Te Aro Extension
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The Te Aro Extension, also known as the Te Aro Branch, was a short branch line railway in Wellington, New Zealand. It operated from 1893 until 1917.
It should not be confused with the similarly named Te Aro Tramway, which was a trestle causeway built in 1883 as part of foreshore reclamation work.
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[edit] Construction
In the early 1890s, Wellington had two main railway stations: the Thorndon station of the Wellington and Manawatu Railway Company, whose line ran up the west coast towards Palmerston North, and the Lambton station of the New Zealand Railways Department, which served the Wairarapa Line (the present Wellington Railway Station on Bunny Street did not open until 1937). The Railways Department sought to provide improved access to central Wellington, and began work on an extension from their Lambton station to Te Aro, with the intention to continue the line to Island Bay. The 1.8km long Te Aro Extension was opened on 17 March 1893 and it remained the terminus for the line's lifetime, with no further work undertaken. The extension can be seen as either a branch line in its own right, or as an extension of the Wairarapa Line; it cannot be viewed as an extension of the North Island Main Trunk Railway, as that route out of Wellington was privately owned and separate from the national network for the majority of the Te Aro Extension's life.
[edit] Operation
The Te Aro Extension never achieved the degree of usefulness envisaged. It would have been satisfactorily located had it been built in the 1870s, but the changing nature of Wellington city meant that by the time the line was built, it did not provide the central city access that was intended. Furthermore, nearby businesses complained about the noise and dirt from the steam locomotives that operated trains on the line, and it was a disruption to traffic on busy city streets.
The line was built with facilities for freight handling at Te Aro station, but it is questionable whether this was utilised much, if at all. Passenger traffic was the line's mainstay, with 212 services operating a week in 1904 - approximately 30 per day. However, competition from the Wellington trams and the line's unpopularity led to a decline to only 62 weekly services by 1916. Closure had been recommended by the general manager of the railways in 1914, and this took place in March 1917 and the trackage swiftly removed.
[edit] The branch today
The development of central Wellington has obliterated all traces of the Te Aro Extension. The corner of a petrol station on Whitmore St once reflected the curve that the line took through that part of the city, but redevelopment has removed this final trace of the railway.
[edit] References
- Churchman, Geoffrey B., and Hurst, Tony; The Railways Of New Zealand: A Journey Through History, HarperCollins Publishers (New Zealand), 1991 reprint
- Leitch, David, and Scott, Brian; Exploring New Zealand's Ghost Railways, Grantham House, 1998 revised edition
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