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Source: ONE News -
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About 300 Wellington rail commuters have been taken home by bus after their train derailed on Thursday evening and services have been suspended.
The Wairarapa-bound train was derailed by a slip as it came out of a tunnel at Maymorn, 40km north of Wellington, about 6.17pm.
The locomotive and first carriage came off the tracks, but no one was injured.
Passengers were transferred to the rear three carriages and taken back to Upper Hutt where buses met them to complete the rest of their trip.
Tranz Metro spokesman Nigel Parry said rail services between Wairarapa and Wellington would not be running on Friday morning and commuters would need to make their own arrangements.
A decision would be made at midday on Friday on when to resume the passenger rail services.
The process of coupling the locomotive to the carriages took time because carriages on the train remained in the Maymorn tunnel.
The site was "relatively inaccessible" and it had been a struggle to get staff to it, KiwiRail spokesman Kevin Ramshaw said.
Poor weather disrupting road traffic was making the task even more difficult, he told Radio New Zealand.
There was no easy road in, and KiwiRail was concentrating on reaching the stranded passengers by rail, he said.
Tranz Metro took up the offer of using the Upper Hutt Cosmopolitan Club to give passengers a cup of tea and a place to wait until buses could take them into the Wairarapa.
"We're very grateful to have been able to use the Cosmopolitan Club," said KiwiRail Passenger General Manager Ross Hayward.
"It's been a wild night in the Wellington region and a cup of tea or coffee was the least we could do for our passengers who'd had a long and trying wait."
"Our Network colleagues have told us that they will not be able to re-open the line tonight. Given the uncertain nature of the weather and the difficulty we would have finding buses to ferry as many as a thousand passengers to Wellington, we made the decision to suspend services and review the situation tomorrow at noon.
"We apologise to our customers, both for a difficult night and in advance for the service disruption that has been forced on us," said Hayward.
Wild weather caused havoc around Wellington on Thursday with one slip closing State Highway 1 in the middle of peak hour traffic.
Do you have images of the train? Email us at news@tvnz.co.nz
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