Woburn Railway Station is an intermediate station in Lower Hutt

Lower Hutt

Lower Hutt is a city in the Wellington region of New Zealand. Its council has adopted the name Hutt City Council, but neither the New Zealand Geographic Board nor the Local Government Act recognise the name Hutt City. This alternative name can lead to confusion, as there are two cities in the...

, New Zealand

New Zealand

New Zealand is an island country in the south-western Pacific Ocean comprising two main landmasses and numerous smaller islands. The country is situated some east of Australia across the Tasman Sea, and roughly south of the Pacific island nations of New Caledonia, Fiji, and Tonga...

 served by Tranz Metro

Tranz Metro

Tranz Metro, part of KiwiRail, is the operator of Metlink suburban trains owned by the Greater Wellington Regional Council in the Wellington Region of New Zealand....

's electric multiple unit

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 number of the carriages...

 trains on the Hutt Valley Line section of the Wairarapa Line

Wairarapa Line

The Wairarapa Line is a secondary railway line in the south-east of the North Island of New Zealand, connecting the capital city of Wellington with the Wairarapa region. The line ends at Woodville, where it joins the Palmerston North - Gisborne Line...

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The island platform

Island platform

An island platform is a station layout arrangement where a single platform is positioned between two tracks within a railway station, tram stop or transitway interchange...

 station between double tracks serves the suburb of Woburn

Woburn, New Zealand

Woburn is a suburb of Lower Hutt, Wellington situated at the bottom of the North Island of New Zealand.Henry Petre farmed the area in the 1840s and named the area after the Duke of Bedford's estate, Woburn Abbey. Petre's farm was later taken over by Daniel and Harriet Riddiford, whose descendants...

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History

The station was one of the three new stations on the then Hutt Valley Branch, opened on 26 May 1927. From 1 March 1954 with the closing of the Melling-Haywards section, this route became the main route to Upper Hutt and the Wairarapa.

Woburn station was rebuilt at the time of electrification (c1955). The old Waterloo building was added to the existing Woburn building. Woburn had four sidings to provide shunting space for trains reversing when travelling to or from the workshops, but why a triangle was never built between the two lines has never been fully explained (Hoy).
Woburn was initially an interchange for bus and rail services, but in 1986 the Hutt Valley Transport Study decided that Waterloo

Waterloo Interchange (Hutt Central) Railway Station

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 , between Pohutukawa Street and Cambridge Terrace...

was a more logical choice. Waterloo 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.

External links

• Passenger service timetables from Metlink and Tranz Metro.
• Photo of Woburn Station site, 1927
• Photo of Woburn Station opening, 1927
• Woburn to Waterloo (Local Running Instructions, 1960)