Commuters arriving on the Kapiti line. Photo: RNZ / Krystal Gibbens
A piece of equipment that failed and caused rail commuter chaos in Wellington on Thursday was only three months old, KiwiRail says.
The service suspension, which occurred during peak hour, saw thousands of passengers waiting at stations around the region for bus replacements - many of which were reported to take over an hour to arrive.
"We know exactly what went wrong" we're not sure why, KiwiRail chief capital planning and asset development officer, David Gordon, told Morning Report.
"The signalling in Wellington Station is actually not powered directly from the power lines itself, it's actually powered by battery and we feed the battery through a machine that modulates the power and ensures a smooth supply the whole time," Gordon said.
"Now that piece of equipment, which is a very expensive piece of equipment, it's in railways right throughout the world and certainly in railways in out network, inexplicably failed - it was only three months old."
KiwiRail has checked and is testing this equipment in all other areas of the country, he said, and has involved the manufacturer in its investigation.
KiwiRail knew something was wrong about 6.07am and immediately notified Metlink, Gordon said. At this time the reason for the failure was unknown.
"The plan is as soon as you know, you tell," he said.
"We disrupted a whole lot of people's day and for that we apologise."
