Hamilton Central railway station, New Zealand

Hamilton Central was the name of a now-defunct railway station on the East Coast Main Trunk line which runs through the city of Hamilton in the Waikato region of New Zealand.[2] The station was located in Hamilton's CBD and was made an underground station for the latter years of its existence before being disestablished. The underground platforms still exist and are 1.7 km (1.1 mi) east of Hamilton's current station (1877–present) and 1.23 km (0.76 mi) west of the Claudelands station (1884–1991).[3]

For the current railway station, see Hamilton railway station, New Zealand.

Hamilton Central
1899 station and goods shed
LocationNew Zealand
Coordinates37°47′13″S 175°16′43″E
Owned byKiwiRail
Line(s)East Coast Main Trunk (goods only)
Platforms1
ConnectionsNorth Island Main Trunk
History
Opened1 October 1884[1]
Closed1 November 1969
Rebuilt1964
Previous namesHamilton West until 1 March 1899[1]

For most of the time since a station opened on the site in 1879, it was named Hamilton. It had closed to regular passenger services when the present Hamilton station opened in 1975, so there was little need for formal renaming. There have been several proposals to reopen the station, often using the name 'Hamilton Central'.[4][5]

The East Coast Main Trunk line is still well used by freight trains. In 2018, 163 trains a week passed through, 36 between 8am and 5pm weekdays, 90 of them outside those hours and 37 at weekends.[6]

History

The station probably opened as Hamilton West on 22 March 1879,[7] though in July 1879 it was said that it should take about a month to complete the extension.[8] It only had 282 passengers in the year 1880/81[9] and closed on 19 February 1881. Probably it was affected by delays in opening Claudelands bridge. On 1 October 1884 the station reopened. It was renamed Hamilton from 1899.[10] In 1902 it was described as being, "of wood and iron, and has a ladies' waiting room, a public lobby, stationmaster's room, a long passenger platform, and a large goods shed. Four trains pass the station daily, each way."[11]

Its platform was moved to a cutting from 1 September 1964. It lost its railcar service to Te Puke on 11 September 1967 and to Rotorua on 11 November 1968. It then lost its station building, which is now a café at Waikato University.[12] By the mid 1970s most of the station had been covered by carparks, which were later covered by the Centre Place shopping centre.[13] When the current Hamilton station opened on 6 August 1975, the rarely used platform was renamed Hamilton Travel Centre.[14]

The station was once served by several named trains, including the Rotorua, Geyserland, Thames and Taneatua Expresses.

tickets and season tickets sold at Hamilton 1885–1950 (derived from figures in table).

Traffic grew to a peak in World War 2, as shown in the graph and table below.

year tickets season tickets staff ref.
1885 2,554 1 2 [15]
1886 5,253 2 [16]
1887 5,246 1 [17]
1888 3,687 16 2
1889 3,504 29 2 [18]
1890 [19]
1891 3,328 31 2 [20]
1892 3,348 26 2 [21]
1893 3,702 38 2 [22]
1894 3,748 25 2 [23]
1895 3,958 2 [24]
1896 4,034 9 2 [25]
1897 4,447 7 2 [26]
1898 4,766 3 2 [27]
1899 5,303 2 2 [28]
1900 4,838 1 3 [29]
1901
1902 8,486 1 3 [30]
1903 11,358 4 4 [31]
1904 17,454 4 5 [32]
1905 19,885 126 6 [33]
1906 22,461 140 6 [34]
1907 25,893 212 7 [35]
1908 32,446 207 8 [36]
1909 35,357 202 8 [37]
1910 32,874 208 9 [38]
1911 35,269 150 9 [39]
1912 39,339 228 11 [40]
1913 49,704 275 16 [41]
1914 51,322 338 [42]
1915 48,465 387 [43]
1916 46,658 424 [44]
1917 48,529 466 [45]
1918 50,899 416 [46]
1919 59,170 339 [47]
1920 64,708 343 [48]
1921 70,815 449 [49]
1922 73,303 567 [50]
1923 71,486 589 [51]
1924 67,103 559 [52]
1925 59,705 435 [53]
1926 53,862 601 [54]
1927 49,481 618 [55]
1928 43,819 514 [56]
1929 43,922 606 [57]
1930 39,431 661 [58]
1931 59,360 567 [59]
1932 51,558 500 [60]
1933 55,308 503 [61]
1934 61,842 518 [62]
1935 65,478 547 [63]
1936 68,877 638 [64]
1937 73,951 578 [65]
1938 69,537 568 [66]
1939 63,611 527 [67]
1940 62,829 873 [68]
1941 75,496 481 [69]
1942 100,724 385 [70]
1943 156,825 387 [71]
1944 153,740 418 [72]
1945 84,973 269 [73]
1946 83,363 252 [74]
1947 49,293 144 [75]
1948 38,902 56 [76]
1949 34,925 64 [77]
1950 42,813 49 [78]

New Zealand's first underground station
Hamilton Central Railway Station

Level crossings at Lake Rd, Seddon St and Victoria St, and rising population and levels of rail and road traffic, resulted in re-routing proposals from 1912, when council suggested the line could be lowered. It was turned down again in 1919,[79] proposed as a diversion south of Frankton in 1929[80] and costed at £529,000 in 1938.

The National Roads Board then opted for it and, in September 1959, the Ministry of Works started the project. The platform was lowered about 20 ft (6.1 m) into a cut & cover tunnel approached on 1 in 80 gradients,[81] with road over-bridges at River Rd, Tristram/Hinemoa, Seddon Streets and Lake Rd. The new route and platform opened on 19 September 1964, after which Anglesea St was extended north of Ward St.[79]

An NZR bus station (replaced by the Transport Centre in 2001) was built on top of the station, with a ramp link to it, but the ramp was closed when the Warehouse was built[82] in 2004,[83] though a plan had been prepared to maintain access.[84]

In 2020 reopening, possibly with 3 tracks and possibly just to the west, in Seddon Park,[85] was put forward as a COVID-19 recovery scheme, as part of schemes to upgrade services to Auckland and relay tracks to Cambridge.[86]

gollark: Yes.
gollark: Or, er, mod powers.
gollark: LyricLy, stop abusing admin powers.
gollark: ++1
gollark: I won an h in a giveaway.

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Preceding station Historical railways Following station
Hamilton
Line open, station open		   East Coast Main Trunk
New Zealand Railways Department		   Claudelands
Line open, station closed
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