The rain was welcomed by many in Wellington today, it helps the garden when there is a ban on using water outside, and it might save the New Zealand cricket team playing a test match at the Basin Reserve. But after their cancellation over dew last week, I was expecting trains to be delayed for moisture on the line this morning.
So when the text came through announcing the usual ten minute delay, I was almost pleasantly surprised that it was due to a signal failure. We've had these before, but a quick check of recent explanations of recent delays, it was one that hadn't been trotted out this year. Another old favourite points failure which used to be leading cause of delay, hasn't been seen in months. So Trans Metro has been getting some bad publicity in the local media, but a ten minute delay isn't any worse than a normal day, it just doesn't show any sign of improvement.
Then a few minutes later the train I catch was cancelled with no explanation. Now we've gone from mild annoyance to full on annoyance. Trans Metro aren't showing any signs of learning, they promised all would be well when we got new trains and the maintenance on the lines was done, but instead we seem to have more unreliable trains.Hopefully they have a plan to fix the trains, the lines and the signals. But they could fix the communications today, and I'm available to give them advice at a very reasonable rate - that is for free.
