Tranz Metro
| Tranz Metro | |
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| Overview | |
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| Reporting marks: | TM, TRH, TNZ |
| Locale: | From Wellington to Masterton and Paraparaumu |
| Dates of operation: | 1995—present |
| Headquarters: | Wellington |
Tranz Metro is the commuter rail system in Wellington, the capital city of New Zealand. It is a division of Toll Rail.
History
In the 1980s the Auckland and Wellington suburban rail networks were part of the government-owned New Zealand Railways Corporation, operating under the brand name Cityline, then CityRail. In 1993 the railways were privatised, and renamed Tranz Rail in 1995, and CityRail services were rebranded Tranz Metro. Tranz Rail did not bid for the Auckland franchise when it came up for tender in 2004, and those services are now operated by Veolia. Also in 2004, a majority shareholding in Tranz Rail was bought by Toll Holdings of Australia and the company renamed Toll NZ. Despite this new ownership, Wellington services retain the Tranz Metro name.
The services are operated under contract to the Greater Wellington Regional Council, which subsidises the operation and any capital improvements to the stations and rolling stock. Typically 60% of that subsidy comes from central government through its land transport funding agency, Land Transport New Zealand, which approves such funding after careful analysis of the economics and net benefits, the remainder coming from the Council's property rates.
Services
Tranz Metro operates five services.
- Johnsonville — a narrow and winding route through the hills to Johnsonville, passing through the northern suburbs of Wellington. It was originally part of the North Island Main Trunk, but was bypassed in 1937 by two new tunnels.
- Paraparaumu — along the North Island Main Trunk line (the country's longest rail corridor) as far as Paraparaumu, passing through Porirua, one of the four cities making up the Wellington urban area.
- Hutt Valley — along the Wairarapa line through Waterloo in Lower Hutt as far as Upper Hutt, the outer edge of the Wellington urban area.
- Melling — along the Wairarapa line as far as Petone, then along the Hutt Valley's western edge to Melling. Until 1955 this was the route of Wairarapa line, which was then diverted through the eastern side of the valley.
- Wairarapa — diesel-hauled, along the Wairarapa Line to Masterton, the largest town in the Wairarapa. Within the Wellington urban area the trains do not stop at every station, leaving commuter service to Hutt Valley and Melling trains.
Until 2001, Tranz Metro also operated the Capital Connection service between Palmerston North and Wellington. However, due to the partial sale of Tranz Scenic to West Coast Railway shareholders, the service was transferred to that company. Despite later repurchasing Tranz Scenic, Toll Rail has kept the service as part of Tranz Scenic.
Motive power and rolling stock
Excluding the Wairarapa service, all Tranz Metro's services are electric. Wellington is the only region in New Zealand to have electric rail services.
Electric Multiple Units
All Tranz Metro electric trains are electric multiple units, commonly called "units". Most are two-car sets: one car is powered, while the other is not. There is a driver's cab at each end. For larger trains, units are joined together, giving trains of four, six, or eight cars.
There are two classes of electric multiple units in service:
- 44 EM class Ganz-Mavag units and 44 ET class trailers
- 14 DM class English Electric units and 19 D class trailers
Carriage services
On the Wairarapa Line, which is electrified only as far as Upper Hutt, diesel-electric locomotives haul carriage trains. Usually, DC class locomotives are used for this service. Rolling stock consists of former Second Class 56ft steel long distance carriages, most of them dating back to the late 1930s and early 1940s, later used on electric ED class or EW class locomotive-hauled suburban services prior to the introduction of the Ganz-Mavag EMU fleet.
These cars carry fifty-six (passenger saloon only) or forty-seven (passenger saloon with luggage compartment at one end) persons in two-person bench-type "Scarrett" seats.
Introduction of carriage services
Prior to 1976, the Wellington - Wairarapa services were operated by 88 seater railcars.
In 1964, six 56ft former Second Class cars were fitted with Webasto kerosene-fired heaters and were assembled into a trainset to operate a new diesel-electric locomotive hauled long-distance commuter service between Masterton and Wellington. DA-class locomotives were assigned to its haulage.
In 1976, three of those six cars and a fourth, this one fitted out with luggage compartment at one end were comprehensively overhauled and refitted with fluoroescent strip lighting and Supervent windows similar to the Endeavour and Northerner Expresses operating at that time and repainted a bright red to Masterton. Later that year the fifth 56ft second class car and the sixth, this one fitted with luggage area also, were similarly overhauled.
Re-Equipping and Refurbishment
In the years that followed, after the Picton and Greymouth trains were re-equipped with refurbished 56ft ex-Second Class cars and the former Endeavour Express cars were assembled into two trainsets for the Gisborne Expresses, one from Gisborne and one from Wellington simultaneously, the Masterton services were re-equipped with up to six former Drewry Car Company-built 88-seater railcars that were converted into locomotive hauled articulated carriages. These offered a superior level of comfort to the 56ft cars, similar to that found on the long distance trains, with reclining seats that proved so popular that seats from decommissioned Drewry railcars were installed into the Silver Fern railcars.
However, having not been designed to be towed long-term, the articulated cars' underframes deteriorated rapidly, and that, combined with the arrival of 44 new electric multiple units for Wellington suburban services meaning electric locomotive hauled suburban trains were becoming redundant, saw fourteen more former second class 56ft cars, two fitted with luggage spaces at one end added, all similarly overhauled and refitted like the first six 56ft cars. A 50ft wooden box box wagon for parcels was assigned to the Masterton runs aswell, painted a distinctive matching red and bearing the logo "Waitrak", similar to the logo Fastrak.
One car was removed in 1985 and fitted out for use on the promotional Police Train, painted the distinctive New Zealand Police blue for the occasion, then later became a display car, and finally the first of nine air-conditioned "big window" panorama cars used on the North Island Main Trunk Northerner Overlander passenger trains from 1993.
A second car was rebuilt and fitted out similiar to the new Southerner trains, with fifty seats of the type designed and built at Addington Workshops in the early 1980s, arranged alcove-style around tables, for the then new Capital Connection service in 1991.
A third car was also rebuilt, but as a rear-view observation car, for the North Island main trunk services and as part of the same three car and one van consist as the former Police Train car.
A fourth car was rebuilt as a thirty-two seat, alcove-style, servery car similar to the two on the Southerner of 1988, but with seating of a newer design to help facilitate the introduction of a third NIMT passenger consist in 1992.
From early 1993 til mid 1997 12 of the remaining 16 cars were thoroughly overhauled and refitted with new seats the same as those installed in the Wairarapa car turned NIMT servery car while four of the 12 retained their original seating, albeit reupholstered with material cloth like the rest of the refurbished fleet. Those cars with passenger saloons only had one of two toilets in each car removed to seat 59 instead of 56. The cars with luggage spaces now sat 46 instead of 47.
One car, once refitted, served the Bay Express from time to time after being outshopped in March, 1994.
In 1995, two of the four cars with luggage spaces had generators, similar to the ones installed in power-luggage vans in use in long-distance trains, installed in the luggage areas, making them essentially power-luggage vans aswell.
In 2002, one of four unrefurbished Wairarapa cars, which had, up until November 1999 been assigned to the Capital Connection along with one other car, was overhauled in the same style as the two other Wairarapa cars that retained their original seating.
In 2003, the other unrefurbished Wairarapa car serving the Capital Connection, was extensively overhauled and refurbished, but for the Northerner and Overlander services as an air-conditioned "no frills" carriage, and is easily recognisable by its bright yellow borderline stripe at the bottom of the carbody waist. This car can accommodate fifty eight passengers in a new design of seat that first appeared in the refurbishment of a Silver Fern railcar in 2000.
The other two un-refitted Wairarapa cars were written off, with one stripped right down to the underframe while retaining compartment-dividing walls for profile measurement purposes.
Withdrawal of old stock
From 1999 onwards, a slow withdrawal of carriages has taken place due to the age and deterioration of these vehicles, while simultaneously cars from other services have been brought in to keep sufficient stock available for passenger requirements.
Among these has been two former Bay Express cars, the former Governor-General's car turned Southerner full buffet car, a former Southerner car turned Northerner "no frills" car, two Auckland excursion cars turned Northerner "no frills" cars now permanently allocated to the Wairarapa line, a former Southerner car turned Northerner later Coastal Pacific backpacker car, three Northerner and Overlander cars and a former Lynx Express car.
New rolling stock
In 2006 Toll Rail's Hillside Engineering won the contract with Greater Wellington Regional Council to rebuild several sets of former British Rail Mark 2 carriages that were purchased some years ago by Toll's predecessor, Tranz Rail, to provide replacement rolling stock. These trains will be introduced in the following two years and provide a major upgrade to the comfort, safety and reliability of the Wairarapa service.
On 22 September 2006 the Regional Council announced [1] that it would begin the tender process for 29 new electric multiple units (reported as 58 "electric carriages"), to replace the DM/D class English Electric EMUs by the year 2010.
Future
The Greater Wellington Regional Council has undertaken a transportation study of the needs for the corridor from Wellington to its northern suburbs (including Johnsonville) and beyond. The initial submissions report [2] supports further investment in commuter rail transport, specifically in new rolling stock to replace the aging English Electric units. This investment is to be made within 'the first ten years' of the plan set out in the report.
The Western Corridor Transportation Study recommended extensive upgrades of the passenger rail service between Wellington and the Kapiti Coast, including a possible extension of electrification to a new station at Lindale or Waikanae, extending the double tracking from Mackays Crossing to Raumati, a new station at Raumati and additional rolling stock so that service frequencies could be increased to 15 minutes at peak times. The Regional Council is currently planning with Tranz Metro how to deliver this given the available funding from Land Transport New Zealand, its own rates and expected fare revenue.
See also
- Public transport in Wellington
- List of Wellington railway stations
- Rail transport in New Zealand
- Toll Rail
- Veolia
External links
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