Buses replace trains over Easter

Wellington’s railway lines will be humming this Easter as Ontrack takes advantage of the quiet holiday period to carry on with its programme of improvements around the region.

To give Ontrack 97 uninterrupted hours to continue with its upgrade of Wellington’s rail network, Tranz Metro trains will be replaced with buses on some parts of the network over Easter.

The work is part of the Wellington Region Rail Programme, a series of improvements to the Wellington railway system that will give commuters more reliable and frequent passenger services. This is a joint initiative between the Greater Wellington Regional Council and KiwiRail (ONTRACK and Tranz Metro).

To cater for passengers during the major works over Easter, bus replacements have been arranged by Tranz Metro. Buses will leave Platform 9 at Wellington Railway station and drop off and pick up passengers normally. However, bicycles cannot be carried.

Between 4am Good Friday (10 April) and midnight on Easter Monday (13 April), bus replacements will run on the Hutt Valley line between Taita and Wellington; on the Paraparaumu line between Tawa and Wellington; on the whole Johnsonville line and all Wairarapa services. However the Overlander will be running as normal.

All services including the bus replacements will run to the Sunday timetable on Good Friday, Easter Sunday and Monday, with the normal Saturday timetable on 11 April. The extra Friday evening Wairarapa services will run on Thursday instead as Good Friday is a public holiday. Normal services will resume with the first trains on Tuesday morning.

Most of the activity over Easter will be centred on the Wellington rail yards, where Ontrack is installing a third main line to reduce congestion for passenger trains travelling in and out of Wellington Railway Station. The whole project will take eighteen months to complete and this weekend’s work will help prepare the site - moving structures, drilling holes for the steel poles to hold the overhead wires that power the electric trains, and building retaining walls.

Also this Easter weekend, a range of other maintenance work will be done. Having no trains running enables a clean up and safety upgrade of Naenae Station and demolition of the building at Epuni Station to make way for modern shelters.

The entire Wellington Region Rail Programme includes:
• extending electrification and double tracked lines to take commuter services to Waikanae;
• installing power supply equipment and railway signalling to accommodate the fleet of new electric trains ordered by Greater Wellington Regional Council;
• adding another line into Wellington Railway Station to reduce delays;
• making the Johnsonville Line tunnels larger; and
• improving a number of platform and station facilities.