Wellington railway station

Railway station in New Zealand

Wellington railway station, Wellington Central station, or simply Wellington station, is the main railway station serving Wellington, New Zealand, and is the southern terminus of the North Island Main Trunk, Wairarapa Line and Johnsonville Line. The station opened in June 1937, replacing the two previous Wellington termini, Lambton and Thorndon. The building was originally the head office of the New Zealand Railways Department or NZR. Today, the building houses the Wellington office of KiwiRail in the east wing of the building. Victoria University of Wellington occupies the west wing. A number of alterations have been made to the railway station over the years. The station was registered on 25 September 1986 as a Category I Historic Place. The platforms, designed to accommodate up to 12 carriages, are made of concrete covered with a sealed surface under verandahs held up by railway irons. Platform 9 was designed to be a roadway without rails for the terminus for certain services provided by New Zealand Railways Road Services. A park was created in the forecourt with lawns and paths of paving stones with brick edging arranged in a herringbone pattern.

The construction tender closed on 25 September 1933, extended by two weeks in an attempt to encourage local manufacturers to offer locally manufactured materials. Twelve tenders were received, with Fletcher Building the lowest at £339,000. The next lowest was £350,000 from J T Julian & Son, who had constructed a significant part of the Auckland railway station. Fletchers was awarded what was believed to be the largest single building contract let in New Zealand up to that time, to which a performance bond of £3000 was applied. Fletchers appointed 26 year old Joe Craig to manage his first major project. His prior experience had been in the construction of Chateau Tongariro, Massey College and earthquake reconstruction in Hastings. His management skills, supported by a large team of experienced foremen and a close working relationship with the architect, ensured that construction progressed very smoothly on a project that was very profitable for Fletchers. Work commenced on site in January 1934 with a workforce of 12, which built up to 161 in January 1936. Fletchers reduced the cost of the construction steel to £70,000 from an estimated £85,000 by directly importing it rather than purchasing it from local steel merchants, and had it fabricated on site by Wm Cable Ltd.

Progress was rapid, with 1500 of the piles driven by the time the foundation stone was laid on 17 December 1934 by the Duke of Gloucester, an occasion witnessed by an estimated 5,000 people. The contract was expanded to include the construction of an electric substation (commenced 1936) at a cost of £2022 and a locomotive maintenance workshop (commenced 1936) along the Thorndon Quay side of the railway yard. This cost £37,406 and is still in use. In August 1938, to accommodate increasing staff numbers, work commenced on the construction of the section of the Featherston Street Wing removed from the original design to reduce its cost. This was undertaken as a separate project at a cost of £59,662. A two storey brick building with a mansard roof containing a social hall and a garage was built in 1937 facing Waterloo Quay to the north of the East wing, at a cost of £15,000. The garage was on the ground floor with the social hall occupying part of the ground floor and the entire first storey. The garage also incorporated rooms for the chauffeur to the Railways Department's General Manager.

The station was opened on 19 June 1937 by the Governor General of New Zealand, Viscount Galway. Lambton closed on 19 June 1937 and Thorndon on 8 June 1937.

The Railways Head office had been combined in an ornate three story brick building at 75 Featherston Street in 1903. The foundation stone was laid by the Duke of Cornwall (later King George V) on 21 June 1901. One of the first Wellington buildings reinforced against earthquakes, the style was Classical Baroque and Jacobean; ornamented in white Oamaru stone with carved cornicles and balustrades and roofed with Marsiette tiles. In 1937 it became the Defence Department headquarters but the decorative features, high roof and lighting turrets were removed, and it was demolished in 1982. In 1982, the New Zealand Railways Corporation replaced the Railways Department. The application of a more commercial attitude to the running of the organisation resulted in a large reduction in staff employed at the Wellington railway station. Due to the reduction of railway staff numbers in the 1980s, large parts of the building became underutilized. In 1991, as a result of a major restructuring of the New Zealand Railways Corporation, ownership of the land and buildings was retained by the Railways Corporation while a new organisation known as New Zealand Rail Limited took over rail operations including freight distribution, commuter and long distance passenger services and the Interisland ferry service. Both organisations retained offices in the building. In 1993, New Zealand Rail Limited was sold to a private business consortium, which became Tranz Rail Holdings Limited in 1995. In 2000, Tranz Rail moved its head office to Auckland but retained space for operational management of the railway network. In 2004, Tranz Rail was sold and renamed Toll NZ Ltd, which then sold the track and infrastructure back to the Railways Corporation. The New World Railway Metro supermarket occupied part of the ground floor from 2006 until its closure in March 2024. In 1988, the Railways run bookstall and cafeteria were closed with subsequently the barber's shop and men's toilets being converted into Trax Bar and Cafe, while the women's waiting rooms were converted into toilet blocks. The original dining hall and kitchen were converted to office space. At about this time platforms 2 to 7 were shortened at the concourse end to provide increased space for waiting passengers. Large concrete planter boxes were installed at the end of the tracks to assist in stopping runaway trains. In 2010, the former social hall was converted into 660 square metres of boutique office space.

As part of the creation of the WestpacTrust Stadium (completed November 1999) on surplus railway land to the north of the station, an elevated walkway from Thorndon Quay to the stadium was installed with access via ramps from platforms 3/4, 5/6 and 7/8. To facilitate this work, the canopies of platforms 7/8 and 9 were shortened to the same length as platforms 3/4 and 5/6.

In the office entrance to the station, a roll of honour lists 450 members of the New Zealand Railways Department who lost their lives in World War I. (Transcript of the names with links to their records on the Auckland War Memorial Museum's Cenotaph database.) As many as 5,000 of the department's permanent staff, out of a 1914 workforce of 14,000, enlisted during the war, and many casual workers also served. The roll was unveiled by Prime Minister William Massey in the Railways Department's head office in Featherston St on 30 April 1922. It originally listed 446 names, including two out of alphabetical order at the end, presumably late additions. Four names were added later, including those of three men who died after the war. When the station opened in 1937, the memorial was moved along the road to its present location.

The station was registered on 25 September 1986 as a Category I Historic Place. The Rail Heritage Trust of New Zealand classified the station as "Category A" heritage building.

Wellington railway station featured prominently in the 1981 film Goodbye Pork Pie, in which the protagonists drive a Mini through the station concourse in order to escape pursuing police officers. The station was used in a 2009 TV advert in the United Kingdom for train ticketing company TheTrainLine, where a large flock of sheep use the facilities. In May 2014, the station foyer was used by celebrity chef Nigella Lawson to film a commercial for Whittaker's a local chocolate manufacturing firm.

In 1972, NZR proposed developing the airspace above the station's platforms. The proposed development included four buildings built north of the current station over the platforms and part of the marshalling yards. The development would include a 200 bed hotel, tavern, car parking, shopping facilities and a revolving restaurant. In 2017 the plans were unveiled for a $1 billion redevelopment of Wellington railway station and the concourse to the stadium, named "Project Kupe" and incorporating a tower, retail outlets, apartments and 12,000 seat indoor stadium.

In August 2018, the proposed sale of the building by KiwiRail was stopped by Winston Peters as the Minister of State Owned Enterprises as "premature". The building required earthquake strengthening (cost $62 million), and the anticipated sale price of $80 million had already been included in KiwiRail's budget. The Port Nicholson Block Settlement Trust decided not to purchase the building in 2016.

The Wellington railway yard incorporates marshalling and storage tracks and buildings and a Multiple Unit Depot (MUD) for servicing EMUs. A rail line under the overhead stadium walkway goes to the container terminal and other freight facilities on the Port wharves, with a level crossing on Aotea Quay. The principal Wellington signal box known as the "A Box" is near the overhead stadium walkway with a commanding view of the station platforms and main lines entering the station. In 2021/2022 additional crossovers and connections to the station approaches will provide extra capacity and resilience ($4.5 million) and the signal interlocking may be replaced with a computer based system ($8 million). A second lead track is to be provided to the train storage yards to facilitate faster platform clearance (2020; $5.9 million). When a derailed goods wagon near the Interisland terminal damaged both tracks through the yard out of Wellington on 3 July 2019 commuter service to the Hutt Valley and Kapiti lines were seriously disrupted for two days. The closed Kaiwharawhara railway station is to be developed as an emergency Wellington terminal.

The station copes with large daily passenger numbers with very little alteration having proved necessary. In its first year, 7,600 passengers made 15,200 trips on 140 trains daily. In the 1960s it was estimated that over 42,000 people used the station each day. Today, 29,000 passengers make 44,000 trips on 390 trains, excluding long distance services. Work from 2019 as part of the Wellington Metro upgrade improved the station approaches, and new foundations were built for 80 masts for the traction overhead as steel masts are to replace wooden masts.

The bus terminal, formerly Lambton Interchange, is served by most Wellington bus routes and is connected to the station by a subway under Featherston St. It is served by the following bus routes: 1, 3, 7, 12e, 14, 17, 20, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 29, 30x, 31x, 32x, 35, 36, 39, 52, 56, 57, 58, 60e, 83 and 84

A small roadway opposite Platform 9 is also served by train replacement buses, Interislander shuttle buses, and InterCity and Newmans long distance coaches.