1946: The Start of Operations for a Suburban Railway Station on New Zealand’s North Island

January 7, 1946

On New Zealand’s North Island, a railway station in the city of Lower Hutt was officially opened. (At the time, New Zealand was still a dominion of the British Empire; it achieved full autonomy the following year.) This station serves Lower Hutt’s suburbs of Naenae and Avalon. The Naenae railway station, as it is called, is now part of the Wairarapa Line’s Hutt Valley segment between Lower Hutt and New Zealand’s capital city of Wellington.

In the years since its debut, Naenae railway station — depicted in the accompanying photo taken in 2021 — has undergone a couple of major renovations. The most recent of these was a comprehensive makeover carried out in 2023-24. The key results of this makeover included cultural designs that were created by sculptural artist Len Hetet; a fresh paint job for the entire facility; and a public announcement system.

Photo Credit: YttriumShrew (https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/User:YttriumShrew) — licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 4.0 International license at https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/deed.en

For more information on Naenae railway station, please check out https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Naenae_railway_station