 The inaugural run of the first four cars was on 14 May 2007, being met by the Minister of Transport, Annette King, on arrival on Platform 9 at Wellington at 9.20 am.It departed Masterton at 7.30 am, and called at Carterton at 7.48 am, Featherston at 8.09 am and Upper Hutt at 8.32 am

The first run in service was on Thursday 18 May on train 1602, departing Wellington at 8.25 am

In early 2007, the longest Wairarapa Connection consist (seven cars and van), which formed the weekdays 6.30 am from Masterton and 4.33 pm from Wellington had five cars replaced by ones from the now-disbanded charter fleet so that their Korean bogies can be overhauled and placed under five of the new SW cars.The charter cars run on old NZR Timken bogies limited to 80 km/h, not the 100 km/h standard carriage train speed.