Now I take a Trans Metro train most days and given the amount of times they have to apologise for being late, you'd think they'd get good at it. So I'm signed up to the service delay text, which might be useful if the information about how late the trains was running was anywhere near accurate, but experiences says it has next to no reliability. I've even been on a train that was running on time only to be told the train I'm on will be late, go figure.
But the best bit about the texts is attempts to explain why the train is late. Now I don't mind the ones that say train is late because of an earlier break down or similar, you might wonder why brand new trains break down so often but at least you know what is happening. Similarly the "delayed by slippery tracks" may get you wondering why a modern train gets delayed by a bit of rain, although this morning a train was cancelled due to a slippery track and it is a beautiful sunny morning. Ok so I now know dew cancels trains, I guess no one ever thought trains would have to operate in wet weather in Wellington.
But the most used excuse is delayed for operational reasons. Now this happens practically every day so I'm guessing operational reasons are we're just running late for no reason at all. And later today I'm expecting given it is a nice day, that we'll get a delay due to "heat restrictions". This is a popular one once the temperature gets above 20 degrees, which in fairness is our local equivalent of a heat wave. So too hot, too cold, too wet, and just waiting for too dry.
Oh and Trans Metro, can you please stop thanking for my patience, I ran out of that years ago.
