Redwood Railway Station

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Redwood Railway Station is located on the North Island Main Trunk Railway (NIMT) in Redwood, New Zealand and is part of the suburban rail network of Wellington. It is double tracked and has a side platform layout; the northbound platform (towards Paraparaumu) is located on the north side of the Tawa Street bridge over the railway line, while the southbound platform (towards Wellington) is 150 m south on the other side of the bridge.

[edit] Services

Redwood is served by Paraparaumu Line commuter trains operated by Tranz Metro under the Metlink brand. Trains run every thirty minutes off-peak, and more frequently during peak periods. A number of peak services run express between Porirua and Wellington and thus do not stop at Redwood.[1]

The commuter trains are operated by electric multiple units. These were formerly DM/D class units but are now almost always units of the EM/ET class. Two diesel-hauled carriage trains, the Capital Connection and the Overlander, pass through the station but do not stop.

[edit] History

Redwood is one of only two stations on the Paraparaumu Line not built on track formerly operated by the Wellington and Manawatu Railway Company (WMR); the other station is Takapu Road immediately to the south. The WMR built the original route of the NIMT between Wellington and Longburn and operated it until purchased by the New Zealand Railways Department in December 1908. The original route between Wellington and Porirua ran via Johnsonville and now operates in truncated form as the Johnsonville Branch. It was bypassed in the 1930s by the Tawa Flat deviation, and Redwood Station is on the northern section of this deviation. The deviation opened for freight traffic on 24 July 1935 but Redwood Station did not open until passenger services began on 19 June 1937. The line was electrified in June 1940.[2]

[edit] References

  1. ^ Metlink, Paraparaumu Line timetable, accessed 30 October 2007.
  2. ^ John Yonge (editor), New Zealand Railway and Tramway Atlas, fourth edition (Essex: Quail Map Company, 1993), 16.
    ONTRACK    
Preceding station   Tranz Metro   Following station
toward Paraparaumu
 Paraparaumu Line
toward Wellington