The contractors currently involved with Wellington’s train network upgrade will temporarily be no longer be working on one aspect of the project after faulty installation of a mast caused trains to grind to a halt.
KiwiRail says they take responsibility for the widespread disruption caused to Wellington train commuters today because of a fault to the overhead power lines in the Hutt Valley this morning.
The outage was caused by a mast being installed incorrectly by contractors, which caused it to make contact with trains passing beneath it.
KiwiRail Group chief operating officer Todd Moyle said what happened today is “unacceptable and we accept responsibility. The contractors involved will not be doing any more of that work until we have throughly investigated the cause of the incident, and ensured processes are in place to ensure it does not happen again.”
A $300 million improvment is currently underway to improve the network to improve the reliability and capacity of the network which includes replacing the overhead power system, masts and wires that power the trains.
Today’s train outage is the second for the city this month.
Last month there were two outages.