Mana Railway Station

Mana Railway Station on the Kapiti Line section of the North Island Main Trunk Railway (NIMT) in the "Mana" locality in the Paremata suburb of the city of Porirua, New Zealand is part of Wellington's Tranz Metro suburban rail network.

It is double tracked with a platform each side and a subway between them.

Services

Mana is served by Electric Multiple Unit (EMU) trains operated by Tranz Metro, a part of KiwiRail. Trains run every day every 30 minutes outside peak times, and more frequently during peak periods. All services running between Paraparaumu and Wellington stop in Mana.^[1]

Tranz Scenic carriage trains and diesel hauled KiwiRail freight trains pass by the station but do not stop.

History

The single platform halt was opened on 5 September 1949, when the first of the new DM/D class Electric Multiple Units (EMUs) ordered for the Hutt Valley Line were available. For traffic reasons only EMUs could stop there, although initially only 5 of the 13 trains each way on weekdays were operated by EMUs. The halt (along with the locality) was initially called Dolly Varden, but was changed to Mana as many local residents did not like the name (from Dickens's Barnaby Rudge).

Double tracking north to Mana was opened on 7 November 1960. Mana station was built to fit into the duplication project:^[2]

and the two platforms were ready some time before … As the new line was on a different alignment to the old, a temporary wooden platform was built to fit in the gap between the old track and the new platforms. This gave the station the appearance of an aircraft carrier flight deck.

References