Kaiwharawhara Railway Station

Kaiwharawhara
Metlink regional rail
Location	Westminster Street, Kaiwharawhara, Wellington, New Zealand
Coordinates	41°15′36.18″S 174°47′28.92″E / 41.2600500°S 174.7913667°E
Owned by	Greater Wellington Regional Council
Line(s)	Melling Line Hutt Valley Line Kapiti Line
Platforms	Island (2)
Tracks	Main line (4)
Construction
Parking	No
Bicycle facilities	No
Other information
Fare zone	2[1]
History
Opened	20-04-1874
Closed	23-11-2013
Rebuilt	1911, 1935
Electrified	June 1940
Previous names	Kaiwarra
Services
Former Services   Preceding station   Tranz Metro   Following station Ngauranga toward Melling Melling Line Wellington Terminus Ngauranga toward Upper Hutt Hutt Valley Line Takapu Road toward Waikanae Kapiti Line

Kaiwharawhara railway station was a railway station on the North Island Main Trunk and the Wairarapa Line in Wellington, New Zealand that closed in 2013.^[2] It was the first station north of Wellington, and prior to its closure it was served by trains operated by Tranz Metro as part of the Metlink network on the Melling Line, the Hutt Valley Line and the Kapiti Line.

Kaiwharawhara Station was temporarily closed on 13 June 2013, because of safety concerns about the pedestrian overbridge, which was found by visual inspection carried out by the Regional Council to have advanced corrosion.^[3] The station was closed permanently on 21 November 2013 and the overbridge was dismantled in March 2014.^[4]

Kaiwharawhara had a unique platform arrangement for New Zealand.^[5] Looking north, the left-hand island platform was for up trains, the right-hand platform for down trains. The inner faces were used by Kapiti Line services on the NIMT, the outer faces by Melling Line and Hutt Valley Line services on the Wairarapa Line.

History

The Wairarapa Line reached the south bank of the Kaiwarra Stream in July 1873,^[6] and this section of line opened on 14 April 1874.^[7] Trains initially ran non-stop from Wellington, but on 20 April Kaiwarra opened as a stop.^[8]

Kaiwarra received its first building in late 1875.^[8] About 1879 the station received a class 6 passenger shelter costing £160. It did not have either crossing loops or sidings.^[9]

Kaiwharawhara railway station, looking south in the direction of Wellington.

Early in the 20th century it was decided to duplicate the line between Wellington and Lower Hutt. Preparatory work was started in 1903 with construction commencing the following year, reaching Kaiwarra in 1909 and Wellington on 4 April 1911.^[10] A new station building designed by George Troup was erected in 1911.

In preparation for the construction of the new Wellington station in the mid-1930s and the closure of the old Thorndon and Lambton stations, new lines were laid through Kaiwarra and Kaiwarra signal box was dismantled.^[11]

The station was renamed from Kaiwarra to Kaiwharawhara from 9 February 1951 by a decision of the New Zealand Geographic Board ^[12]

In 1968 there was a fifth track running along the western side of the station, as evidenced today by the extra overhead wiring still in place, used to access an oil depot (just south of the Kaiwharawhara Stream), the NZR Signals Depot and several warehouses.^[13] There were small waiting sheds on each platform.^[14] All have been removed.

Services

Off-peak trains stopped here half-hourly on the Hutt Valley and Kapiti Lines, and hourly on the Melling Line.

Bus

The following Metlink bus services serve this station:

Previous Stop	Metlink Bus Services	Next Stop
Hutt Road towards Khandallah	44 Khandallah - Strathmore	Hutt Road towards Strathmore
Hutt Road towards Broadmeadows	46 Broadmeadows	Hutt Road towards Courtenay Place
Hutt Road towards Johnsonville	52 Johnsonville via Newlands
	53 Johnsonville West
Hutt Road towards Churton Park	54 Churton Park
Hutt Road towards Grenada Village	55 Grenada Village via Johnsonville
Hutt Road towards Johnsonville	56 Johnsonville via Newlands
Hutt Road towards Woodridge	57 Woodridge
Hutt Road towards Baylands	58 Baylands via Newlands
Hutt Road towards Eastbourne	83 Eastbourne via Lower Hutt
Hutt Road towards Porirua	211 Porirua

Facilities

There are no shelters or other buildings nor any dedicated car parking. Access was via a footbridge from Westminster Street. The overbridge was found to be seriously corroded in 2013 and the station was closed as a result. It was demolished in March 2014 with the stairs being relocated to Trentham station. The platforms will be retained for emergency egress from trains.^[15]

Footnotes

1. Metlink. "Text description of fare zone boundaries". Greater Wellington Regional Council. Retrieved 2007-11-27.
2. "Notice of final decision to assign place names". New Zealand Gazette - Te Kahiti o Aotearoa. New Zealand Gazette Office at the Department of Internal Affairs. 1996-08-29. p. 2470. Retrieved 2008-01-05. 6. North Island Main Trunk From Wellington to Auckland ... 28. Wairarapa Line From Wellington to Woodville ...
3. "Kaiwharawhara Station Closed". Metlink. 13 June 2013. Retrieved 21 June 2013.
4. "Station closes for good". stuff.co.nz. 21 November 2013. Retrieved 21 November 2013.
5. Hoy, Douglas G. (1970). "The Railway Today". Rails Out Of The Capital: Suburban Railways, Wellington. Wellington: The New Zealand Railway and Locomotive Society. p. 77. The station with its two long island platforms and four parallel running tracks is the only one of its kind in the Dominion.
6. Cameron, Water Norman (1976). "Chapter 4: Construction and Operation, Wellington to Upper Hutt". A Line Of Railway: The Railway Conquest of the Rimutakas. Wellington: New Zealand Railway and Locomotive Society. p. 73. ISBN 0-908573-00-6. It was not until July 1873 that the rails reached the south bank of the Kaiwarra Stream, ...
7. "Chapter 4: Construction and Operation, Wellington to Upper Hutt". A Line Of Railway: The Railway Conquest of the Rimutakas. p. 77. The Hutt Railway was opened this morning ... Thus did the Evening Post of 14 April 1874 record the opening of the railway ...
8. "Early Years". Rails Out Of The Capital: Suburban Railways, Wellington. p. 13. Kaiwharawhara and Ngauranga became stopping places on April 20th 1874, but the first buildings were not erected until later in the following year.
9. "Chapter 4: Construction and Operation, Wellington to Upper Hutt". A Line Of Railway: The Railway Conquest of the Rimutakas. p. 89. At this time Kaiwarra and Ngahauranga both received sixth-class stations, costing ₤160 each. Neither station had crossing loops or sidings as yet.
10. "Chapter 13: Branch Lines and Sidings". A Line Of Railway: The Railway Conquest of the Rimutakas. pp. 291, 293. Surveys and preparatory work were carried out in 1903 and in the following year work began at Lower Hutt and Petone ... The duplication reached Ngahauranga in 1908, Kaiwarra in 1909, and finally Wellington in 1911. The entire double line from Lower Hutt to Lambton was opened on 4 April 1911 ...
11. "Chapter 10: The Stations". A Line Of Railway: The Railway Conquest of the Rimutakas. pp. 223, 225. New main lines were laid and connected at Kaiwarra. ... The Hutt Valley main lines had been completely relocated and the Kaiwarra signal box dismantled. All new signalling equipment and underground cabling were being installed, and the overhead wiring for electrification of the Johnsonville line was being erected.
12. New Zealand Railway Observer volume 18, January–February 1951 page 17
13. "Appendix D: Diagrams". Rails Out Of The Capital: Suburban Railways, Wellington. p. 107.
14. "The Railways Today". Rails Out Of The Capital: Suburban Railways, Wellington. p. 77. A foot bridge leads in from the street and two small waiting sheds are the only facilities available.
15. "Kaiwharawhara train station overbridge stairs relocated". The Dominion Post (Wellington: Fairfax NZ News). 31 March 2014. Retrieved 2 April 2014.

External links

• Train timetables from Metlink and Tranz Metro.
• Julie Bremner, Wellington’s Northern Suburbs 1919-1945 (Wellington: Millwood Press, 1987) ISBN 0-908582-80-3, see 1934 photo of gang moving rails next to Kaiwarra Station on page 63.