Muri Station, on the Kāpiti Line, will be closed indefinitely from the end of April, a decision made by Greater Wellington’s Economic Wellbeing Committee.
The station is at Pukerua Bay, 800 metres north of the recently refurbished Pukerua Bay Station.
Peter Glensor, Chair of the Economic Wellbeing Committee which oversees public transport, said the decision was an extremely difficult one to make.
“This was a really hard decision and it’s a sad day for the small community around Muri Station. However our decision is based on several disturbing facts.”
An independent risk assessment, commissioned by KiwiRail late last year as part of its safety requirements, found some very serious safety issues. The study identified 63 overall hazards and key ones were:
Excessive gaps the worst on the Wellington network – between the platform and trains
Inadequate platform lighting
A wooden extension of the platform that is decaying significantly
Structural defects, possibly from subsidence
Extremely limited disabled access
On the basis of the report, KiwiRail recommended two main options either a $600,000 partial redevelopment or a $1.3million redevelopment of the station.
“The partial redevelopment is a very expensive option as the improvements would be minimal and the full redevelopment is a huge amount of money to spend on a station that is used by about 30 people a day and is 800 metres away from another station. We have just spent $1 million on refurbishing Porirua Station, for instance, but 600 to 700 people use that station daily.”
Cr Glensor said the committee was impressed with the very constructive efforts and attitude of the Pukerua Bay Residents Association. “We have worked closely with the Association over the last few months and indeed we spent most of yesterday’s meeting discussing one of the solutions they had proposed. This solution involved shortening the platform which would require individual passengers to use only certain carriages of a train and / or would require the doors of the other carriages on each train to be locked before arriving at Muri Station and unlocked after leaving the station.
“KiwiRail representatives at the meeting said the proposal raised huge safety risks. The chances of somebody getting on the wrong carriage and stepping off the train into thin air are very real, as is the potential for human error if you’re relying on train staff to lock certain carriage doors before arrival at Muri. These are risks that we simply cannot expect any public transport operator to take.”
Cr Glensor said Greater Wellington was committed to working with Porirua City Council and the NZ Transport Agency to find ways to improve walking access to Pukerua Station from the north.
