50 years of Wellington Railway Station

On 15 June 1987 the Evening Post published this advertising feature to commemorate 50 years of Wellington Railway Station. The feature included a history of the railway station, which noted that the new Wellington (and Auckland) Railway Stations would be adequate for a national population of five million (!).  The station replaced several much smaller older wooden buildings which was thoroughly ill-suited to the time.  It has various historic pictures, including depicting the Te Aro line which operated along the waterfront from the site of the existing station along the Quays and terminating roughly where New World Wellington City (Wakefield Street) is now cited, with a station extending up towards the new Convention Centre (the line was closed in 1917 so the current station could be built (and due to complaints about delays caused by trains operating along the road). 

In 1987 the statistics of usage were 45,000 trips per day on 293 trains (105 Paraparaumu, 104 Hutt, 84 Johnsonville with the remainder to the Wairarapa, Gisborne and Auckland). The station had 380 staff, but up to 250 at any one time, with staff on duty from 5.30am-12.15am.  It describes plans for the $500m property development on the site which did not proceed, including a hotel and seven office blocks. 

One article describes how services have changed over the years, from the opening of the Tawa Flat Deviation through to the introduction of the Ganz Mavag electric multiple units in 1982.  It included:

• Electrification of the Johnsonville line in 1938
• Electrification to Paekakariki in 1940
• Electrification to Waterloo in 1953
• Electrification to Melling in 1954
• Electrification to Upper Hutt in 1955 and closure of the Melling-Manor Park line in favour of the extension from Taita
• Introduction of the Silverstar in 1971 (and withdrawal in 1979)
• Introduction of the Silverfern in 1972
• Introduction of the Northerner in 1975

There is also an advertisement for cheap long-distance passenger rail travel and an advertisement for an express bus from the front of the railway station to Wakefield Street at the morning and evening peaks! a service from the Wellington City Transport era.