I’m looking into all the studies Wellington has done since the 1990s on public transport, particularly restoring our tram network.
in 1995, Greater Wellington Regional Council (GWRC, then known as the Wellington Regional Council) commissioned a study into bringing trams back to the capital.
This study was not available on the GWRC website, so I LGOIMA’d it.
The important thing here is that converting the Johnsonville Line to trams was feasible. There’s obviously 30 years of events after this study, but the fundamentals are the same. Convert J’ville to a tram line, run it through to Courtenay Place, and you make an attractive public transport service to a car-dependent area while also unlocking more trains and more space at Wellington Railway Station.
The 1995 tram study from Wellington Regional Council
a lil description so people can find it
This 1995 feasibility study was commissioned jointly by Wellington City Council and the Wellington Regional Council and carried out by Works Consultancy Services with MVA Consultancy of the UK. It asked whether light rail could run on Wellington's existing suburban rail lines and then continue through the city centre to Courtenay Place: a tram-train. It found that it could.
Six options were tested and every one returned a benefit-cost ratio of 1.6 or better. The Johnsonville-to-Courtenay-Place scheme was costed at $40 million in 1995 dollars, of which relocating underground services was 37 percent. The study concluded that "the economic analysis clearly shows that an LRT scheme which extends rail services into the centre of Wellington is worthwhile."
Greater Wellington Regional Council still lists the study in its document library but holds no digital copy of it; this searchable version was released under LGOIMA in August 2026.
