Train carriages once filled with commuters rushing to work in the capital are now being buried, never to be seen again.
One of the 50 old train carriages which will end up at Wellington's Southern landfill. Photo: Supplied
Fifty old Ganz Mavag train carriages are being sent to the Southern landfill in Wellington over the next month.
The trains ran from the 1980s to 2016, when they were replaced with the modern Matangi units.
Greater Wellington Regional Council manager of rail operations Angus Gabara said the carriages had been stripped for scrap metal, but the body contained asbestos inside the walls.
"The cost of removing the anti-drumming coatings [inside walls] to salvage the scrap is too expensive," he said.
The train carriages would be crushed and buried, Mr Gabara said.
"Burying the carriages is the least expensive and safest way to dispose of the carriages because of the asbestos issue," he added.
One carriage remained in tact and had been gifted to the National Railway Museum in Christchurch.
Earlier this year, Rail and Maritime Transport Union secretary Wayne Butson said he was appalled the Ganz Mavag trains would likely end up at the dump, saying they should be repurposed.
New Zealand was short of "passenger rolling stock" and the country was also very good at refurbishing this stock, so the trains could either be sold overseas or used elsewhere in New Zealand, he said.