{"id":31083,"date":"2025-09-19T07:21:07","date_gmt":"2025-09-19T07:21:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/31083\/"},"modified":"2025-09-19T07:21:07","modified_gmt":"2025-09-19T07:21:07","slug":"passengers-stranded-for-hours-on-wellington-train-handed-toilet-bags","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/31083\/","title":{"rendered":"Passengers stranded for hours on Wellington train handed toilet bags"},"content":{"rendered":"

The most affected service was finally hauled into Wellington Station at about 11.20am with 152 passengers on board.<\/p>\n

\u2018A very awkward situation\u2019<\/p>\n

Claims were soon made on social media that people were going to the toilet in plastic bags.<\/p>\n

Metlink senior manager Paul Tawharu confirmed with RNZ Checkpoint that the incident left staff facing an awkward challenge.<\/p>\n

\u201cOur metro trains<\/a> don\u2019t have toilets, so we had to hand out emergency supplies,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

The \u201csupplies\u201d were chemical bags designed to absorb liquid and neutralise odour, with adapters for men and women.<\/p>\n

Passengers were directed to use the driver\u2019s cab for privacy. Tawharu said it was \u201ca very awkward situation\u201d but praised staff for looking after passengers and keeping them informed.<\/p>\n

One commuter posted on social media that people had resorted to peeing in plastic bags.<\/p>\n

\"WorkersWorkers try to get a train going again after a wire snapped above it on a trip into Wellington.<\/p>\n

Others said the crew had been \u201camazing\u201d and remained upbeat as the train was towed back to the station.<\/p>\n

Despite the ordeal, passengers were not offered refunds. Tawharu said fares were still charged, though default maximum Snapper charges were waived.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe probably have [charged them], yes,\u201d he said when asked if commuters had still paid for their disrupted trip.<\/p>\n

By the time the train limped back into Wellington, spirits were reportedly light-hearted, with many passengers more concerned about their Snapper balance than the lack of loos.<\/p>\n

Incident to be investigated<\/p>\n

KiwiRail Wellington Metro<\/a> general manager Andy Lyon said Wellington\u2019s overhead infrastructure was not that old and it did not yet know what caused the wire to come down.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis incident will be fully investigated.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"SomeSome services along the K\u0101piti Line were delayed Friday evening because of the incident. Photo \/ Krystal Gibbens, RNZ<\/p>\n

Although all services are up and running, RNZ understands the disruption has caused some delays of up to 20 minutes on Friday evening along the K\u0101piti Line.<\/p>\n

Repeated issues on Wellington train lines<\/p>\n

A \u201cpower supply failure\u201d affected signals, cancelling trains during the peak morning commute in March this year.<\/p>\n

Signal faults also cancelled trains in May and September, and a points fault affected signal lights in June.<\/p>\n

In January 2024, several commuters were left stranded between stations because of a power outage caused by warm weather.<\/p>\n

\u2013 RNZ<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The most affected service was finally hauled into Wellington Station at about 11.20am with 152 passengers on board.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":31084,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[21933,2082,29891,29888,11551,29890,111,43,139,69,90,29459,12507,29889,11685,52],"class_list":["post-31083","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-zealand","tag-bags","tag-for","tag-gibbens","tag-handed","tag-hours","tag-krystal","tag-new-zealand","tag-news","tag-newzealand","tag-nz","tag-on","tag-passengers","tag-stranded","tag-toilet","tag-train","tag-wellington"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31083","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=31083"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31083\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/31084"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=31083"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=31083"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=31083"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}