Ngauranga Train Station

Story

Ngauranga railway station is a single island platform railway station in the mainly industrial and commercial suburb of Ngauranga on the Wairarapa Line in Wellington, New Zealand. It is on the Wellington suburban rail network and is served by Melling Line trains and some only Hutt Valley Line trains. Wairarapa Connection trains pass this station but do not stop. All trains are run by Transdev as part of the Metlink network.Ngauranga formerly handled freight traffic, but is now used exclusively by commuter passenger trains. It is next to a waste disposal facility and at the bottom of the Ngauranga Gorge, next to the major road junction where State Highway 2 joins State Highway 1.HistoryThough the rails of the Wairarapa Line reached Ngahauranga at New Year 1874, the first section of the line was not opened until 14 April 1874. Trains initially ran non-stop to the terminus of the line from Wellington, and it would not be until a week after opening, on 20 April, that Ngahauranga was included as a stop.Ngahauranga received its first building in late 1875. About 1879, the station received a class 6 passenger shelter costing £160. At the time, it had neither crossing loops nor sidings.Livestock did not become a major source of traffic until the line reached Featherston in 1878, and was bolstered by the opening of the Wellington Meat Preserving and Refrigerating Company at Ngahauranga in 1884. To serve the abattoir, a siding was laid from the station yard across Hutt Road to the company’s works in June of that year. The company quickly became a significant customer for the railway, and in 1895 150,486 head of stock were railed to Ngahauranga. By about 1900, the station had stockyards and two sidings.