New figures out from Wellington’s regional council show a fall in commuter train punctuality and reliability, but the biggest decline is the almost 2 million trips that were never taken.
It is a trend that politicians on both sides of the political divide say needs to reverse, but with varying willingness to invest in the issue long-term.
Papers to the Wellington Regional Transport Committee this week show that, after a horror period in recent years, Wellington bus patronage continues to improve but train figures are going the other way.
The Greater Wellington Regional Council has confirmed a decline in train trips taken on the Wellington commuter network from 7.27 million in 2018-19 – the last full year before the Covid pandemic – to 5.34 million in the last financial year. Punctuality had dropped by 6% while reliability was down 0.6%. Patronage dropped by 7.9% in the past year alone.
