Bay Harbour: April 12, 2023

<strong>Bay</strong> <strong>Harbour</strong> News Wednesday <strong>April</strong> <strong>12</strong> <strong>2023</strong><br />

10<br />

TREASURES FROM THE PAST<br />

Lyttelton Railway Station’s 105 years<br />

The Oxford St entrance to the Lyttelton Railway Station and port, framed by the harbour<br />

board and post office. Te Ūaka The Lyttelton Museum ref. 14986.172<br />

https://www.teuaka.org.nz/online-collection/1136182<br />

Top right – The Lyttelton railway yards, 1875. Te Ūaka The Lyttelton Museum ref. 14985.20<br />

https://www.teuaka.org.nz/online-collection/1135995<br />

FOR OVER a century, the town<br />

centre of Ōhinehou Lyttelton<br />

revolved not solely around<br />

London St, but extended down<br />

along Oxford St to the port quays<br />

and their public transport hub at<br />

the Lyttelton Railway Station.<br />

In days gone by, turning right<br />

into Oxford St from London St,<br />

you would have passed by HP<br />

Hobson’s, later Collett’s Chemist,<br />

with the borough council offices<br />

and the old library and fire<br />

station across the street, and the<br />

war memorial in the centre of<br />

the intersection.<br />

Walking down the steep footpath<br />

past Norton’s Tea Rooms<br />

and Dance Hall, followed by<br />

the Tin Palace, you would have<br />

come to the busy intersection of<br />

Oxford St and Norwich Quay.<br />

Here, you would find the British<br />

and Canterbury hotels opposite<br />

the fine harbour board and the<br />

post and telegraph office with<br />

its clock tower, with Oxford St<br />

continuing on into the Lyttelton<br />

Railway Station yard and the<br />

wharves beyond.<br />

Established in 1867, the<br />

Lyttelton Railway Station was<br />

constructed to accommodate<br />

passengers traversing the<br />

recently completed Moorhouse<br />

Rail Tunnel, thus rendering the<br />

Ferrymead Railway – New Zealand’s<br />

inaugural public railway<br />

line – obsolete.<br />

The Lyttelton station held<br />

considerable significance as it<br />

facilitated a crucial connection<br />

between the port of Lyttelton<br />

and the city of Christchurch, as<br />

well as linking the port to the<br />

wider Canterbury region. This<br />

connectivity allowed for the<br />

efficient transport of goods and<br />

passengers by means of rail, and<br />

resulted in the rapid expansion<br />

of freight and passenger rail services<br />

through the latter decades<br />

of the 19th century.<br />

The initial station building was<br />

a humble wooden construction,<br />

featuring a gabled roof and<br />

dimensions of just five by 11 metres.<br />

A crowd of approximately<br />

500 citizens gathered there on<br />

December 9, 1867 to welcome<br />

the arrival of the first passenger<br />

train, with some noting the station<br />

appeared to be unfinished,<br />

without a roofed platform, and of<br />

a ‘temporary quality’.<br />

In January 1873, with the<br />

station having survived the<br />

great fire of 1870, designs for a<br />

new and more accommodating<br />

building were devised.<br />

Canterbury Provincial Railways<br />

general manager John Marshman<br />

successfully persuaded the<br />

provincial government to construct<br />

verandas over the station<br />

platforms, arguing he had never<br />

seen a railway station of Lyttelton’s<br />

significance that required<br />

passengers to brave the rain in<br />

order to board a train.<br />

This second rainproof<br />

railway station commenced<br />

operation upon its completion<br />

in August 1873. However, it<br />

would be another six years,<br />

and some <strong>12</strong> years after the rail<br />

tunnel opened, before regularly<br />

scheduled passenger rail<br />

services between Lyttelton and<br />

Christchurch would finally commence<br />

on December 17, 1879.<br />

Through to the 20th century,<br />

the railway station became an<br />

important public transportation<br />

hub for the region, with its<br />

passenger trains connecting<br />

with steam ferries to and from<br />

Diamond <strong>Harbour</strong>, the Corsair<br />

<strong>Bay</strong> Recreation Reserve, and bays<br />

around Horomaka Banks Peninsula,<br />

along with a regular Royal<br />

Mail passenger coach service to<br />

Governors <strong>Bay</strong> and beyond.<br />

Throughout its nine long<br />

decades of service to the community,<br />

this second station saw<br />

a huge growth in passenger<br />

services, along with the advent<br />

of electric trains in 1929, and<br />

went through multiple repairs<br />

and refurbishments. After just<br />

30 years, in 1910, the district<br />

engineer had recommended its<br />

demolition and the building of a<br />

new station, to no avail. A quarter<br />

of a century later, in 1935,<br />

another district engineer noted<br />

a severe borer infestation. Yet it<br />

was not until August 7, 1962 that<br />

the Minister of Railways John<br />

McAlpine finally announced the<br />

demolition and redevelopment<br />

of a rather dilapidated Lyttelton<br />

Railway Station.<br />

The construction project<br />

went ahead despite concerns<br />

surrounding the long-term<br />

sustainability of passenger rail<br />

services between Lyttelton and<br />

Christchurch, as the imminent<br />

completion of the Lyttelton Road<br />

Tunnel was expected to establish<br />

road transport as a serious competitor<br />

for public patronage.<br />

And sure enough, the distinctly<br />

1960s-style third Lyttelton<br />

Railway Station remained operational<br />

for just shy of a decade before<br />

the New Zealand Railways<br />

department made the decision<br />

to terminate passenger services<br />

through the Lyttelton Railway<br />

Tunnel due to diminishing<br />

passenger counts. The regular<br />

passenger rail service between<br />

Lyttelton and Christchurch was<br />

thus discontinued on February<br />

28, 1972, and with it the century-long<br />

history of the Lyttelton<br />

Railway Station at the heart of<br />

the port town became a fading<br />

memory.<br />

Intermittent rail passenger<br />

services continued with the<br />

‘boat train’ express connecting<br />

with the interisland ferry service<br />

until the ferries stopped in 1976.<br />

A Christchurch-Lyttelton Port<br />

shuttle service for cruise ships<br />

was active for some years, as<br />

well as a Tranz Scenic service to<br />

Arthur’s Pass, with the station<br />

building also providing office<br />

space for NZR staff. Following<br />

the devastating Canterbury<br />

earthquakes of 2010-11, the<br />

third Lyttelton Railway Station<br />

building was demolished in 2017.<br />

The second Lyttelton Railway Station, February 6, 1963.<br />

Te Ūaka The Lyttelton Museum ref. <strong>12</strong>980.1<br />

https://www.teuaka.org.nz/online-collection/1133677<br />

station-6.jpg<br />

The third Lyttelton Railway Station, September 11, 1963.<br />

Te Ūaka The Lyttelton Museum ref. 13193.1<br />

https://www.teuaka.org.nz/online-collection/1133909