Waterloo Interchange (Hutt Central) Railway Station

Infobox Station
name=Waterloo Interchange (Hutt Central)
type=Metlink suburban rail


image_size=
image_caption=
address=Cambridge Terrace, Lower Hutt
coordinates= coord|41|12|49.77|S|174|55|15.95|E|type:railwaystation_region:NZ
line=Wairarapa Line
other=Bus services
structure=
platform=Dual, side
levels=
tracks=Main line (2)
parking=Yes
bicycle=Yes
baggage_check=No
passengers=
pass_year=
pass_percent=
pass_system=
opened=1927-05-26
closed=
rebuilt=1988-11-26
electrified=1953-09-12
ADA=
code=
owned=Greater Wellington Regional Council
zone=4 [cite web |url=http://www.metlink.org.nz/story21116.php? |title=Text description of fare zone boundaries |accessdate=2007-11-27 |accessmonthday= |accessdaymonth= |accessyear= |author=Metlink |last= |first= |authorlink=Public transport in Wellington |coauthors= |date= |year= |month= |format= |work= |publisher=Greater Wellington Regional Council |pages= |language= |doi= |archiveurl= |archivedate= |quote= ]
former=Waterloo
services=s-start
mpassengers=

Waterloo Interchange railway station is a two-platform urban railway station in Waterloo, a suburb of the city of Lower Hutt in the Wellington region of New Zealand’s North Island. It is on the Wairarapa Line (formerly the Hutt Valley Branch), between Pohutukawa Street and Cambridge Terrace. Cambridge Terrace joins Eastern Hutt Road, the main thoroughfare for along the eastern side of the Hutt Valley. Waterloo is an important transit hub for Wainuiomata, as it is through this station that buses from Wainuiomata connects with the Hutt Valley. This station is served by Wairarapa Connection and Hutt Valley Line trains.

The station is over the road from an ambulance station and shopping precinct, and is next to a bus depot. It is a few minutes' walk from a fire station. Due to its status as an interchange, it is a point of convergence for several bus routes.

History

Two major reasons were the impetus for the construction of the Hutt Valley Branch between Petone and Waterloo: first, the Petone Workshops had reached the end of their useful life; second, with increasing traffic demands on the line between Petone and Haywards and the lack of room to double-track the line on its existing route meant a new main line had to be built. The line was surveyed between 1924 and 1925, with a short industrial branch leaving the Hutt Valley Branch at Woburn to serve the new Hutt Workshops. On 26 May 1927 the rails reached Waterloo, which was then in the middle of open fields, hard to imagine today given suburban development. This station was the terminus of the Hutt Valley Branch line until an extension north to Naenae was opened in 1946. The station was opened with automatic, three-aspect colour light signals which had been standard since 1924.

It was always intended that Waterloo would one day serve a major population centre which, in the years following World War II and the population boom that ensued, was proved correct. Significant urban development of the Hutt Valley in the 1940s led to the decision in February 1946 to commence electrification in 1949 and to operate electric train between Waterloo and Wellington from August 1953. Until the connection of the Hutt Valley Branch to the Wairarapa Line and its opening as the new main line on 1 March 1954, Waterloo served only suburban passenger services, with Upper Hutt and Wairarapa trains continuing to use the old line between Haywards and Petone on the western side of the Hutt Valley.

In 1986, as a result of the Hutt Valley Transport Study, Waterloo was designated an interchange for bus and rail services in preference to Woburn, which had previously had this role. It was felt that Waterloo was a more logical choice as it was closer to centres of residential and commercial interest, had sufficient room for bus platforms to be installed, and was not burdened with other operational requirements such as Woburn being the junction with the Gracefield Branch, with its loops and sidings. The new interchange facility at Waterloo was opened on 26 November 1988, and fully integrated with all the new public transport routes and timetables by the following March.

Services

The following Metlink bus routes pass through or terminate at Waterloo:
* 121: Valley Heights
* 130: Naenae
* 150: Western Hills
* 160: Wainuiomata North
* 165: Village Link
* 170: Wainuiomata South

References

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Footnotes

External links

* Passenger service timetables from [http://www.metlink.org.nz/section10.php Metlink] and [http://www.tranzmetro.co.nz/ Tranz Metro] .