At the start of July, Transdev Wellington, along with their maintenance partner Hyundai-Rotem, celebrated five years of operating the Wellington passenger rail service.
Over these five years, trains have travelled 37 million kilometers and delivered 63 million passenger journeys on the Johnsonville, Melling, Kāpiti and Hutt Valley train lines, getting passengers to where they need to be.
It is a great example of how two organizations which have different core businesses can work together for one goal. It benefits everyone, most importantly our passengers.
Luke Basilicata, Fleet Engineering Manager at Transdev Wellington
Together, Transdev Wellington and Hyundai-Rotem are implementing new technologies to improve the reliability and availability of the fleet, including:
- a first-of-its-kind in New Zealand Pantograph Collision Detection System (PCDS) which assesses overhead wire conditions and reports if they require maintenance in real-time,
- new Variable Voltage Variable Frequency (VVVF) Gate Drives to deal with component obsolescence, and
- the design and installation of new passenger door tracks to improve system reliability and improve the original design.
Most recently, the partners reached a milestone in relation to fleet availability. Over the past 12 months, Hyundai-Rotem have supplied 100% of trains to meet Transdev’s operational requirements of 37,444 peak services, providing outstanding customer service. This is even with three simultaneous heavy maintenance projects running on the fleet.
Transdev and Hyundai-Rotem are continuing to work together to deliver rail operations and maintenance to providing Greater Wellington rail passengers with punctual and reliable train services.