Porirua railway station

Porirua
Metlink suburban rail
2013 aerial view of Porirua City Centre and Station
Location Station Road, Porirua, New Zealand
Coordinates 41°08′15″S 174°50′36″E / 41.1376°S 174.8434°E / -41.1376; 174.8434Coordinates: 41°08′15″S 174°50′36″E / 41.1376°S 174.8434°E / -41.1376; 174.8434
Owned by KiwiRail (platform and track); Greater Wellington Regional Council (building and subway)
Line(s) North Island Main Trunk
Platforms Island Platform
Tracks Mainline (2)
Construction
Platform levels 1
Parking Yes
Bicycle facilities Yes
History
Opened 21 September 1885
Rebuilt 1960
Electrified 1940
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 Transdev.

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 Transdev. 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 available 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.

In 2014 it was described as, "the region's second busiest station".[2]

In 2010-11 improvements costing over $1 million were made to the station building, platforms etc.[3]

On 10 March 2014 works on improvements to the southern part of the commuter parking started, they are expected to take some 3 months.[4] Further expansion in 2015 brought the park and ride provision to 480, with 172 to be added in 2017.[5] Car parking is free,[6] whereas fares on connecting local buses are $2.[7]

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 when the Porirua-Paremata doubling and deviations were opened by the Minister of Railways[8] north to Mana on 7 November 1960,[9] which had been authorised by the Finance Act 1958.[10]

Shortly after the release of the film Goodbye Pork Pie in 1981, a car got stuck in the station's pedestrian subway after the driver tried to imitate the Wellington railway station chase scene.[11]

References

  1. ↑ Hoy, D.G. Rails out of the Capital p. 75 (NZRLS, 1970)
  2. ↑ Dando, Kris (2014-01-14). "More parking planned for railway station". Stuff.co.nz. Retrieved 2017-06-08.
  3. ↑ "Improvements to Porirua Railway Station". Tranz Metro. 1 November 2010. Retrieved 25 June 2013.
  4. ↑ "Disruptions to Porirua Station Park & Ride". Metlink. 7 March 2014. Retrieved 19 April 2014.
  5. ↑ "Porirua railway station set to get much-needed car park expansion". Stuff. Retrieved 2017-06-08.
  6. ↑ "Park & Ride car parks - Metlink". www.metlink.org.nz. Retrieved 2017-06-08.
  7. ↑ "Metlink - Greater Wellington's Public Transport Network". www.metlink.org.nz. Retrieved 2017-06-08.
  8. ↑ "Changes to the Railway line through Porirua City - Porirua City". www.pcc.govt.nz. Retrieved 2017-06-08.
  9. ↑ Hoy, D.G. Rails out of the Capital pp. 23,70 (NZRLS, 1970)
  10. ↑ "Finance Act 1958" (PDF).
  11. ↑ Matthews, Philip (30 January 2017). "No sleep till Invercargill: can lightning strike twice for Pork Pie?". Stuff.co.nz. Retrieved 4 February 2017.
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