Railway delays to last all summer

By ALAN PERROTT

Thousands of train travellers face main trunk line delays and disruption until March because of overheated rail lines.

The possibility of tracks buckling in the summer heat stopped trains running between Hamilton and Palmerston North four days running after Boxing Day, forcing Tranz Scenic to transport hundreds of passengers by bus.

Company director Don Gibson said the track problems could cost Tranz Scenic about 6000 customers as delays stretch the seven-hour journey to 10 hours.

"It's not a suitable situation for us and it doesn't show a good standard of train operations, does it? Particularly for a tourist destination."

Mr Gibson said about 650,000 passengers a year travelled on the main trunk line.

They were being caught in the middle of a dispute between the Land Transport Safety Authority (LTSA) and Tranz Rail over the safety of the rail network.

He wants the restrictions imposed on tracks which heat to more than 40C to be eased before they damage business further.

Forty-one heat alarms spread throughout the national rail network signal when sections of track reach 40C.

All trains on or approaching affected sections of the main line must stop until the track can be checked.

If no buckling is found, the trains must slow from their normal speed of 100km/h to 40km/h as they pass through the danger area.

Mr Gibson wants the allowable speed increased to 65km/h and imposed on shorter distances to reduce delays.

The LTSA widened the speed restrictions last March when heat problems were found outside areas previously identified as at risk.

This is the first summer in which the tighter regulations have been in force.

They are likely to stay in effect until March.

An LTSA spokesman, Andy Knackstedt, said the authority had been notified of 18 instances of buckled lines since last October, mostly on the North Island main trunk line.

"This is a public safety issue," he said.

"We don't want a passenger train to hit those buckles at full speed."



Tranz Rail has blamed much of the problem on maintenance work done on the line before its privatisation in 1993.

About 1350km of track was welded before 1993. Tranz Rail claims the work was below standard and has to be redone.

Tranz Rail managing director Michael Beard said $1.4 million had been spent on destressing and improving the line since last April.

He said 700km of track had been repaired at a rate of about 100km a year.

But heat buckling was a "fact of life" for welded track.

Last December, Transport Minister Paul Swain warned Tranz Rail that he might give the LTSA the power to issue fines and order repair work to be carried out.

His comments followed an October report from Australian consultants Halliburton KBR which said maintenance of New Zealand's welded tracks was poor and potentially unsafe.

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