Cable Car History

Wellington in the 1890s was the fastest growing city in New Zealand. Its expanding workforce wanted to live close to the busy shops and offices of Lambton Quay, but such residences were scarce. At the same time, the hills directly above the city centre remained sparsely settled with farms, or covered in scrub. In 1898, the Upland Estate Company was formed and its shareholders were instrumental in forming The Kelburn & Karori Tramway Company Ltd. – an ambitious new enterprise that aimed to provide a cable car service between Lambton Quay and Kelburn. Wellington residents flocked to try out the cable car service when it opened for business on 22 February 1902. Interest and enthusiasm for the new facility proved so great that an estimated 4,000 people were carried up and down the line over the opening weekend. Once at the upper terminus, many people took the opportunity to ride on one of the connecting horse-drawn buses to Karori. Others walked down to the city again through the Botanic Gardens. As Kelburn and Wellington grew, so did the number of people riding the cable car.  Annual passengers rose from 425,000 in 1902 to over a million in 1912. During 1926 these ‘relentless red rattlers’ transported over two million people between Wellington’s harbour and hills – more than the population of New Zealand at the time.