Subscribe to RSSOnehunga Opens Full Coverage
Onehunga certainly knows how to turn on a festive occasion.
Despite blustery winds and overcast skies, locals, assisted by the local Dolphin theatre and organisers of a local heritage festival brilliantly captured the moment of this morning’s re-opening of the Onehunga line to commuters after 37 years.
Transport minister Steven Joyce officially opened the new station at Onehunga Mall which will see commuter trains start tomorrow morning.
Plans to bring a steam train in as the first train to the new station were delayed when carriages from Glenbrook Railway couldn’t be used because of debris on the line after last night’s storm and eventually Tranz Scenic carriages were located and attached to the Mainline Steam engine.
Local "police" check on workers making last minute preparations for the opening
So the officials officiating and attending the opening ended up arriving on a Veolia service which became the first train in.
A horse and cart and even a town crier tried to create the atmosphere in this historic Auckland suburb along with the stream train which later offered free rides to Penrose for those among the hundreds lucky enough to get on board.
Dolphin Theatre members provided wonderful entertainment
Onehunga as a port town has 2044 inhabitants in 1844 and in 1912, for a short time, housed Auckland’s first zoo! More importantly today, its branch line was opened in 1873 and ran for 100 years until 1973 and after limited freight use was mothballed in 2006.
Waiting for a glimpse of the steam train
The CBT helped spearhead a campaign to restore the line and one of its members was the driver of today’s steam train. (name corrected thanks to Alex in comments)
ONEHUNGA OPENING: FULL COVERAGE CONTINUES
ARTA chair says rail is booming-Video
Videos of steam train
First official train into Onehunga
Photos of the festive day
Onehunga celebrates in style
Mike Lee speech
Te Papapa, Penrose 3 pictures
Steven Joyce speech
Steven Joyce on police chases
Onehunga being constructed- Photos
35 take first trip into Britomart on Sunday- photos
More hordes try out the new trains - Photos
Historic photos along the fenceline a nice touch
ALSO
New $36m New Lynn transport hub opens
Time now for airport rail
3 Comments
Nice pics Jon. Thanks.
Hi Jon, congratulations on a fantastic site. It’s the first time I have posted but have been a regular visitor to catch up on news (which we seem to find out here before we do at work! I call it the mushroom effect!!). I hate to correct people but Isaac would have been the LE of the DMU that arrived first, and the LE of the steam loco (pictured) is my good friend Billy Baker. Awesome to see trains back in Onehunga.
@Thanks. Exciting day for him.