Cable Car Route

 History of area

At the end of the 19^th century the hills around Wellington city were still predominantly farmland. Accessible residential land close to Wellington was becoming scarce, leading to some houses being erected on very small and awkward sections. There was development along the two lines of railway, to the Wairarapa and to Horowhenua, but apart from that there was no wider transport infrastructure in these days before the motorcar to help open up land lying beyond the practicable limit of the horse drawn trams or reasonable walking distance of the city.

Some of Wellington’s most immediately available land was in the hills directly above the city, in Kelburn. Its potential, only lessened by the steep access, was realised by the newly formed Upland Estate Company, established in 1898. The company took its name from the Upland Farms, located in the hills behind Wellington, and aimed to turn these farms and scrub into residential areas.

Access was the primary issue. One initial idea was to redevelop an old farm track that passed by Mount Street Cemetery. When this did not eventuate, James Fulton (1854–1928), the company‘s consulting engineer, recommended building a road on a route similar to the current Kelburn Parade and Glasgow Street. In order to provide better access to the Upland Farm from the Terrace, one of the directors of the company, Martin Kennedy, gave the Council permission in 1897 to extend Salamanca Road through land he was leasing from the Wellington Hospital Trustees.

It was Kennedy who suggested using a cable car to provide access to the proposed development up the steep hillside between The Terrace and the northern end of the Kelburn land at the top of the Botanic Gardens. Kennedy also secured a terminus at Lambton Quay, by persuading his fellow directors to buy the Lambton Quay property of E.W. Mills and Company, which he was also a director of. The company subdivided the land and set aside one section to build the terminus. The Upland Estate Company formed a subsidiary, the Kelburne (note the spelling) and Karori Tramway Company, to oversee the construction of the cable car system. The promoters took 20,000 ordinary shares of £1 each, allocated to: Upland Estate Co., 10,000, Charles Pharazyn 8,000, Martin Kennedy 1,000 and Charles Izard 1,000. Another 10,000 preference shares of £1 each were made available to the public on the release of the company's prospectus in 1898.

By the time the prospectus was issued, the infant company had already acquired, or was negotiating to acquire, lands owned by Bendix Hallenstein Esq., Charles Pharazyn and the New Zealand Times Co., and had negotiated with the Karori Borough Council to construct a road (now known as Upland Road) connecting the new cable-car tramway with the village of Karori by horse drawn carriages.

Initially it was proposed that the cable-car tramway could be built by the private interests and then made available for sale to the Wellington City Council on completion. However the council was unwilling at that time to take on such a speculative venture, although it was supportive of the objectives. To further complicate matters, under the Tramway Act 1894 only local authorities were permitted to apply for an authority order to construct a tramway of any description.

As a result a parliamentary bill was drawn up to facilitate the construction of the cable-car tramway by private interests, via a legislative back door. The Wellington High Levels Tramway Act 1898 was designed to ‘…enable the Mayor, Councillors, and Citizens of the City of Wellington to acquire Power to construct a Tramway above and below Ground, and under and over the Public Reserves of the City of Wellington, and to delegate such Power.’ In July 1899 the council obtained an Order-in-Council which authorised the WCC to build a cable-car tramway.The act also allowed for the tramway to be considered a public work and it is assumed that this allowed the use of prison labour from the Terrace Goal to help build the incline.

By a Deed of Delegation this authority was then transferred to the Kelburne and Karori Tramway Company Ltd. However, the council maintained the right to acquire the tramway, with options at seven yearly intervals from the date of completion, expiring after 21 years, plus a general right of purchase.One more proclamation was gazetted, on 19 December 1899 (after work had started), to give the Tramway Company the right to take land to build the route. This followed objections from land owners in the way of the tramway, who went to court to stop the company taking their land under the Public Works Act.

In his planning of the cable car route, Fulton proposed it serve a variety of interests, including local residents and people visiting the Karori Cemetery or the yet to be completed sports venue of Kelburn Park. From Lambton Quay, the suggested line stopped at The Terrace (then known as Wellington Terrace), Clifton Terrace, Salamanca Road, before reaching the summit at the edge of the Botanic Gardens where the winding house/engine house was located. It was designed to interfere as little as possible with the existing roads and traffic.

Cable railway technology was nearly 70 years old by the time Fulton designed the Kelburn tramway. Trains were first hauled by cables (initially rope) in Canterbury in England in 1830, a year after the Rocket proved the success of the railway engine. Entirely cable hauled railways were initially common constructions but after the first few decades of rail development cable haulage was usually reserved for areas where gradients were considered too steep for the safe passage of the vehicle. Funicular technology, the counterbalancing of ascending and descending cars by means of a common cable, was developed in Europe after 1850 and refined in the latter part of the century in countries such as Switzerland. The world’s first municipal cable car ran in San Francisco in 1873.

Fulton was also responsible for deciding the method of operation, which was a hybrid between a cable car and a funicular. Like a cable car, the line had a continuous loop haulage cable that the cars gripped using a cable car gripper, but it also had a funicular-style balance cable permanently attached to both cars over an undriven pulley at the top of the line. The descending car gripped the haulage cable and was pulled downhill, in turn pulling the ascending car (which remained ungripped) uphill by the balance cable. There was a Fell type centre rail, used for emergency braking only.

The successful tenderer was prominent Wellington contractor Maurice O’Connor, with a price of just over £13,000. He signed the contract on 13 November 1899 and got straight to work, beginning the excavation of the tunnel alongside Kelburn Park, underneath Martin Kennedy’s residence, the following day.

Work on the tramway seems to have been carried out both night and day. In 1901 cases for compensation were brought against the company for, among other things, loss of land or property, depreciation, damage and inconvenience. One case, brought by a Mrs Jack, who owned a property above where one of the tunnels was being built, complained that the construction of the tramway had caused cracks in the walls of her house. ‘The clang of picks and shovels, and the sounds of blasting, were heard night and day.’ Not unnaturally, night blasting operations left the occupants of the house ‘greatly disturbed’. There was also worry over the safety of the tunnels. In June 1901 a concrete retaining wall had collapsed causing substantial subsidence on the same property.

To maintain the steep grade it was necessary to not only build tunnels but also viaducts. Built of Australian hardwood, in common with the prevailing construction system for railway and road viaducts of the day, the latter were needed to span roads, and the open space alongside what would become Kelburn Park. Originally the line was double track between the Lambton Quay terminus and the Upland Road terminus; a length of 785 metres. The tracks were the then standard railway gauge of 3 feet 6 inches (1,070mm) and the cars were carried to 119 metres above sea level.

The tramway was finally opened on 22 February 1902, and during its first days of operation free tickets were offered to those interested in buying land in Kelburne.

            Kelburne Tramway is now open to the public. The first sale of Kelburne will take place on Wednesday, 26 Feb., 1902. Free passes on the tramway will be given to intending Purchasers on application to Harcourt and Co. Auctioneers, or, I.H.B. Wilson Grey-street.

The New Zealand Times pronounced the opening weekend a huge success and the future of the tramway assured. Over 4,000 people rode the cars that weekend. ‘The experience of being wafted effortless into the regions above is an exhilarating one,’ wrote the paper’s correspondent. Many people also took the opportunity to ride horse drawn ‘buses’ to Karori.

Water, essential for the running of the steam engine, was scarce at the top of the hill. A windmill was acquired to pump water up from a spring on Salamanca Road in September 1901. At the same time the company acquired a geared aerometer, pump gears and air chambers.

Public demand to use the tramway was immediate and unexpectedly heavy. Some 425,000 people used the cars in their first year and the addition of extra capacity was urgently needed. ‘Palace’ trams acquired from the Wellington City Council and modified to meet the needs of the Cable Car were added to the grip cars, and ran on the uphill side. With the addition of the trailers, the tramway could now carry 62 seated adult passengers each trip.

In 1910 the council sought to invoke its right of purchase. The company did not oppose this, and a valuation was made of the company's assets. However the ratepayers would not sanction the purchase of what would have cost the city £43,587. By 1912 the number of passengers using the cars every year had increased to over 1,000,000.

By the late 1920s the cable car had been operating for 25 years. This was not an especially long time, but the aging timber viaducts might have prompted the company to investigate the load on the timber members and the future maintenance requirements of the viaducts. Steel was the way of the future, and was quickly taking over from timber for railway and road bridges. In 1929, work began on replacing the timber viaducts in steel, with concrete piers. The Talavera viaduct was rebuilt in 1930, without, the Evening Post noted, even holding up the service, a considerable logistical feat. A photograph taken of the Salamanca Road viaduct in 1929 shows that the concrete piers were built first and presumably the steel was added later. Who designed these new viaducts is not known.

In 1933 an Order-in-Council empowered the council to replace steam with electricity to power the winding gear, which led the removal of the smokestack of the steam-powered winding gear, a Kelburn landmark since 1902. In June 1935, in a move that would have huge repercussions nearly 40 years later, the company was granted permission to remove the slipper brakes from all the trailers.

In July of 1941 the Kelburn and Karori Tramway Co. accused the council of running a bus service in competition with the Cable Car. The company asked that either the council refrain from competing, or purchase the company. The council declined, citing the ageing stock and limited earning potential of the system as some of its reasons.

The company was still claiming unfair competition from the council's services four years later and took its case to the Supreme Court.The Court found that to a limited extent, council Karori and Northland Bus services were being operated in breach of the Municipal Corporations Act 1933.’ Eventually a solution was reached when the council finally agreed to buy the company. In December 1946, the council paid £45,000 for the tramway and £4,835 for a small fleet of buses.The Kelburn and Karori Tramway Company voluntarily dissolved on 13 February 1947. In its last year of operation the company had carried 873,150 passengers, and made £1,635 profit from revenue of £14,532.

With the City Council's acquisition of the tramway, its role slowly changed, with an increasing emphasis on its tourist potential. The Lambton Quay terminus was upgraded in October 1957 and included new staff facilities and a book stall. Four years later these buildings were damaged when a cable car crashed into the ticket box.

The removal of the trams from Wellington streets in 1964 left the Cable Car the only link to that era in New Zealand. This further enhanced its status as a tourist attraction. By this time the cars were carrying close to 4,000,000 passengers every year.

In May 1973 a construction worker, working on the new motorway extension at Shell Gully, was seriously injured when he accidentally stepped in front of a cable car. As a direct result of this mishap the Ministry of Works' District Mechanical Engineer reassessed the overall safety of the Cable Car. He raised concerns about the age of the equipment, and the high standards of safety expected by the public in comparison to when the system was designed in 1898. He suggested renewing the system or even replacing it.

In June of 1974 the Ministry of Works instructed the General Manager of the Wellington Transport Department that use of the trailer carriages, which operated without brakes, be discontinued ‘on a permanent basis as soon as is practicable and in any event within one month.’ Continued use of the grip cars was permitted on the condition that within six months ‘steel members of an approved design shall be added to the timber chassis to transmit the loads from the balance rope to the rear of the chassis.’However the Ministry of Works considered that these were to be interim measures and recommended a complete upgrading, to the extent of requiring new winding gear and the eventual replacement of carriages.

Although the Wellington City Council objected to the instructions of the Ministry of Works, citing various modifications which had been carried out to the system within the last two years, the trailers were removed from the tracks on 28 July 1974. Attempts made to have the trailers reinstated were unsuccessful. Various public action groups formed to try and save the Cable Car, and the Council received numerous letters of support. The WCC Town Planning Committee considered declaring the Cable Car system a place of historic interest.

Several independent reports however confirmed the conclusions of the Ministry of Works. A Ministry of Transport report pointed to the lack of an automatic brake, signs of timber stress in the bearing parts in the cars, and poor driver visibility. Consequently, in October/November 1974 the grip cars underwent a refit at the Kilbirnie bus workshops. The braking systems were overhauled, the cars’ chassis strengthened, and improvements made to their bodywork. By 6 December 1974 grip car 2 was back in service and grip car 1 followed on 15 January 1975.

Various other modifications were made to the grip cars and tracks during 1975. Cars 1 and 2 are again reported to have had steel members added to the timber chassis and a modified ‘Fell’ brake installed. Mirrors were installed at scheduled stops to assist drivers' vision, and then wind-screen wipers and maximum number signs were installed inside compartments.

Despite all the modifications and efforts to bring the Cable Car to contemporary safety standards the Ministry of Works advised, in September of 1975, that the cars only had a further working life of 10 years.

In early 1976 the Cable Car was shut down for a further two months for another overhaul required by the Ministry of Works and in June of that year the council finally decided to replace the cars with a fully automatic version. Meanwhile, grip car 3 had been parked at Kilbirnie bus yard for some time and as it had not been strengthened to meet Ministry of Works requirements it was decided it would never be used again in service.

Two years later on 22 September 1978, amid great publicity, the old Cable Cars made their final run. Immediately the cars were withdrawn from service the tracks were pulled up.

The Wellington Tramway Museum acquired 800 metres of the old track, for extensions to their tram line at Paekakariki, and also granted long term loan of grip car 2 and trailer 5. In January 1981, despite some public criticism, trailer 6 was placed by WCC in the Kelburn playground on Salamanca Road.Grip car 3 was offered to the Museum of Transport and Technology, Auckland, on a loan only basis, but the offer was not taken up.

Work began on re-gauging and installing the steel cars and equipment, which were provided by Habegger AG of Switzerland. The winding gear was changed to a pure funicular arrangement. The track superstructure was replaced above the rail beams, and new accessways and stations were constructed. The original double track was replaced with a single track with a central passing loop, and each car was fitted with one set of flanged wheels to allow it to be automatically steered around the passing loop. The stations between the termini were relocated to be exactly equidistant from the middle of the track so that the trams stopped at the same place each time. The line re-opened on 22 October 1979.

Initially, the new system had a number of operational issues and was frequently out of action, and because the new system did not carry spare cars, the entire system would be out of service until a fault was repaired. Passenger numbers dropped to 500,000 in 1982. After a serious accident in 1988, which put the cars out of service for months, the whole system underwent a major revamp.

In 1991, when public passenger transport was deregulated and various services sold in Wellington and around the country, the Wellington City Council decided to retain ownership of the Cable Car, forming the Wellington Cable Car Limited, to administer both the Cable Car and the trolley bus overhead cable network. Operations and maintenance were contracted out separately. However, by 2007, all services had been brought back in-house at WCC.

Cracks were discovered in the tunnel below Talavera station during the annual survey in 1999. These were remedied with metal anchoring and by lining the tunnel with reinforced concrete.

In 2006 the station at the Lambton Quay terminus was upgraded, at a cost of $1.3 million. In 2013, the Kelburn terminus was entirely replaced with a new building.