about the trains

My buddy Nick is moving up the ranks at Metlink, and I hope he doesn't mind me publishing this explanation about the bus replacements: "Re: bus replacements - the prevailing problem (at least with weekday services) is mostly to do with staffing levels, they've been low for a while now and retention (especially amongst the covid debacle) hasn't been optimal. The company is currently in a very extended recruitment drive to try and boost numbers, and have lots of training schools planned for the next few months, so all things going well, maybe a couple more months of uncertainty before things return to a semblance of normality. As to weekends - this is usually the time that the infrastructure team at KiwiRail choose to get major repair/maintenance/upkeep works done in order to keep everything running, which most often means that the lines are either impassable, or the power has to be turned off in order to facilitate the work being done. Weekend and public holiday work is likely to continue relatively indefinitely, as we have over 700km of track on the wellington suburban network to be consistently maintained and repaired. Hopefully that helps you out understanding the problem even if it doesn't really offer any solid assurances." 👍