Western Hutt railway station, formerly Lower Hutt (the official NZ Geographic Board name is still Lower Hutt), is an intermediate station on the single-track

Melling Line Melling may refer to: Places * Melling, Merseyside, an area of Sefton, Merseyside, England * Melling, Lancashire, a village near Carnforth, Lancashire, England * Melling, New Zealand, a suburb of Lower Hutt, New Zealand ** Melling Branch, a railw ...

Lower Hutt Lower Hutt ( mi, Te Awa Kairangi ki Tai) is a city in the Wellington Region of New Zealand. Administered by the Hutt City Council, it is one of the four cities that constitute the Wellington metropolitan area. It is New Zealand's sixth most p ...

New Zealand New Zealand ( mi, Aotearoa ) is an island country in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. It consists of two main landmasses—the North Island () and the South Island ()—and over 700 smaller islands. It is the sixth-largest island count ...

, It is served by Metlink

electric multiple unit An electric multiple unit or EMU is a multiple-unit train consisting of self-propelled carriages using electricity as the motive power. An EMU requires no separate locomotive, as electric traction motors are incorporated within one or a numbe ...

trains operated by

Transdev Wellington Transdev Wellington is the operator of Wellington's Metlink rail network in New Zealand. The entity is a partnership of Transdev Australasia and Hyundai Rotem, who were awarded the contract to operate and maintain the commuter rail system in De ...

under the Metlink brand.

History

The station used to be on the

Hutt Valley Line The Hutt Valley Line is the electrified train service operated by Transdev Wellington on behalf of Metlink on the section of the Wairarapa Line railway between Wellington and Upper Hutt, New Zealand. History Construction The Hutt Valley lin ...

section of the

Wairarapa Line The Wairarapa Line is a secondary railway line in the south-east of the North Island of New Zealand. The line runs for , connects the capital city Wellington with the Palmerston North - Gisborne Line at Woodville, via Lower Hutt, Upper Hutt ...

until 1 March 1954, when the Melling-Belmont section of the line on the western side of the

Hutt Valley The Hutt Valley (or 'The Hutt') is the large area of fairly flat land in the Hutt River valley in the Wellington region of New Zealand. Like the river that flows through it, it takes its name from Sir William Hutt, a director of the New Zeala ...

was closed and the through line to Upper Hutt and the Wairarapa rerouted through the centre of the valley. The truncated line to Melling via the Western Hutt Station was then electrified. In the 19th century, the line from Wellington to the Hutt and the Lower Hutt Station were opened on 14 April 1874. A new station building was erected in 1892, containing a ladies as well as a general waiting room. A large new Lower Hutt Station building designed by

George Troup George McIntosh Troup (September 8, 1780 – April 26, 1856) was an American politician from the U.S. state of Georgia. He served in the Georgia General Assembly, U.S. House of Representatives, and U.S. Senate before becoming the 32nd Governor ...

was opened in 1906. The line from Lower Hutt to Petone was double tracked in 1905, although not completed to Wellington until 1911. The second (double) track from Lower Hutt to the Hutt Valley Junction was removed by 1958. Hoy remarked in 1968 that ''"the platform is still one of the longest in the district and a two-coach Melling train is lost in the middle"''. At one time the station had an "infamous" manure siding, to which loads of horse manure from Wellington streets were railed in a special "manure train". The station was still an important goods facility after 1954, but in 1981 the Melling Branch lost the last of its freight traffic when the goods facilities at Lower Hutt station were closed and the local goods shunts to Lower Hutt ceased. Goods handling was transferred to a new facility at Gracefield. Lower Hutt station was renamed Western Hutt railway station following the opening of the Waterloo interchange on 26 November 1988. The building is now leased to various shops and businesses, and is called ''The Station Village Complex'

Services

The following Public transport in Wellington, Metlink bus routes serve Western Hutt station:

References

{{Reflist

External links

* Passenger service timetables fro
Metlink
an
Tranz Metro
Rail transport in Wellington Railway stations in New Zealand Railway stations opened in 1906 Buildings and structures in Lower Hutt George Troup buildings Heritage New Zealand Category 1 historic places in the Wellington Region 1900s architecture in New Zealand 1906 establishments in New Zealand