Wairarapa trains are on restricted speeds through the region. Photo: LDR / Wairarapa Times-Age / Emily Ireland
Passengers and councils in the Wairarapa are outraged by a KiwiRail debacle that has left them with a worse train line than they had.
Old tracks on the Wairarapa line have been upgraded, but some areas within a 16km section of track near South Featherston have been laid on average 4 millimetres narrower, causing vibration issues.
KiwiRail said it was within its normal engineering tolerances for a safe network.
But the narrowing of the track has caused vibrations in the passenger carriages and meant train speeds have been reduced from 100km to 60km.
KiwiRail said the vibration issue has had no impact on the locomotives pulling the Wairarapa trains or KiwiRail's freight locomotives and wagons.
A meeting took place between Greater Wellington and Wairarapa councils on Tuesday to discuss the disruption.
Carterton mayor Ron Mark said heads needed to roll at KiwiRail.
Ron Mark says heads need to roll at KiwiRail. Photo: RNZ / Rebekah Parsons-King
"Monty Python couldn't have written a better script. It's debacle after debacle."
Masterton mayor Gary Caffell said the whole saga had indeed unravelled like a comedy of errors.
"It's damn annoying and really frustrating for Wairarapa commuters who have had an absolute guts full of delays over a long period of time on the Wairarapa line, and for this to happen, it's just another nail in the coffin really for them."
South Wairarapa Mayor Martin Connelly said some of the tracks should have been replaced long ago.
"But you would hope that when they replaced the tracks, they would have tracks that fitted the wheels of their carriages."
He said for many one of the biggest downsides of living in the Wairarapa was the state of the public transport.
Passenger Gabrielle Martell Turner said it had been one thing after another, with work on the track and heat related delays among the recent issues.
"Then we finally ... hear that ... work has been completed and we're sitting there wobbling like crazy."
She said the jolts could be "kind of like going over judder bars".
Turner said that made it difficult for people working on laptops on the commute home.
With the speed restrictions, Turner said the round trip could take more than four hours a day.
She had cut back travelling into Wellington to once a week as a result.
Greater Wellington Regional Council said work to fix the Wairarapa train line would not be able to done until a fire ban in the region was lifted.
Chair Daren Ponter told Midday Report KiwiRail would need to effectively grind the tracks.
"But that can't happen until the fire ban is lifted in the Wairarapa, otherwise, we will set the whole place alight."
He said it was a complication they could have done without.
"Certainly the commuters are very frustrated about [it], but once the fire ban is lifted, we'll work through it with the grinding machine and hopefully everything will be back to normal."
Ponter said they would be having conversations with KiwiRail to ensure the grinding was prioritized.
He said they were all a "little bit gobsmacked" by what had happened with the rails.
The other option KiwiRail has identified was reprofiling the carriages' wheels, but that would take up to 18 months to complete on the whole fleet.
