Hutt Valley Transport

Hutt News, Volume 20, Issue 12, 13 March 1946, Page 5

Hutt Valley Transport

ELECTRIFICATION OF LINES SCHEME TO COST £4,000,000 The Minister of Works, Hon. R. Semple, in outlining the improved railway transport facilities which it is proposed to provide for the Hutt Valley following the electrification and duplication of the suburban railway suburban system between Wellington and Upper Hutt at an estimated cost of £4,000,000, said these would be: —All day long a half-hour, service to Upper Hutt; to and from Taita every quarter-hour, and better than a ten-minute service between Petone and the city; at peak times, more frequent trains; home to Petone in nine minutes non-stop; or to Naenae in 16 minutes; 47 minutes to Upper Hutt, stopping at all stations, and with fewer stops, 37 minutes. Multiple-unit electric trains of three, six or nine cars running on a new double track east of the Hutt river were to be used. Increase in Population "Between the last two censuses — from 193 6 to 1945—the population of the Hutt Valley and Eastbourne increased by almost 60 per cent", said" the Minister. "It is now more than 60,000 and at the present rate of growth will be 75,000 five years hence. Electrification of the line has become essential. "Passenger journeys by rail and bus on the Department's WellingtonUpper Hutt (including local) services have more than doubled in eight years, rising from 6,964,879 in the financial year 1937-38 to 14,888,992 in 1944-45. The current year promises a further advance of a million journeys. Electric trains will solve our problem. They will enable us to provide faster, cleaner, and more frequent services than are possible with steam; they will make us independent of coal supplies: and, by replacing road services as well as steam trains, they will help us to save petrol."