Dunedin Railway Station 1977/1983

Dunedin Railway Station leaflet 1977

 

Dunedin Railway Station leaflet 1977

Dunedin Railway Station leaflet 1977

Dunedin Railway Station leaflet 1977

In April 1977, NZR published this "portrait of Dunedin Railway Station" as the station has long been a historic landmark of the city and perhaps the most distinguished station in the country. It is the third major station for the city, with it opening in 1907 (having started construction in 1904) and following the Flemish Renaissance style also seen at Otago University. It was designed by NZR's first official architect, George Troup and was undoubtedly the peak of his career.  The leaflet has images of this grand building, and notes its construction cost at the time was $239,000 (about $48m today).

The leaflet notes that around 4000 passengers used it every weekday at the time, highlighting the Southerner services to and from Christchurch and Invercargill, which would have included suburban passenger rail services to Mosgiel and Port Chalmers. The last Dunedin suburban passenger train operated in December 1982.  The station was also NZR Road Service's base for intercity and suburban bus services (and today is the main terminus for privately operated scheduled coach services). I have another almost identical leaflet, dated June 1983, with the same statistics, which would clearly be out of date. 

The Southerner was cancelled in 2002, so the only passenger rail services today are the tourist services operated by Dunedin Railways, which operates services on the rump of the Central Otago Line to Middlemarch and excursions along the Main South Line/South Island Main Trunk. Dunedin Railway Station remains the grandest of New Zealand's main city stations.