For decades, the Wellington commuter Train has been a way of life for countless workers, allowing them to have their cake and eat it, too.
“What’s that?” asks a passenger, pointing to something outside the window. “That’s sunshine, mate,” says the guard, “Wairarapa sunshine.” We’re gliding out of Woodside Station on the 6.50am train from Masterton.
The train trip, taking passengers from green paddocks and mountain views to Wellington via the Rimutaka tunnel is a gem of a journey. But for a growing number of people who live in the Wairarapa and work in Wellington, this is just their daily commute to work. It’s a three-hour return trip, requiring early morning starts and a willingness to fit your life into a train schedule. Sound grim? Far from it, according to regular Wairarapa line commuters.
“I think of it like this: I have my home life, my work life and my train life,” says Lee Carter of Featherston. Manager of Executive Support at the National Library in Wellington, Lee’s been a regular commuter for 11 years. She sees the train as a chance to catch up with ‘train friends’, people whom she usually only sees on the journey to and from Wellington. “It’s a very social group of people,” she says. “I know there are some people who are torn between Wellington and the Wairarapa because they hate the travel but I took it as a package deal. I can’t imagine my life without the train.”
She knows of lifelong friendships, even marriages beginning on the train. Her group of train friends get together at least once a year for dinner, celebrate each other’s birthdays and offer support in times of need. Apparently the train carriage isn’t a bad place to vent after a rough day at the office.
“It’s also a great place to share information,” she says. According to Lee, you can get the inside track on everything from schools to dentists. “We had someone who had just moved to the Wairarapa ask where they could find a farrier, and someone in the carriage was able to help out.”
Some of trains are chattier than others, according to Lee. As you’d expect, the first train, pulling out of Masterton at 5.45am is fairly hushed. “Most people really just want to sleep,” she says. The next train at 6.25am is so-so, and the later one at 6.50am is the liveliest. And you can forget any stereotype about which gender is the most talkative. “I’d put it at about fifty-fifty between men and women,” says Lee.
Canadoro Vineyard owner Greg Robins agrees the social side of train travel is a big plus. Until recently he was a regular commuter, travelling for years with a group of people who all worked in and around the computer industry. “People tend to travel in the same carriage so they know where everyone is. It was very good for networking,” he says. His group of fellow passengers would get together with their partners for dinners at least once every couple of months. Now Greg is based in Martinborough but when he has business in Wellington he times his return journey so he can see his former travelling companions. “I miss the people, not the journey,” he says.
Train travel has its own delicate etiquette. For some it’s not just a case of sitting in the same carriage, but sitting in the same place. “Not so much in the morning, but on the evening train,” says Greg, “People have been known to say, ‘you’re sitting in my seat’.”
And not everybody wants to talk on the train. Since the swish new carriages were put into service in 2007 passengers have been able to plug their laptops into power points, put their heads down and use their travelling time as work time. At least one passenger is learning French, and another couple share headphones so they can watch DVDs on a laptop. Some people read or sleep and on the early morning train there are two tables of committed card players immersed in an on-going game of Five Hundred.
No matter how pleasant or productive the journey is, the three-hour commute makes for a long working day. In winter commuters leave home and come back in the dark. You’d have to be dedicated to both the Wellington job and the Wairarapa lifestyle to feel that it was worthwhile, but there is a growing number who are. “A lot of my clients come from over the hill, and with couples, at least one of them will keep on working in Wellington after they’ve moved,” says Featherston estate agent Jayne Coombes. “Featherston’s only an hour away from the city and they get more for their money over here. There are wide open spaces, a village atmosphere, the Wairarapa coast and all the wine events… and did you know that we have better weather?”
A case in point, Matt Grant and his family sold an apartment in Wellington to buy a house in Masterton. “I think it’s an age-related thing,” he says. “When we first had children we had a flat in Wellington. It had no outdoor space and I think my daughter was just about getting cabin fever. We have a house and a garden over here, and it’s so easy to get around. All the facilities like the park and the pool are so close. You can even get a car-park right outside the library most days.”
Higher salaries, career opportunities, not to mention friends, shops and the nightlife on the other side of the hill all make commuters reluctant to let go of the lifeline to the capital. The big priority is to get a job close to Wellington Railway Station, because the very last thing you want to do after an hour and a half train trip is catch a bus. Still, quite a few commuters are able to do as Matt does and work from home for one or more days of the week.
For Aaron Mcleigh at least, the journey was a prompt for a sideline business. A regular commuter from Martinborough to Wellington he saw the need for an early morning caffeine fix and set up a coffee cart at Featherston Station, selling coffee made from his own dm martinborough roasted beans. People queue or even text their orders to him and after an intense burst of long black, latte and cappuccino-making from 6.00am to 7.30am, he leaps on board the train to his other job as a recruitment consultant in Wellington.
“The train trip is a good delineation between the two roles. I can switch off or read a book. If I drive over the hill I need to wind down afterwards,” he says.
There are signs that train travel will become ever more popular. Guard George Taylor, who clocks in the number of passengers at every stop, reports that the busiest trains regularly carry up to 300 people. “We noticed a big increase when petrol prices went up. And we pick up more people especially around Featherston and Greytown where they’ve bought lifestyle blocks. Featherston is our biggest stop because there are also people from Martinborough. We even have someone who comes in from Lake Ferry.”
The guards are all referred to by first names and keep up a friendly banter with the passengers. “They’re a good crew,” says George, who’s worked for Kiwirail in all its incarnations for the last 40 years. “It’s like a big family.”
Generally people seem to be happy with the service, which is not to say there isn’t a wish list of suggestions as to what would make it better – more trains, more carriages, a buffet car and a bigger luggage car among them. I identify most strongly with the request for a later last train from Wellington. Currently, pumpkin time is 6.18pm from Monday to Thursday and 10.25pm on Friday night. What happens if you miss it? There are stories of eye-wateringly expensive taxis to Greytown or wangling a ride on a late-night freight train but apparently most people have a Plan B. This might mean crashing at a friend’s place or booking a cheap hotel room for the night. “I might have missed the last train a few times,” admits one passenger, “My wife would drive over the hill to meet me in Upper Hutt, it’s really only 35 minutes away from Martinborough.”
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