“This is great news for our customers who we know have felt the impact of service disruptions over the last couple of weeks, and we are very pleased to be able to bring them some good news,” says Tranz Metro Manager Scott Brooks.

Peter Glensor, Chair of Greater Wellington’s Economic Wellbeing Committee, which oversees public transport, also welcomed the increase in the number of Matangi services. “The Matangi trains are a cornerstone of the whole rail improvement programme - they make a real difference to service reliability and passenger satisfaction. The more we can have running, definitely the better.”

In addition to a number of off-peak services, the Hutt line will have the new Matangi trains operating on seven return services during the morning peak and five return services during the evening peak. The Kapiti line will have seven evening peak services and five morning peak services delivered by Matangi.

A total of 20 two-car Matangi units have now been commissioned and Tranz Metro has 39 qualified Matangi drivers.

“The Matangi training and Matangi commissioning programme has been aligned so that the amount of Locomotive Engineers (LEs) qualified to drive the trains matches the number of Matangi we have in service. As soon as LEs have completed the training, they are put straight onto an operational Matangi train to avoid skill fade and the need for retraining.

“In addition to this significant increase in Matangi services, we’ve had one more driver come out of training last week and a further four are expected out of training by the end of December.

“I’m confident that with the introduction of more Matangi services and more train drivers by the New Year, customers will be able to see more consistency in service delivery,” Mr Brooks says.

City.Mobi

Also in New Zealand today, City.Mobi is celebrating the success of its new guide to Auckland.

City.Mobi offers the most comprehensive mobile travel guides available, with over 800 cities in 200 countries listed. Each is developed by the City.Mobi team to combine into a single global travel directory.

However, each city retains its own mobile identity via a dedicated domain. Already on offer are Brussels.Mobi, Paris.Mobi, Sanfrancisco.Mobi and Sydney.Mobi.

Auckland.mobi is the latest in this illustrious line up, offering click to call functionality – which means no scribbling down telephone numbers.

Most entries are also linked to websites where users can quickly access more detailed information if needed.

Other key features include information on accommodation, restaurants, attractions, entertainment, nightlife, shopping, and transport.

City.Mobi guides include user reviews and traveller utilities such as a translation guide, currency converter, news and local weather guide.