign of any
overhead wire crew operating on the overhead which has at times been
used as an excuse to halt weekend running.

I suspect this is just the norm, now. Diesels at weekends.

On Monday morning I got up at 6am and yes, the trolleybuses were
running.  They operated many services on trolleybus routes all day, and
unlike my last visit earlier this year, they were also operating on most
services in the evening, so at least Wellington has a five-day
day-and-night trolleybus service on trolleybus routes. I observed
trolleys running in the evenings on Tuesday and Wednesday too, so at
least the weekday evening part of the contract is being observed.

I had a good look round the system and it was clear no upgrading work
has been done on the overhead for some years. Until a few years ago,
many of the old BICC or Ohio Brass wires were being replaced with K&M
style (though Wellington-made) work, especially on bends. But the only
new work done in the past year or two that I could see was where there
were diversions (such as for a new layout at Courtenay Place in the city
centre and where there is a new layout into Kilbirnie Depot). Places
where K&M style wire was being installed (such as round the Basin
Reserve and along Cobham Drive) have been left part-upgraded for some
years now -- a sign that the system is expected soon to be closed.

Almost all the genuine K&M switches installed in 1982-84 (when K&M had a
contract to upgrade the overhead when the new fleet was bought) have
been removed and replaced with old Ohio Brass switches. The only facing
K&M switch I saw was in Kent Terrace and this was only used on its
"power" mode by special buses, service buses just coast through it.
There are still two K&M trailing switches in the CBD, only one in heavy
use. All the rest have gone, and trolley operation is slower for the
loss of these modern switches.

I've mentioned the Route 6 peak hour Lyall Bay route before. It was
introduced in 1993, operating via the Hataitai bus tunnel as a
semi-express rather than going through traffic-choked streets. I'd never
seen a trolley on this route despite its being promoted as a "trolley
bus route." I was told there are some trolley services on this route in
the PM peak so I looked out for them and yes, I did see a single
trolleybus going to Lyall Bay 6 on Tuesday PM peak, but all the other 6s
I saw were diesel buses.

All in all, it was a pretty depressing visit. The trolleybuses are
clearly on the way out in Wellington with nobody in authority supporting
them.

There was a meeting of the (diesel) Bus and Coach organisation on in
town while I was there and they had a big display of new diesel buses
and also one of the three hybrid Olymbus buses which operate a loop
service in Christchurch. The local newspapers had glowing stories about
how these hybrids would soon rid Wellington of its "mish-mash" of wires.
It was just advertising hype. The Olymbuses (built originally for an
unsuccessful bid for a Sydney 2000 Olympics contract by Designline of
Ashburton in the NZ South Island) have only 20 seats and can carry only
15 standing. They are not suitable for a major bus route in a big city
and cost much more than would a diesel bus of much bigger size, let
alone a trolleybus.

On Sunday we took a ride to Johnsonville on one of Wellington's three
EMU train lines (which operate virtually 24 hours a day). Johnsonville
is by far the shortest of the lines and is mostly single track. It has
many tunnels, which are too narrow to allow use by the 1980s Ganz-Mavag
(Hungarian) EMUs and so it still uses the ancient English Electric
units.

Well, we were intending to catch the 11 am to Johnsonville but before it
was due to depart, a Railways staffer came up and said the 10.30 from
Johnsonville (which was to be the 11 from the city) had broken down at
Johnsonville and a special train from another platform was being
despatched  to rescue it. We were invited to go on it.

We sat in thge front seat of the EMU, next to the driver (a great view
out the front window) and had a fast, though rough ride over
indifferent, 3'6" gauge track to Johnsonville where the driver couple
our EMU to th broken down one.

We set out back for the city and within two minutes the train stopped
and the lights went out. The driver came through and said the pan had
come down, the same problem that had stranded the earlier train. About
four staff spent about 20 minutes working on the air lines between the
two trains before finally getting the pan to raise again and allowing us
to get on our way. 

Not a good advertisement for the train, especially as it was full of
angry passengers who had missed the earlier train because of the
breakdown.

I could go on, but it is all too depressing. About the only good thing I
can report is that the buses (and trains) in Wellington were very well
patronised on Saturday and Sunday, with lots of people on all those we
went on, whether in daytime or the evening. Patronage is so good that
bus frequencies especially are almost as good on weekends as weekdays.

At least I had a great five days in Wellington, with no wind, no clouds
and lovely fine, warm weather despite it being mid-winter, and my
daughter really enjoyed seeing all the great attractions of this
wonderful city, except for her missing the trolleybuses.

David McLoughlin
Auckland New Zealand