Wellington Railway Station - Use

Use

The station was opened on 19 June 1937 by the Governor-General of New Zealand, Viscount Galway. Lambton closed on 19 June 1937 and Thorndon on 8 June 1937.

Due to the reduction of railway staff numbers in the 1980s large parts of the building became under utilized. In 1982 in response to competition from road and air transport the New Zealand Railways Corporation replaced the Railways Department. The application of a more commercial attitude to the running of the organization resulted in a large reduction in staff employed at the Wellington Railway Station.

In 1988 the Railways-run bookstall and cafeteria were closed with subsequently the barber's shop and men's toilets being converted into 'Trax Bar and Cafe', while the women’s waiting rooms were converted into toilet blocks. The original dining hall and kitchen were converted to provide more office space. At about this time platforms 2 to 7 were shortened at the concourse end to provide increased space for waiting passengers. Large concrete planter boxes were installed at the end of the tracks to assist in stopping runaway trains.

As part of the creation of the Westpac Trust Stadium (completed November 1999) on surplus railway land to the north of the station an elevated walkway from Thorndon Quay to the stadium was installed with access via ramps from platforms 3/4, 5/6 and 7/8. To facilitate this work the canopies of platforms 7/8 and 9 were shortened to the same length as platforms 3/4 and 5/6.

In 1991 as a result of a major restructuring of the New Zealand Railways Corporation, ownership of the land and buildings was retained by the Railways Corporation while a new organisation known as New Zealand Rail Limited took over rail operations including freight distribution, commuter and long-distance passenger services and the Interisland ferry service. Both organisations retained offices in the Wellington Railway Station Building. In 1993, New Zealand Rail Limited was sold to a private business consortium, which became Tranz Rail Holdings Limited in 1995. In 2000 Tranz Rail moved to its head office to Auckland, but retained space in the station building from which to run the suburban network, Tranz Metro. Operational management of the entire national railway network remained in Wellington. In 2004 Tranz Rail was sold to Toll NZ Ltd, who then sold the track and infrastructure back to the Railways Corporation.

Between August 2003 and October 2008 the main station building was refurbished at a cost of NZ$14.6 million to house part of Victoria University in the West wing and Toll NZ (now KiwiRail) in the East wing. This work included a seismic upgrade, restoration and refurbishment, and installing three new lifts and a dedicated access in the south west corner to the university wing from the concourse. The architect was Athfield Architects with construction undertaken by Fletcher Construction. As part of this reorganization of the building the 24-hour-a-day train control centre was relocated from the western wing to the eastern side of the southern part of the building.

On 4 December 2006 the New World Railway Metro supermarket opened on the ground floor. This coincided with the closure of the Railway Kiosk and the American Hotdog vendor.

In 2010 the former social hall was converted into 660 square metres of boutique office space.

The station was registered on 25 September 1986 as a Category I Historic Place.

The station was used in a 2009 TV advert in the United Kingdom for train ticketing company TheTrainLine, where a large flock of sheep use the station facilities.