Wellington commuters are facing more bad news next week as "urgent" safety inspections suspend train services on multiple lines outside of rush hour.
The latest disruptions come after commuters were left stranded on immobilised carriages and at train stations last week, while services were suspended for hours due to a power failure.
Maintenance officials at KiwiRail are now worried about a repeat of the incident, with urgent inspections of power cables set to follow — starting next week.
As a result, the Hutt Valley, Melling and Wairarapa rail lines will only run during the morning and afternoon peak from Tuesday to Friday next week, according to Metlink.
Between 9.30am and 2.30pm, on those days, train services will be replaced by buses on the three lines. Wairarapa line services will also be replaced by buses between Wellington and Upper Hutt during these periods.
The Johnsonville and Kāpiti lines are not affected and will run as normal.
In a media release, a spokesperson for Metlink said the agency was informed of the "essential" inspections on Tuesday.
"Metlink was informed by KiwiRail on January 16 that the inspections of overhead power cables are essential during daylight hours for safety reasons, and to avoid a repeat of the incident last Wednesday," they said.
"While KiwiRail is also conducting inspections during pre-planned intervals over the anniversary weekend, next week’s urgent inspections are required to complete the work and minimise further disruption.
"Metlink acknowledges its rail passengers will be inconvenienced while the inspections take place and is grateful for their understanding of the need for the work to be done.
The breakdown of a critical piece of equipment cut Wellington train services in half. (Source: 1News)
"Passengers are advised to allow extra time for their journeys and reminded to check the Metlink website or app before travelling."
Power was temporarily lost during last week's incident when all train services in and out of Wellington's central railway station were suspended and three trains, containing 129 passengers and six crew members, were stopped between stations.
Expanding powerlines — due to "consecutive days of hot weather" — led to the outage, according to KiwiRail.
The agency's metro general manager Jon Knight said earlier: “Consecutive days of warm weather had caused the overhead power lines that run our passenger trains to expand.
"The faults were related to insulator and weight tension mechanisms, the operating limits had been exceeded which resulted in connection shorting and outages.
"KiwiRail have rectified all faults and retain our standard ‘stand-by’ response crews as a contingency. KiwiRail are conducting a full and detailed technical investigation into the case of the faults, which will take time."
Earlier this summer, KiwiRail imposed temporary speed restrictions on the train line between Wellington and Kāpiti as a result of track temperatures.
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