Otahuhu Railway Station

Story

Ōtāhuhu Railway Station is located on the Eastern and Southern Lines of the Auckland rail network in New Zealand. It has an island platform configuration and is part of an integrated bus-train major transport hub. It can be reached by steps and elevator from an overhead concourse that leads from the adjacent bus transfer station and Walmsley Road.Ōtāhuhu station features a historic, decommissioned signal box and is the point where both freight and passenger trains enter and exit the main line from the Westfield locomotive depot.The station was opened in 1875 to serve the increasing settlement at Otahuhu, with a road eventually constructed to the station. The station included a goods shed and a main building, which however burned down in 1909 after a fire in the oil room got out of hand with no water supply available to suppress the fires.UpgradeIn May 2011, Auckland Transport and KiwiRail started work to lengthen the platform to accommodate longer passenger trains. The platform area around the signal box was raised and further platform installed around the base of the pedestrian over bridge to Walmsley Road.In July 2011, the signal box at the station was one of the last to be decommissioned in Auckland, as part of a project to upgrade the signalling of the Auckland suburban network in preparation for electrification. Mainline signalling in the Ōtāhuhu station limits will be operated from the National Train Control Centre (NTCC) in Wellington, along with the rest of the Auckland network.