Lyttelton Railway Station

First station (1867–1873)

Canterbury Superintendent Moorhouse engaged the services of Melbourne-based contractors Holmes & Co. on 16 April 1861 to construct the Lyttelton rail tunnel. The contract did not cover the erection of stations, but these, including the station at Lyttelton, were also built by the contractor at cost plus a margin of 15%. Work on the contract commenced later that year.

The original plan for the Lyttelton station, as suggested by Provincial Engineer Dobson in 1864, was to have the track terminate at a station on a jetty in line with the rail tunnel, as was subsequently done at Port Chalmers in Dunedin. The following year, the provincial executive decided instead to locate the station in front of the town. This necessitated the reclamation of land for the station and yard, with this being formed during the construction of the tunnel using fill extracted from the bore. Plans for the station included an export shed, goods shed, offices, and a platform.

The station opened on 9 December 1867, coinciding with the official opening of the tunnel, to a crowd of around 500 people when the first train arrived. Some of the first passengers to arrive commented to the effect that the station was not finished, even appearing temporary in nature.

The station building was a small wooden structure with a gabled roof, with dimensions of 16 by 35 feet (4.9 by 10.7 m). Trains were worked to the sides of ships for the transfer of cargo by means of wagon turntables, as the lines for the station yard were at right angles to the wharves. Access to the goods shed was provided by means of a traverser.

Second station (1873–1963)

Plans for the second station were drawn up in January 1873. John Marshman, General Manager of the Canterbury Provincial Railways, successfully convinced the provincial government to erect verandahs over the station platforms arguing that "... I do not remember seeing anywhere a railway station of the dimensions and importance of that at Lyttelton where people were sent out of doors in all weathers to reach the carriages." The station was brought into service on completion in August 1873.

With several alterations and additions, this station served Lyttelton for 90 years until replaced by a modern structure in 1963. The station offices were placed at right angles to the passenger platforms, originally on the western side of Oxford Street, but later being moved to the other side of the same street in about 1882. The platform was lengthened in 1903 to accommodate an additional two carriages, necessitating the relocation of the lamp room to a position near the engine shed. The railway stores shed was destroyed by fire, presumed to be arson, on 6 November 1937. Following the removal of a siding to Kinsey & Company's store near the station, a 50-foot (15 m) extension of the platform at the west end was authorised in 1950, after difficulties were experienced in placing mixed consists (a common practice at the time) at the platform.

The many decades of service provided by this station necessitated several significant repairs or renovations over the course of its existence. In 1910, the District Engineer wrote to the Chief Engineer to point out the many defects that had developed, and made known his preference for the erection of a new station. This was not forthcoming, and he was directed to make whatever repairs were necessary to the existing structure. A later report from the District Engineer in 1935 noted that several buildings at Lyttelton, dating from 1882, were irreparably infested with borer. By the 1950s, years of deferred maintenance had led to the station buildings becoming dilapidated. Despite this, it was not until the late 1950s that a decision was finally made to replace the station.

Proposed station (1920s)

By the time electrification became a serious proposition for Christchurch in the 1920s, the Lyttelton station was showing its age. As upgrading of the line between Christchurch and Lyttelton was a major undertaking, it was proposed that this would also be an opportune time to replace the Lyttelton station with a new facility. It was also around this time that plans were being prepared for a new station at Christchurch, and it was desired to build a new station for Lyttelton at around the same time.

The Minister of Railways, Gordon Coates, included the construction of a new station at Lyttelton in the programme of works for 1924. Though plans for the station were completed in 1927 and promises made by the Railways Department to build it after the electrification of the Lyttelton rail tunnel, no progress on the matter was forthcoming. The stationmaster noted in 1928 that it was his understanding that the construction of a new station at Lyttelton had been indefinitely postponed. In light of this, he arranged for the station buildings to be painted instead.

The matter of a new station was again raised in the mid-1930s, by which time the state of the facilities at Lyttelton had continued to deteriorate. On 10 August 1936, the same year that plans for the new Christchurch station were approved, the Minister of Railways, Dan Sullivan, stated in an interview that "The matter is receiving consideration at present, but the request has to be considered in the light of requests for stations in other places where there are also very good claims." He went on to say that Lyttelton could expect a new station, but he could not say when this would happen. When the stationmaster requested early the following year to be consulted on the plans for the new station before they were finalised, he was informed by the District Traffic Manager that there were no proposals of even a tentative nature for the erection of a new station at Lyttelton. The station was finally painted in 1940 following concerns expressed by the local council about its appearance, a move that was regarded as being an indication that the Railways Department had shelved plans to build a new station.

Third station and yard (1963 – present)

The Chief Civil Engineer wrote to the District Engineer on 5 July 1957 to inform him that Lyttelton was next in line for a station upgrade. A survey of the existing building was requested so the Working Estimates for the project could be prepared. The survey was duly completed and, after considering the many faults in the building highlighted by the survey, the Chief Civil Engineer confirmed in writing to the District Engineer on 12 February 1959 that it had been decided to replace the station building rather than try to renovate the existing building. He therefore requested that the requirements of the staff based at Lyttelton be determined, and that plans be prepared for a suitable new structure.

Even before the third station opened, there were doubts about the long term viability of passenger rail services between Lyttelton and Christchurch. The Lyttelton road tunnel would soon become a reality, providing a much more convenient road link between Lyttelton Harbour and the Canterbury Plains. This was expected to enable the growth of road transport as a serious competitor to the railways for the custom of passengers, and concerns were expressed that given this state of affairs, a new station for Lyttelton could not be justified. Despite this, the Minister of Railways John McAlpine announced on 7 August 1962 that the Cabinet had approved a redevelopment of the railway facilities at Lyttelton.

As part of the station redevelopment, the functions of the Goods Office were moved to the former Harbour Board building on the corner of Oxford Street and Norwich Quay. This building was also to house the station master, the railway port superintendent, the goods supervisor, and their respective support staff. Renovation of this building for its new function was underway in September 1962, and was expected to be completed by the end of the year. Following completion of these renovations, and the relocation of the goods office, the old Goods Office building was scheduled for demolition. The demolition was delayed while the power supply for the station was re-routed, as it had been fed through the Goods Office building. The land formerly occupied by this building was reallocated for use as a car park.

Once work on the Goods Office was completed, construction of the new station commenced in January 1963, next to the existing station. The old station remained in use while the new station was being built until 10 June 1963 when the first section of the new station was brought into service. At this time, the old station was demolished in stages to make way for the construction of the remainder of the new station.

The official opening ceremony was held on 14 October 1963 and presided over by the mayor of Lyttelton, Mr. J. B. Collett. Various other dignitaries and invited guests were present, including the Minister of Railways, John McAlpine (who officially opened the station), the local member for parliament, Norman Kirk, and the Railways general manager, Mr. A. T. Gandell. An invitation to attend was also extended to members of the public. During his speech, the mayor expressed his confidence that, despite the impending completion of the Lyttelton road tunnel, and the desire expressed by the Christchurch Transport Board to operate bus services to Lyttelton, both road and rail could coexist to meet Lyttelton's transport requirements. Two buses were provided to convey official guests to the Borough Council Chambers for morning tea.

A new goods shed at Lyttelton was completed and ready for use on 7 December 1970. Many years later, an internal Railways Department memorandum in 1988 noted that the goods shed had been closed.

It was proposed in 1972 to alter the station building to accommodate all of the salaried division staff that were based at Lyttelton. These staff were at the time working in the old Harbour Board building, which was considered to be an unsatisfactory situation. With the reduction in traffic to Lyttelton following the cancellation of suburban passenger services, some of the facilities in the station building were no longer required, and it was suggested that the building could be better utilised to house the remaining staff.

The District Engineer requested on 30 September 1977 that the dock siding at Lyttelton station be removed on the basis that the track was in poor condition and that access to the siding by trains was blocked. The District Traffic Manager responded several days later to say that this track had, in fact, been renewed, and that it was still required for the stabling of shunting locomotives and track maintenance vehicles.

The station platform was shortened in 1980 when it was reported that the curved portion of the platform, east of the station building, was causing problems with clearances. It was determined that this part of the platform was surplus to requirements and therefore its removal was requested. It had previously served both the main line and the dock siding that terminated behind the station building.

Sidings

Numerous sidings have served private customers in the vicinity of Lyttelton station. None of these sidings remain in service, though the sidings that served the oil companies in the vicinity of Godley Quay, Cyrus Williams Quay, George Seymour Quay, and Charlotte Jane Quay are still physically in place.

Wharves

The wharves of the Lyttelton port played a major part in the rail operations at Lyttelton station. All railway operations at the port were managed by the Railways Department until the mid-1970s when the port was classified as a container port and the Minister of Railways decided to phase out Department operations there over the next two years. During this transitional period, responsibility for management of the wharves was transferred to the harbour board.

At around the time the rail connection to wharf no. 2 was removed, the Railways Department decided to also rationalise their trackwork on the waterfront and informed the Harbour Board of their plans to disconnect wharves 4 and 7. The Harbour Board inspected wharf no. 4 and determined that rail access to it could continue for several more years provided repairs were made. They were also advised by the Traffic Manager that rail access to wharf no. 4 was still required, and it was therefore decided not to make any changes to this connection. However, the Department decided in October to proceed with its plans for wharf no. 7 and arrangements were made with the Inspector of the Permanent Way for this work to be carried out.

Further modifications were planned to waterfront trackwork in 1982 when the Department notified the Harbour Board that it intended to remove rail access to No. 1 Breastwork. In a missive from the Chief Civil Engineer to the District Engineer on 28 August 1984, it was noted that wharf no. 2 had been disconnected, and that only wharves 3 and 7 retained operable rail connections.

Wharf no. 2

Perhaps the most well-known wharf to the railways travelling public was wharf no. 2, also known as the Steamer Express Wharf, which for over 70 years served as the inter-island ferry wharf for the boat trains that terminated at Lyttelton. From 1902, trains collected passengers from, and delivered passengers to, ferries berthed at this wharf. The ferries were operated by the Union Steam Ship Company until 1974, at which point the Ministry of Transport took over the operation until the service was cancelled in 1976.

Several facilities were installed on the wharf in addition to the railway tracks, including: a wooden platform and veranda which was used by passengers to board and alight from the trains; several windbreak walls; a stock race; a staircase and gangway to board and disembark passengers for the ferries; a cafeteria; a store room; and a main office building, which was used by both the Railways Department and the Union Company until the early 1960s when the Railways Department relocated to a new building. The office was extended in 1954 and used by day by the Railways Department to sell train tickets, and by night by the Union Company to sell ferry tickets.

In February 1965 the Lyttelton Harbour Board decided to construct a new passenger terminal and vehicle loading facility on wharf no. 2 to cater for the new roll on/roll off ferries due to enter service from December that year. To facilitate the construction work, the harbour board arranged for the inter-island ferries to use wharf no. 3 for the remainder of the year, and requested that the Railways Department-owned veranda be shortened to allow the new building to be erected.

The harbour board consulted with the Railways Department on the design of the new facilities and requested that the Department consider a contribution towards the cost of the project. The Department responded with several suggestions, including a request that the board consider amending its plans to allow for a wider 13 feet (4.0 m) platform, as they considered the board's plans for an 8 feet (2.4 m) wide platform to be insufficient. The Department also considered that as the primary beneficiaries of the new facilities would be the Union Company, and that little if any additional revenue was likely for the Department as a result of the improved facilities, that they were not liable for any of the cost beyond any necessary alterations to the facilities on the wharf that they already owned.

Construction of the new terminal had commenced by June 1965 and was completed several months later in December. The Union Company inaugurated the first of two of its new roll on/roll off ferries and the new facilities at a function on Monday, 20 December 1965. The Railways Department maintained a desire to augment the platform, and in 1968 the District Traffic Manager – with the support of the Lyttelton Stationmaster – requested the District Engineer to seriously consider the idea of lengthening the platform to the end of the wharf which would allow for an additional two carriages to be attached to the trains.

Following the cancellation of the inter-island ferries, and at the instigation of the Harbour Board, the District Engineer requested authorisation from the Chief Civil Engineer for the removal of the redundant veranda on 30 September 1976 and was granted such permission on 26 October. On 17 May 1979 it was reported that part of the veranda had been removed but some of it remained as the area beneath it was being used as a car park. It was suggested that the remainder of the veranda be offered for sale to the Harbour Board or removed by the Department. The Harbour Board agreed to purchase the veranda and informed the Department of its intention to eventually demolish it as part of wharf reconstruction works. The Department later agreed on 14 August to transfer responsibility for the veranda to the Harbour Board at no cost.

The Harbour Board advised the Railways Department in August 1979 that rail connections to wharf no. 2 were surplus to their requirements. Based on this advice, the Department decided in October to remove the rail connection to wharf no. 2 and the District Engineer requested that the Inspector of the Permanent Way make the necessary arrangements.

Operations

The first train to Lyttelton was a freight consist headed by the provincial railways No. 3 locomotive, which ran through the tunnel to Lyttelton the week of 25 November, two weeks before the official opening of the tunnel and the station. The first passenger train arrived at Lyttelton on 9 December 1867, the date the station was officially opened.

After opening, operations settled down to a schedule of three mixed return services for daily runs between Lyttelton and Christchurch. Passenger traffic on the preceding Ferrymead line had been very light, consisting almost entirely of people living in the vicinity, as the walk over the Port Hills was considered to be too arduous.

For most people Lyttelton was an important transfer point for their inter-island journeys. From 1895, and nightly from 1905, an inter-island ferry service operated between Wellington and Lyttelton, providing the main means by which people travelled between the two islands. At Lyttelton, passengers were required to transfer their own luggage between the ferries on the No. 2 wharf and the trains at Lyttelton station. Beginning in 1902, the express trains pulled up beside the ferries on the wharf enabling the direct transfer of passengers and their luggage between the ferries and the trains. To do this, the trains were hauled past Lyttelton station into a headshunt, from which they were moved by a different locomotive around a sharp curve onto the wharf.

A major improvement in operations to Lyttelton was heralded by the inauguration of electrification on 14 February 1929, when the first electric locomotive-hauled passenger service arrived from Christchurch. This was the first suburban electric train service in the country, and its implementation was based on the successful electrification of the Otira Tunnel in 1923. Introduction of the electric services was a move popular with both train crews and passengers alike, eliminating the nuisance of smoke in the tunnel they had previously endured. For much of their 41 years of service, the electric locomotives provided 20 daily return services to Lyttelton. The economics of their operation and replacement forced their retirement and the de-electrification of the line in 1970.

A Drewery rail tractor was based at Lyttelton in 1936 for a trial period to be used for shunting operations. Members of the shunting staff based at Lyttelton were trained in its use by the locomotive staff, with maintenance carried out by the traffic staff. The tractor was stored in the steam locomotive shed and was used, for the purposes of evaluation, for as much of the shunting work as possible to reduce the amount of time the steam locomotives were required for the work. Later, diesel locomotives began to make their presence felt at Lyttelton, and in 1969 four Hitachi rail tractors were assigned there. However, steam locomotives were still used for the South Island Limited at Lyttelton until the late 1960s.

In response to a request for the Railways Department to cease blocking access to the Breakwater and Launch wharves in winter months when A^B class locomotives were used to heat the carriages of the Steamer Express trains, the Department sought clearance from the Harbour Board to stand the locomotives on the wharf while the carriages were being heated. Approval was granted in June 1966 for this to happen on the condition that the locomotives venture no further than 20 yards (18 m) onto the wharf. This was considered to be a permanent arrangement for wharf no. 2, but only a temporary measure for wharf no. 3 pending the arrival of the second roll on/roll off ferry at which time the ferries and the Steamer Express trains would cease using this wharf. The Working Timetable was later amended in September to authorise the use of A^B locomotives up to the shore end of the platform on the wharf.

The transfer of mail between the inter-island steamer ferries and trains used to be a significant source of traffic for Lyttelton. Mail items were transported in hampers, bags, or crates, and transferred on and off the ship using slings. Local services were used to transport the mail between Christchurch and the port in postal vans. Following the introduction of the rail-air service in the 1960s, use of the ferries to transport the mail between Christchurch and Wellington declined.

Passenger services between Christchurch and Lyttelton steadily lost patronage following the opening of the Lyttelton road tunnel in 1964. When the line was de-electrified a limited diesel-hauled passenger service was introduced. However, it was not enough to arrest the decline in patronage, and as a result the service was cancelled on 28 February 1972. The "boat train" express services that connected with the Steamer Express ferries were likewise cancelled four years later on 14 September 1976, coinciding with the cancellation of the inter-island ferry services. These latter services were, from 1 December 1970, provided by The Southerner which terminated at Lyttelton.

The Acting District Traffic Manager made the following points in a missive dated 5 February 1982 that give some insight into the type and volume of traffic handled at Lyttelton at the time:

Today

The station building opened in 1963 still exists and is now owned by KiwiRail through Tranz Scenic. The Lyttelton Port of Christchurch now owns the land behind the station building for which access is restricted to authorised personnel. The original Lyttelton station signal box also survives, and is now sited near the station building. It was originally located at the western end of the yard near the tunnel portal. All railway-related facilities on wharf no. 2 have been removed including the railway/ferry inter-modal facilities.

Lyttelton remains a busy rail freight yard that continues to serve the Lyttelton Port of Christchurch. Major sources of traffic for the port include export dairy products, coal, timber, vehicles, and other general container freight. New Zealand Railways Corporation staff were based at Lyttelton station through the 1980s for the management of container traffic, but have since been relocated; all Lyttelton-based railways-related staff now work out of the station building. Railway operations staff have maintained a continuous presence in the station building where they make use of some of the rooms for staff facilities. The station building has hosted or is currently hosting other short-term private lessees including New Zealand Express Transport and the Lyttelton Information Centre.

Beginning with the 1997–1998 summer season, Tranz Scenic have provided day trips for passengers from cruise ships docked at Lyttelton out to Arthur's Pass. Initially, these passengers were collected by coach from Lyttelton and transferred to Christchurch from whence they departed on the TranzAlpine service. From 2000, Tranz Scenic have run special trains which collect the passengers from Lyttelton railway station and take them direct to Arthur's Pass using spare carriages from the TranzAlpine/TranzCoastal fleet. This operation has required the use of some office space in the station building, as well as the station precinct to transfer passengers between trains and buses. Some tour groups travel by train to Arthur's Pass and return to Lyttelton, while other groups only make half the journey by train and complete the trip by coach. As the track adjacent to the station's platform has been removed, passenger trains stop outside the station building on the track nearest the platform, where passengers board or alight from the train. Buses are used to transfer passengers between the trains and the wharf at which their ship is docked for security reasons. Though the number of these special trains varies from season to season, business has been generally improving, with 43 services booked for the summer of 2008–2009.

The Lyttelton Port Company has announced that they will be installing an extended siding at Lyttelton to enable them to handle longer freight trains. The new 24-wagon siding will replace two existing 8-wagon sidings which will reduce the amount of time spent on marshaling the trains. The move is part of a plan to increase their annual container capacity by 40,000 TEUs to approximately 300,000 and to increase the use of the port-to-city container shuttle rail service. Long-term the port hopes to move its operations to new wharves and to remove the existing wharves in front of the town.

Proposals

Various calls have been made in support of a reintroduction of passenger rail services for Christchurch. Several reports have been commissioned to this effect, some of which have proposed new suburban services along the Main South Line from Lyttelton. Currently there are no plans for any of these proposals to proceed to implementation.