Wellington Railway Station

Story

Wellington Railway Station is the main railway station serving Wellington, New Zealand, and is the southern terminus of the North Island Main Trunk, Wairarapa Line and Johnsonville Line.The station opened in June 1937 replacing the two previous Wellington termini, Lambton and Thorndon.HistoryDevelopmentWellington's first station, Pipitea, was built in 1874 as part of the railway line to the Hutt Valley. This station building burnt down in 1878 and was replaced in 1884 by what became known as Lambton, built by New Zealand Government Railways to service the Wairarapa line.In 1886 Thorndon station was built by the private Wellington and Manawatu Railway Company, purchased by the New Zealand government in 1908 to incorporate the line into what became the North Island Main Trunk, via Johnsonville.Once both stations were in government control public pressure began to build for a single terminal. The government decided on a co-ordinated development that included a new station building, and after agreement in 1922 between the Railways Department and the Wellington Harbour Board, the reclamation of about 68 acres (28 hectares) to incorporate a new double-track railway, train marshalling areas, goods yards and sheds. This reclamation from the sea at Thorndon began in 1923 and was on track to be completed by 1932, which allowed the government in 1929 to confirm that Bunny Street would be the location of a new station which would remove the inconvenience of the two separate stations.