Re: Wellington NZ

[Alex Campbell <triSPAMAWAY@ihug.co.nz>]

Well if the trolley infrastructure in Wellington looks tired it is not
suprising.

While there is support within Wellington Regional Council (WCC) to retain
the
trolleys their long-term future is still in the balance. Retailers and
residents were
surveyed and a $ value put on the value they put on the trolley buses
(reduced noise
and city retailer impacts over diesels). This was enough to secure a 5-year
contract
which extends trolley operation till about 2004.

This 5-year horizon is however not enough to make any real commitment to
overhead upgrading etc. I suspect the replacement of switches with older
style
switches is purely due to newer style switches being replaced as they wear
out with
older ones kept as spares. Spare parts are I understand becoming a real
issue for the
system.

In fact talking to a consultant doing some work for WRC the other week,
apparently
there is only one person left in Wellington who knows how to maintain the
overhead
and he is planning on retiring soon.

Consultancy work is underway to look at what the overall trend is with
trolley bus
systems world wide to help determine the future of the Wellington system.

The bus interchange at the railway station is to be modernised and decisions
need to
be made on whether the trolleys are kept as this affects the layout of the
interchange.
Also restringing overhead in the interchange adds a few hundred thousand $
to the
project cost.

Certain quarters are pushing to replace the trolley buses with modern low
floor buses
using either diesel or electric hybrid buses. The trolleys are unfortunately
now some of
the oldest buses and all high floor buses. New low floor diesels being put
in service
on many of the other city routes.

To be fair WRC have left some really shocking old diesels in service which
keep the
trolleys from looking too bad, and makes them look better than they do
compared
with the modern low floor buses.

The only certainty is that the existing fleet cant be strung along for
another 5 years
after 2004. The existing is fast approaching use by date with passengers now

expecting modern accessible vehicles. A serious commitment has to be made
before
2004 to either scrapping or replacement with modern low floor trolleys.
Trolley
buses are a 20 year commitment and in NZ where transport planning has
suffered
from short termism is a real issue.

Having said that I suspect they stand a good chance of being continued with
the
current administration in Wellington. They make all the right noises about
scrapping
them in favour of low floor diesels, and then at the last minute produce the
study
which shows "lo and behold" that it is more cost effective (total social and
economic
costs) or community acceptable etc. to keep them.


Alex...


David McLoughlin wrote:

> 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