Wellington ’s Christmas rail upgrade package passes the half-way mark

KiwiRail’s engineering work in Wellington over the summer has passed its halfway mark, with passenger train services returning to Wellington on Monday (3 January 2011) after major upgrade work at the entrance to the Wellington Station platforms was completed.

Commuter services are running on the Johnsonville and Hutt Valley lines as are services between Wellington and Porirua However, services north of Porirua to Paraparaumu and the Capital Connection are still suspended as planned while work continues along the track between Plimmerton and Waikanae.

KiwiRail’s Project Director David Gordon said today that the work at the Wellington station entry junction – an area known as A Box – involved taking all the lines into and out of the station out of service while the main points were replaced.

“It’s a job that could only be done when there are no trains running for an extended period.”

Other overhead line, signals and track maintenance and vegetation control work was done on all lines while the train services were suspended.

He said that KiwiRail took advantage of the shut down to do works that would otherwise have disrupted commuters later in the year.

Major work is still progressing at North South Junction, the area of rail track and tunnels between Pukerua Bay and Paekakariki, north of Wellington, and on the double tracking to Waikanae. Commuter services are scheduled to recommence from Paraparaumu on Monday the 10th of January.

Mr Gordon said that despite some very challenging weather early on, good progress has been made on both those projects. “While the requirement to re-open the on the 10th remains a demanding challenge there is nothing in progress to date to suggest we won’t make it. The next 2-3 days will be critical and we will be monitoring progress very closely.”
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