YOU’D be forgiven for not recognising Porirua railway station anymore, thanks to a $1 million makeover funded by the Greater Wellington Regional Council.
“It was really horrible; grey and boring, and it didn’t really feel safe. We wanted the station to reflect the city. We’ve got such a superb landscape, with the harbour and the hills. And there’s the diversity of the community and the cultural influences of place,” says Mayor of Porirua Nick Leggett.
The station’s tunnel, traditionally a popular spot for taggers and drunks hoping to relieve themselves, now resembles a gallery. Clean, freshly painted walls showcase more than 100 photographs, contributed mainly by the Kapiti Camera Club.
Leggot hopes vandalism will diminish following the upgrade.
“In these situations people tend to treat [the space] with more respect - you put a little sunlight on things and they want to do less antisocial things. Also the more people we attract through there the less likely we are to have problems.
“If we find ourselves with a few issues we’ll have to do something more active.”
Porirua station is the second busiest station in the Wellington commuter rail network, with approximately 1.3 million trips taken from there each year.
Plimmerton artist Xoe Hall painted two of ten murals that now decorate the train station. One work depicts a Ngati Toa woman so famous for her garden that she came to be referred to as Maara Roa, or “the long garden”.
“In the mural Maara Roa is Porirua; on one side her hair turns into a paua-coloured ocean, with the Porirua taniwha having a swim and Captain Cook riding in. On the other side her cloak turns into land, where Te Rauparaha and Kupe are. I grew up here, so Porirua’s a big part of me, this is kind of like Porirua, my style,” she says.
Hall thinks the revamp should have been done a long time ago.
“The art and the photography is a breath of fresh air, and I’m sure as people head off to work from the train station it makes their day nicer.”
A Porirua train guard admits to enjoying coming in to work more since the makeover.
“I really hope it stays like that. Before [the refurbishments] there was a lot of tagging, so hopefully these kids can keep their hands off the paint. I’ve heard a lot of comments from people coming in saying, ‘yeah that looks nice’. It’s good that people have recognised the changes,” he says.