SOS call to save Matarawa station from closure

Matarawa residents today launched a campaign to keep their celebrated little railway station from closure.
Matarawa Save Our Station (SOS) spokeswoman Lucinda Birch, who lives in the Matarawa area near Carterton with partner and daily rail commuter Rob Paris, said a protest at the mainline station is timed for the arrival of the commuter train from Wellington at about 6.45pm.
"The Matarawa Station is a little jewel for Carterton and yet the regional council would have just closed it at their meeting last Thursday if we weren't there to voice our opposition to the proposal ? and we only found out about it by accident," Ms Birch said.
"There was a survey completed but it was only over a week and took no account of off-peak trains or weekends.
"Matarawa as a residential area is growing and will continue to grow.
"There's also increasing weekend traffic that includes busloads of people sometimes."
Ms Birch said there is land now be subdividing at the end of Matarawa Road and a subdivision is proposed for land across from the station that may feature space for 18 homes.
Mr Paris said the regional council has used "unreliable statistics and a questionable survey procedure" to so far help determine station patronage.
"This is a constantly-used station.
"It's tiny but it provides a huge community service.
And it helps keep many cars off the road."
"Like so many micro-institutions, Matarawa is vulnerable to elimination by insensitive macro-economics."
Mr Paris said there have been several attempts over the years to close the former timber-loading station with the earliest recorded in 1895.
A report written by Richard Noakes, regional council transport infrastructure team leader, that was tabled last Thursday at a passenger transport committee meeting, outlined the case for service withdrawal from the station and recommended it be closed.
To keep the station open would mean construction of a platform that enabled the boarding of planned new carriages on the Wellington to Wairarapa line, the meeting was told.
In the report, Mr Noakes said the station is rural without "benefit from normal train boarding facilities" including a small weatherboard shelter that is "old but adequate", poor lighting and no platform, standing pads, paths, or parking other than a grassy roadside berm.
The removal of a concrete loading bank, and the construction of a new shelter with seats, bins, storage, drainage and signs, and the establishment of a 15-space car park with lighting and signs would cost from $120,000 for "a basic platform" and more than $170,000 for full station facilities, he said.
A September survey of 13 people using the morning commuter service found that at least half of the travellers lived within 2.5km of another station and boarded at Matarawa as a convenience.
Surveyed commuters used the train up to five times a week with all arriving by car and all but two saying the station was the closest to their homes, the report said.
Mr Noakes said yesterday that a decision about the withdrawal of services would be made after a second survey is taken of commuters using the station and a round of public consultation.
He said the timing of the survey and public consultation would be decided at a meeting early next week.