A ‘ghost' train and a failed safety system: How the Wellington train crash happened

In today’s excerpt from The Bulletin: New details from the Transport Accident Investigation Commission’s interim report into June’s Khandallah train crash.

Controllers at Hutt Valley train control had no idea a train with six injured people aboard was crumpled against a concrete block until the phone rang, The Post’s Tom Hunt reports. Passengers and nearby residents alerted emergency services, who then notified train control – the first the controllers knew of the collision.

The incident began on an earlier trip north. As the two-car Matangi train left Wellington for Johnsonville at 6.32pm, the system registered a “dropped track” near Khandallah, treating the section as occupied by more than one train. No other train was in the vicinity. This generated an error message on the train controller’s screen – a visual warning only, with no audible alarm. It remained visible for 25 seconds and disappeared when the train entered Khandallah station.

But the system continued to register the track south of the station as occupied. As the train departed south just before 7pm, the signal ahead remained red and the track had been set to divert it onto a runaway line. The train passed the red signal and emergency brakes activated. Two seconds later, it passed a fixed stop designed to automatically apply the brakes – but the trip lever failed to engage, 1News reports. Another two seconds later it lost power, and immediately struck a concrete stop block at 33km/h. Both crew members were hospitalised and four of the eight passengers suffered minor injuries.

What happened to the safety system?

The crash has renewed scrutiny on Wellington’s ageing signalling system. Regional council chairperson Daran Ponter has described the system as the “nerve system of a railway” and said it was not a question of whether an upgrade should be paid for by the Government but how much it should spend, RNZ reports. The cost of getting Wellington up to Auckland and European standards was estimated between $500 million and $750m, according to The Post.

Transdev managing director Tonia Haskell accepted the facts in the interim report. “Since the incident, we have implemented additional controls and assurances to further strengthen operational safety. The safety of our people and passengers remains our highest priority,” Haskell said, according to The Post.

Political reaction

The crash has, of course, become an election issue. Wellington Central MP Tamatha Paul called out a lack of government investment in the signalling system during a recent Wellington North debate. Regional council chairperson Daran Ponter has described the system as the “nerve system of a railway,” saying it was not a question of whether an upgrade should be paid for by the Government but how much it should spend, The Post reports.

KiwiRail chief metro officer Bevan Assink said detailed comment had to wait until full investigations. Signal faults happened and when they did they defaulted to safety – automatically stopping train movements, he said. Haskell accepted the facts in the interim report. “Since the incident, we have implemented additional controls and assurances to further strengthen operational safety,” she said. “The safety of our people and passenger remains our highest priority.”