Western Hutt railway station

Western Hutt
Western Hutt
	Metlink suburban rail
Location	Hutt Road, Alicetown, Lower Hutt, New Zealand
Coordinates	41°12′43.22″S 174°53′23.48″E
Owned by	Building is privately owned as a pub, platform owned by KiwiRail
Line(s)	Melling Branch
Platforms	Island (formerly)
Tracks	1
Construction
Platform levels	1
Other information
Fare zone	4
History
Opened	14 April 1874
Rebuilt	1892, 1906
Electrified	1 March 1954
Previous names	Lower Hutt
Services
Heritage New Zealand – Category I
Designated	25-Sep-1986
Reference no.	1327

Western Hutt railway station, formerly Lower Hutt (the official NZ Geographic Board name is still Lower Hutt), is an intermediate station on the single-track Melling Line in Lower Hutt, New Zealand, It is served by Metlink electric multiple unit trains operated by Tranz Metro.

History

The station used to be on the Hutt Valley Line section of the Wairarapa Line until 1 March 1954, when the Melling-Belmont section of the line on the western side of the Hutt Valley was closed and the through line to Upper Hutt and the Wairarapa rerouted through the centre of the valley. The truncated line to Melling via the Western Hutt Station was then electrified.

In the 19th century, the line from Wellington to the Hutt and the Lower Hutt Station were opened on 14 April 1874.

A new station building was erected in 1892, containing a ladies as well as a general waiting room.

D Class no 197 at Lower Hutt, 1906 with a motor train

A large new Lower Hutt Station building designed by George Troup was opened in 1906. The line from Lower Hutt to Petone was double tracked in 1905, although not completed to Wellington until 1911. The second (double) track from Lower Hutt to the Hutt Valley Junction was removed by 1958. Hoy remarked in 1968 that the platform is still one of the longest in the district and a two-coach Melling train is lost in the middle.[1]

At one time the station had an "infamous" manure siding, to which loads of horse manure from Wellington streets were railed in a special "manure train".[2] The station was still an important goods facility after 1954, but in 1981 the Melling Branch lost the last of its freight traffic when the goods facilities at Lower Hutt station were closed and the local goods shunts to Lower Hutt ceased. Goods handling was transferred to a new facility at Gracefield.[3]

The building is now leased to various shops and businesses, and is called The Station Village Complex .

Services

The following Metlink bus routes serve Western Hutt station:

Previous Stop	Metlink Bus Services	Next Stop
Hutt Road towards Petone	150 Western Hills	Railway Avenue towards Kelson

References

Hoy, D.G. Rails out of the Capital (NZRLS, 1970) pp. 13,47,63,80
Kaye, George (1987). Bygone Days in Lower Hutt. Lower Hutt: Lower Hutt City Council. pp. 26–28. ISBN 0-473-00523-9.
Bromby, Robin (2003). "Branch Lines – North Island". Rails That Built A Nation: An Encyclopedia of New Zealand Railways. Wellington: Grantham House Publishing. p. 74. ISBN 1-86934-080-9.

External links

Passenger service timetables from Metlink and Tranz Metro.

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[1] Hoy, D.G. Rails out of the Capital (NZRLS, 1970) pp. 13,47,63,80

[2] Kaye, George (1987). Bygone Days in Lower Hutt. Lower Hutt: Lower Hutt City Council. pp. 26–28. ISBN 0-473-00523-9.

[Rails_That_Built_A_Nation-3] Bromby, Robin (2003). "Branch Lines – North Island". Rails That Built A Nation: An Encyclopedia of New Zealand Railways. Wellington: Grantham House Publishing. p. 74. ISBN 1-86934-080-9.