This has been one of the proposals for dealing with both parking congestion in Waikanae, and improving the public transport service for people in Otaki.

The central government’s attitude seems to be to extend the Expressway from Peka Peka to Otaki so that Otaki people can speedily drive their cars all the way to Wellington.  Hmm.

According to this stuff article from March 2014, the Wellington Regional Council (at least at that time) considered the cost of doing this “too expensive”.

“New trains would be required, with toilets, as the trip to Wellington would take more than an hour.”

Well, it’s only another 15 km which should take 12 minutes — and with track improvement work, particularly in the difficult Pukerua Bay to Paekakariki section, the present schedule could be accelerated to compensate.  It is after all the North Island Main Trunk and still sees a lot of freight traffic, justifying such investment.

As for trains with toilets — surely people could wait a little longer?  At Waikanae they need to find other toilets anyway (such as in the Mahara Gallery building) when the station agent isn’t at the station, which is a lot of the time.

The success of the extension of the electrified section to Waikanae and the big shortage of car parking near the station is a clear justification for an extension of the wires.

While the views of Cr Cootes of Otaki on the subject are unknown, previous Otaki councillor and now the Kapiti seat holder on the GWRC, Penny Gaylor, has stated her support for electrification to Otaki.