Restore Passenger Rail protesters were up on a gantry above State Highway 1 in Wellington. Photo / Azaria Howell
Restore Passenger Rail protesters were up on a gantry above State Highway 1 in Wellington. Photo / Azaria Howell
Two police officers have scaled a gantry above Wellington’s State Highway 1 to arrest two Restore Passenger Rail protesters who had blocked the road.
The protest is the second one this week, and occurred above the southbound lanes of SH1 near Bowen St.
Around 8.30am two officers wearing helmets and harnesses scaled the gantry to where the protesters were and brought them down. The second protester to be arrested was reluctant to leave, being dragged across the gantry by emergency services.
All lanes of the motorway are now open, but delays are to be expected as traffic clears.
Queues are backed up to Ngauranga. Photo / Hazel Osborne
The group, which is calling for inter-regional passenger train services, free public transport, and action on climate change, had a similar protest planned for Monday morning this week, but cancelled it for unspecified “safety reasons”. They instead carried out their protest on Tuesday morning on State Highway 1 in Kilbirnie.
Three protesters were arrested that morning, including 64-year-old Rosemary Penwarden, who stuck her hand to the busy road with a substance referred to by a fellow protester as “cement”.
Restore Passenger Rail protester Rosemary Penwarden is escorted off by police with her hand covered in concrete. Photo / Azaria Howell
Penwarden became the first of her protest group to be refused bail later that day, and was remanded in custody on a charge of endangering transport. Despite carrying out multiple protests over recent months, no members of the group had yet been remanded in custody until now.
Police would not confirm if the substance used to stick Penwarden’s hand to the road was cement, but construction expert John Tookey told the Herald it was likely an epoxy mixture, as cement alone could not set quickly enough to be useful.
Restore Passenger Rail has been carrying out protests since October last year, choosing various busy roads to stage demonstrations on. Many of the group are on active charges for endangering transport, creating a criminal nuisance by obstructing the road, and in some cases, trespass on state highways.
They demanded that the Government restore passenger rail services and make public transport free – however, after what they described as a failed meeting with then Transport Minister Michael Wood in December 2022, they threw paint across several Labour MPs’ offices.
This move spurred Wood to rule out meeting with the group again.
