Porirua railway station

Porirua
Porirua
Metlink suburban rail
	2013 aerial view of Porirua City Centre and Station
General information
Location	Station Road, Porirua, New Zealand
Coordinates	41°08′15″S174°50′36″E / 41.1376°S 174.8434°E
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

Last updated September 04, 2024

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 Wellington.

Services

Porirua is served by electric multiple units owned by Greater Wellington Regional Council and operated on its behalf by Transdev.

Porirua is served by Kapiti Line commuter trains operated by Transdev Wellington under the Metlink brand operating between Wellington and Porirua or Waikanae. Services are operated by electric multiple units of the FT/FP class (Matangi). Two diesel-hauled carriage trains, the Capital Connection and the Northern Explorer, pass through the station but do not stop.

Off-peak trains stop at all stations between Wellington and Waikanae. During peak periods, trains from Wellington that stop at all stations may terminate at Porirua or Plimmerton and return to Wellington while a number of peak services run express between Wellington and Porirua.^[1]^[2]

Travel times by train are twenty-one minutes to Wellington, and thirty-nine minutes to Waikanae.^[1]

Trains run every twenty minutes during daytime off-peak hours, more frequently during peak periods, and less frequently at night.^[1] Before July 2018, off-peak passenger train services between Wellington and Waikanae stopping at Porirua ran every thirty minutes^[3] but were increased to one every twenty minutes from 15 July 2018.

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 ^[4]

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 2010–11 improvements costing over $1 million were made to the station building, platforms etc.^[5]

In 2014 it was described as, "the region's second busiest station".^[6]

On 10 March 2014, work, expected to take 3 months, started on improvements to the southern part of the commuter parking.^[7] Further expansion in 2015 brought the park and ride provision to 480, with 172 to be added in 2017.^[8] Car parking is free,^[9] whereas fares on connecting local buses were $2 in 2017.^[10]

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 after the opening of the Tawa Flat deviation. Electrification allowed the replacement of steam locomotives with ED class electric locomotives, purchased for use on this line and first introduced in 1938, to haul passenger and goods trains. DM/D electric multiple units first ran to Porirua on 5 September 1949 and replaced the majority of locomotive-hauled passenger trains.^[11]

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 ^[12] north to Mana on 7 November 1960,^[13] which had been authorised by the Finance Act 1958.^[14]

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.^[15]

Related Research Articles

Porirua, a city in the Wellington Region of the North Island of New Zealand, is one of the four cities that constitute the Wellington metropolitan area. The name 'Porirua' is a corruption of 'Pari-rua', meaning "the tide sweeping up both reaches". It almost completely surrounds Porirua Harbour at the southern end of the Kāpiti Coast. As of 2023, Porirua has a population of 62,400 people, and is a majority minority city, with 26.5% of its population being primarily Pasifika and 23.0% primarily Māori. Porirua is the only area with city status in New Zealand with a Pasifika plurality.

Public transport in the Wellington Region, branded under the name Metlink, is the public transport system serving Wellington and its surrounding region. It is the most used public transport system in New Zealand per capita, and consists of electric and diesel buses, suburban trains, ferries and a funicular. It also included trams until 1964, and trolleybuses until 2017.

Metlink's Kapiti Line is the electrified southern portion of the North Island Main Trunk railway between New Zealand's capital city, Wellington, and Waikanae on the Kāpiti Coast, operated by Transdev Wellington on behalf of Greater Wellington Regional Council. Trains run frequently every day, with stops at 16 stations. Until 20 February 2011 it was known as the Paraparaumu Line.

Takapu Road railway station is on the suburban rail network of Wellington, New Zealand, on the Kapiti section of the North Island Main Trunk Railway (NIMT). It is double tracked with side platforms. It serves the suburbs of Redwood and Grenada North, and the rural Takapu Valley.

Redwood railway station on the suburban rail network of Wellington, New Zealand, is on the North Island Main Trunk Railway (NIMT). Opening in late 1963, it is double tracked with staggered side platforms; the up platform is on the north side of the Tawa Street level crossing, the down platform on the south. The station serves the suburb of Redwood.

Tawa railway station, originally called Tawa Flat, is on the North Island Main Trunk Railway (NIMT) and is part of the suburban rail network of Wellington, New Zealand. It is double tracked with an island platform, and is 13.75 kilometres (8.54 mi) from Wellington railway station, the southern terminus of the NIMT. The station serves the suburb of Tawa.

Linden railway station is located on the North Island Main Trunk Railway (NIMT) in Linden, New Zealand and is part of the suburban rail network of Wellington. It is double tracked, has an island platform layout, and is 14.91 km from Wellington railway station, the southern terminus of the NIMT.

Kenepuru railway station is on the North Island Main Trunk Railway (NIMT) in New Zealand, on Wellington's suburban rail network. It is double tracked with side platforms on a curved section of the line, 16.16 km from Wellington railway station, the southern terminus of the NIMT. The station serves the industrial suburb of Kenepuru and is within walking distance of Kenepuru Hospital.

Johnsonville railway station is the terminus of the Johnsonville Line, one of eight stations on the commuter branch railway north of Wellington in New Zealand’s North Island. It serves the suburb of Johnsonville, and as a bus interchange attracts traffic from other suburbs to the north and east.

Redwood is a part of Tawa, the northernmost suburb of Wellington, New Zealand. Redwood lies at the southern end of Tawa, to the west of the Tawa Main Road and the North Island Main Trunk Railway.

Pukerua Bay railway station is located on the North Island Main Trunk Railway (NIMT) in Pukerua Bay, New Zealand and is part of the suburban rail network of Wellington. It is double tracked, has an island platform layout, and is 30.4 km from Wellington railway station, the southern terminus of the NIMT. It is one of two railway stations in Pukerua Bay, the other one at Muri being closed.

Plimmerton railway station is on the North Island Main Trunk Railway (NIMT) in Plimmerton, Porirua, New Zealand, and is part of Wellington's Metlink suburban rail network operated by Transdev Wellington. It is double tracked around a long island platform, with subway access from Steyne Avenue and Plimmerton Domain's Park and Ride to the north, and a controlled crossing to Steyne Avenue and Mainline Steam at the south end of the platform. Mainline Steam, a heritage steam train restorer and operator, is located in the former goods yard next to the station.

Paremata railway station on the Kapiti Line section of the North Island Main Trunk Railway (NIMT) in Paremata in the city of Porirua, New Zealand, is part of the Wellington Region's Metlink suburban rail network.

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

Paekakariki railway station in Paekākāriki on the Kāpiti Coast, New Zealand, is an intermediate station on the Kapiti Line for Metlink's electric multiple unit commuter trains from Wellington. Paekākāriki was the terminal station of the commuter service from 1940 to 1983, when the service was extended to Paraparaumu, and to Waikanae in 2011.

Naenae railway station is a suburban railway station serving Naenae and Avalon in Lower Hutt, New Zealand. The station is located on the Hutt Valley section of the Wairarapa Line, 18.3 km (11.4 mi) north of Wellington. The station is served by Metlink's electric multiple unit trains of the "Matangi" FP class. Trains stopping at Naenae run to Wellington, Taitā and Upper Hutt.

Paraparaumu railway station in Paraparaumu on the Kāpiti Coast, New Zealand is an intermediate station on the Kapiti Line section of the North Island Main Trunk for Metlink's electric multiple unit commuter trains from Wellington. Paraparaumu was the northern terminal for Kapiti Line services from 1983 until 20 February 2011 when the electrification and Kapiti Line services were extended to Waikanae.

Waikanae railway station in Waikanae on the Kāpiti Coast, New Zealand, is the terminal station on the Kapiti Line for Metlink's electric multiple unit commuter trains from Wellington. The railway is part of the North Island Main Trunk line that connects Wellington and Auckland.

References

1 2 3 metlink "Kapiti Line (Waikanae – Wellington)". Metlink. Retrieved 21 December 2019.
↑ metlink, Paraparaumu Line timetable Archived 11 October 2007 at the Wayback Machine , accessed 30 October 2007.
↑ "Kapiti Line (Waikanae – Wellington) – Metlink". www.metlink.org.nz. Retrieved 21 December 2019.
↑ Hoy, D.G. Rails out of the Capital p. 75 (NZRLS, 1970)
↑ "Improvements to Porirua Railway Station". Tranz Metro. 1 November 2010. Archived from the original on 24 June 2013. Retrieved 25 June 2013.
↑ Dando, Kris (14 January 2014). "More parking planned for railway station". Stuff.co.nz. Retrieved 8 June 2017.
↑ "Disruptions to Porirua Station Park & Ride". Metlink. 7 March 2014. Retrieved 19 April 2014.
↑ "Porirua railway station set to get much-needed car park expansion". Stuff. Retrieved 8 June 2017.
↑ "Park & Ride car parks – Metlink". www.metlink.org.nz. Retrieved 8 June 2017.
↑ "Metlink – Greater Wellington's Public Transport Network". www.metlink.org.nz. Retrieved 8 June 2017.
↑ Murray, Bruce; Parsons, David (2008). Rails through the Valley: The story of the construction and use of the railway lines through Tawa. Wellington: Tawa Historical Society. ISBN 978-0-473-14410-4.
↑ "Changes to the Railway line through Porirua City – Porirua City". www.pcc.govt.nz. Archived from the original on 5 July 2017. Retrieved 8 June 2017.
↑ Hoy, D.G. Rails out of the Capital pp. 23,70 (NZRLS, 1970)
↑ "Finance Act 1958" (PDF).
↑ Matthews, Philip (30 January 2017). "No sleep till Invercargill: can lightning strike twice for Pork Pie?". Stuff.co.nz. Retrieved 4 February 2017.

External links

Metlink travel planner for trains and buses
Walk and bike times to Porirua Station
Cycling and walking journey planner
Photos of old station and deviation – 1957, 26 Mar 1959, 22 Apr 1959, 1 Oct 1959

This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.

[metlinklinden-1] 1 2 3 metlink "Kapiti Line (Waikanae – Wellington)". Metlink. Retrieved 21 December 2019.

[2] tlink, Paraparaumu Line timetable Archived 11 October 2007 at the Wayback Machine , accessed 30 October 2007.

[3] "Kapiti Line (Waikanae – Wellington) – Metlink". www.metlink.org.nz. Retrieved 21 December 2019.

[4] Hoy, D.G. Rails out of the Capital p. 75 (NZRLS, 1970)

[5] "Improvements to Porirua Railway Station". Tranz Metro. 1 November 2010. Archived from the original on 24 June 2013. Retrieved 25 June 2013.

[6] Dando, Kris (14 January 2014). "More parking planned for railway station". Stuff.co.nz. Retrieved 8 June 2017.

[7] "Disruptions to Porirua Station Park & Ride". Metlink. 7 March 2014. Retrieved 19 April 2014.

[8] "Porirua railway station set to get much-needed car park expansion". Stuff. Retrieved 8 June 2017.

[9] "Park & Ride car parks – Metlink". www.metlink.org.nz. Retrieved 8 June 2017.

[10] "Metlink – Greater Wellington's Public Transport Network". www.metlink.org.nz. Retrieved 8 June 2017.

[M&P-11] Murray, Bruce; Parsons, David (2008). Rails through the Valley: The story of the construction and use of the railway lines through Tawa. Wellington: Tawa Historical Society. ISBN 978-0-473-14410-4.

[12] "Changes to the Railway line through Porirua City – Porirua City". www.pcc.govt.nz. Archived from the original on 5 July 2017. Retrieved 8 June 2017.

[13] Hoy, D.G. Rails out of the Capital pp. 23,70 (NZRLS, 1970)

[14] "Finance Act 1958" (PDF).

[15] 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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