Sarah Lewer was on the Wellington to Wairarapa train when she found she needed an extra $1. A member of the public gave her the extra dollar but the train conductor wouldn't accept it and asked her to get off at Petone.

Who knew a dollar - or lack of - could get you booted off a train? Just ask Sarah Lewer.

Wednesday was nerve-racking enough for her with starting a new job and leaving her baby for the first time - and it ended in tears after she was ordered to leave a train for not having the right fare.

The 25-year-old caught the Metlink-operated 5.30pm service from Wellington to head home to Upper Hutt after a successful first day at work. "I hopped on the train and saw there were chairs and tables, and I thought 'this is a fancy train', but I didn't know any different."

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Unbeknown to her, she was using a peak service to Wairarapa, where Hutt Valley travellers have to pay a little extra to make sure the train has enough capacity for Wairarapa commuters.

Lewer, who hasn't travelled on a train since she was a child, handed the conductor her pass on request, but was told her she needed an extra dollar.



"I told him that I didn't have any cash and he said: 'You need to get off at Petone.'

ROSA WOODS/STUFF A second trip on a Wellington train service couldn't have been more embarrassing for Sarah Lewer.

"But this lovely man sitting next to me gave me a dollar and I attempted to give it to the [conductor], who wouldn't even turn around to look at me.



"Then he said, 'I don't want his money, I want yours - get off at Petone'."

Humiliated and embarrassed, Lewer walked out of the packed carriage and onto the Petone platform in tears, waiting half-an-hour for her partner to pick her up.

"The thing that gets me is if you go to a supermarket and pay for the person in front of you, you get praised. This guy tried to help me and he got shut down in front of everyone. It was just a dollar and he gave it to me."

MARCUS STICKLEY/STUFF Sarah Lewer was told by a train conductor she had to get off at Petone Station.

Using public transport is a struggle for Lewer as she suffers from social anxiety.

The man who attempted to help Lewer, Jareth Fox, has been using the Wairarapa line for the past five years and was on his way back to Masterton.

"When he [the conductor] asked for a dollar, she was rummaging around for one, but she looked a bit confused as to why she had to pay, as he hadn't explained the situation very well," Fox said.

STUFF Transdev is the train operator for Metlink’s trains in Wellington.

"I offered her a dollar and she calls back to him, but he said 'I'm sorry I can't take someone else's dollar' and just carries on walking."

A regular on the service, Fox said he'd seen the officer "be a really nice guy", but said he could also be "vague" and "ambiguous" for newer passengers.

"It's the dumb thing about our society, we look at the worst and just think it's another person trying to rig the system, but he didn't know the full story - it was this girl's first day at work, there was a lot he didn't know."

Fox said he was surprised when Lewer got off the train despite having the dollar the officer had requested.

"I didn't realised it had affected her so much."

​Metlink confirmed it had received a customer complaint on Wednesday night and was investigating.

The company also confirmed it had contacted Lewer since her complaint.

"We are a customer service business and pride ourselves in providing a high quality of customer service so it is disappointing to hear a customer may not have received that.

"We do have over 200 customers facing staff who interact with every rail customer on every journey, totalling 14 million passenger journeys a year. Most of these journeys go smoothly, but when we do get a complaint we take it seriously."