Commuters at Wellington Railway Station on Wednesday evening. Photo: RNZ / Ruth Hill
Trains on the Hutt Valley line are running again after thousands of Wellington train commuters were disrupted due to the service being halted when a person died after being struck by a train.
Metlink said a coroner was due to visit the scene near Ava Station.
Earlier, police warned Wellington train commuters to expect significant delays on the Hutt Valley line as emergency services responded to the incident which police said was reported at about 3.45pm.
Trains between Wellington and Taitā had stopped and passengers were being transferred to buses where possible. Metlink said that the first service to depart Wellington was at 6.05pm but significant delays could still be expected.
Earlier, there were long queues at the main city station.
An earlier update on the Metlink website said bus replacements were very limited and people could expect delays and should seek other transport where possible.
Police said it could be some hours before services were back to normal.
Commuters queue at Wellington Railway Station after an "incident" caused disruptions to the Hutt Valley line. Photo: RNZ / Ashleigh McCaull
Commuters' reactions
Commuters RNZ spoke to earlier this evening had been waiting in line for around 10 minutes and had barely moved down a long line of passengers waiting to get home.
Commuters left stranded at Wellington train station, from left Chevy Christiansen, Seta Leaupepe and Jeff Sunderland. Photo: RNZ / Ashleigh McCaull
Chinwe Akomah estimated it would take as long as two hours to get home.
"I have to wait it out, I don't really have an option. Ubers back to my home would be about $70 to $100 and I don't have any colleagues I can carpool with because they also take public transport and they don't live where I live," Akomah said.
Jeff Sunderland was in the same boat as Akomah with both estimated times to get home and alternative arrangements.
"Aside from buses and trains, we could drive our cars into town but unless we've done that there's no other way home so it is what it is.
"We can afford to Uber but that eats into everything else, everything's getting more expensive every year, so can't really afford to put aside the money just in case we have to catch something that's not the train," Sunderland said.
Upper Hutt resident Seta Leaupepe was not sure how long it would take him to get home but said if he was still waiting quite awhile by the time he got to the platform then he would get some food and return later.
His other option was for his wife to pick him up.
"She's in Upper Hutt so not ideal but what can you do," Leaupepe said.
Chevy Christiansen thought she would not get home till around 7:30pm.
"Unless I get an Uber I suppose but it's going to be too expensive, like $80 if it's a surge charge.
"This is the first time I've been in something like this before so it's not a all the time occurrence but yeah disruptive, I'm going to get home late," Christiansen said.
RNZ reporter Ruth Hill said when she arrived at the Wellington station about 5.15pm there were hundreds of people crushed into the main foyer, but they were organised into long queues.
The constant refrain over the Wellington railway station loudspeakers was that due to a police incident there were no trains running on the Hutt line, she said.
"Apparently there are bus replacements but I've been here half an hour and have yet to see an actual bus."
People are being told to seek alternative transport and when she arrived at the station Hill said she saw many people leaving the station in search of taxis or Ubers.
