20 Jul 2016

Corrosion delays Wellington cable car reopening

2:10 pm on 20 July 2016

A $3 million upgrade of Wellington's iconic cable car is taking longer than originally scheduled.

Wellington' cable car, before the upgrade.

Wellington' cable car, before the upgrade. Photo: Twitter: @wellycablecar

The service closed early last month so its two 1970s carriages could be upgraded.

Cable car company chief executive Simon Fleisher said parts of the work done on the cars had involved stripping back the steel and frame work to get rid of any corrosion that had occurred.

The cars hadn't been dismantled and upgraded in almost 40 years, and more corrosion was found than expected.

Trips would resume on 15 August, two weeks after it was due to reopen.

It's estimated more than 30 million passengers have used the service.

Each cable car carriage has made about 1.2 million trips up and down the hill between Lambton Quay and Kelburn since the current cable cars began in 1979.