Why the station needs to move

The reasons for shifting the railway station cut across the three main aspects of RiverLink: Making Places, flood prevention and the Melling intersection improvements. Close inter-agency collaboration ensures that RiverLink as a whole can maximise the opportunities created by moving the station.

Shifting the railway station to the south was first signalled by the Hutt City Council in the 2009 Making Places Strategy. Moving the railway station would make the city centre more accessible and attractive to businesses and residents.

The New Zealand Transport Agency is working on ways to improve the Melling intersection and connections to the western hill suburbs. They are also exploring how these improvements could be integrated with new stopbanks and a new bridge into the city centre. Melling railway station would need to be moved in order for there to be space for any intersection improvements to be built.

“As part of RiverLink, we are investigating improvements to the Melling intersection. The present location of the Melling railway station limits our ability to improve safety and travel reliability on State Highway 2 and to improve access to the Lower Hutt city centre,” says Emma Speight, the Transport Agency’s Director Regional Relationship Manager – Lower North Island.