Porirua Railway Station

Porirua
Metlink suburban rail
Station statistics
Address Station Road, Porirua
Lines North Island Main Trunk
Levels 1
Platforms Island Platform
Tracks Mainline (2)
Parking Yes
Bicycle facilities Yes
Baggage check No
Other information
Opened 21 September 1885
Rebuilt c1958
Electrified 1940
Owned by KiwiRail (platform and track); Greater Wellington Regional Council (building and subway)
Services
    Metlink    
Preceding station   Metlink   Following station
toward Waikanae
 Kapiti Line
toward Wellington

Porirua Railway Station is an important intermediate station in New Zealand on the Kapiti Line from Wellington and is part of Wellington's Metlink suburban rail network operated by Tranz Metro.

The island platform urban railway station is on a double track section of the North Island Main Trunk which was opened in 1885 , on the alignment of today's Down (southbound) line. There is subway access to Porirua city centre and bus stops serving the Porirua area.

Services

Porirua is served by electric multiple units owned by Greater Wellington Regional Council and operated on its behalf by Tranz Metro, part of KiwiRail. Trains run every 30 minutes outside peak times, and more frequently during peak periods.

The station is the hub for bus services west to Titahi Bay and east to Porirua East and Ascot Park. Hoy wrote in 1968 that the importance of Porirua [1]

is shown by the activity of arriving and departing trains and the fact that nearly half the weekday services terminate there. A goods shed and lengthy yard is avaliable for local industries. A casual observer will perhaps wonder where the City obtains its importance until he looks at the line of buses both private and N.Z.R. waiting to take passengers on to Porirua East and Titahi Bay. Well over 1,000,000 passengers are brought to the station annually on the Government buses alone. Porirua station is of modern design with a glassed in ticket office and waiting room at the northern end, while subways link the two bus stands on each side of the track.

History

The line was built by the Wellington and Manawatu Railway Company (WMR), and the section via Johnsonville through Porirua to Paremata was opened on 24 September 1885. The line was taken over by the government in 1908, and electrified in 1940 (with locomotive-hauled carriage trains) after the opening of the Tawa Flat deviation. The line was double tracked from Tawa to Porirua on 15 December 1957, and the new island-platform Porirua station opened some time later. Double tracking north to Mana opened on 7 November 1960.[2]

References

  1. ^ Hoy, D.G. Rails out of the Capital p. 75 (NZRLS, 1970)
  2. ^ Hoy, D.G. Rails out of the Capital pp. 23,70 (NZRLS, 1970)