Unfortunately a few tears ago I had the dubious pleasure of sitting in the front of a train that derailed. We were coming out of a tunnel when we hit a landslide on the track, the rail was covered in mud and the train fortunately left the track towards the bank rather than the cliff. It happened all very quickly and although I think I left out an expletive. there was no chance to panic as it was all over before you knew what was happening. Fortunately no one was hurt and although the lights went out n the train, I was lucky enough to have a torch and radio on me and was soon listening to the news to hear we had made the national radio bulletin. Two and a half hours later they got us off the train, and it is fair to say because it was in effect an act of nature, Trans Metro didn't get any negative customer feedback.
This week however, they have had a derailment in the main yard at Wellington Central station, and it appears to be related to poor maintenance. You do get on the train each day (or any other transport for tat matter) and assume the trains are getting maintained and are safe. But after this incident it was reported that some of the maintenance was five years overdue and it was extremely lucky that no one was seriously injured as no one happened to be standing where the main damage. Customers are understandably less happy about this event especially on the back of almost constant delays. I wonder if they announced on the train that they apologised for the inconveniece of leaving the track.
