Emergency tape blocked the entrances to Lower Hutt's Waterloo Station on Tuesday afternoon. Photo: RNZ / Nick James
A Lower Hutt secondary school is supporting students who were at Waterloo Station on Tuesday when a person died on the railway tracks.
Emergency services were called to the scene just after 3pm.
St Bernard's College principal Simon Stack told RNZ about half a dozen of his students were on the platform, and two saw what happened.
The person who died was not a St Bernard's College student, he said.
Stack said staff were sent down almost immediately to check on the students.
Staff and the school counsellor were meeting on Wednesday to ensure they had identified all the students who were there, and to get a sense of what support they needed.
The students were okay and not visibly upset, but they might need further support in time, he said.
"As one boy said to me, 'I wish I had not seen that'."
Hutt Valley train services were still disrupted on Wednesday morning.
The police left the scene late on Tuesday night, and Metlink said delays spilled into Wednesday morning due to problems with train repositioning.
"The incident last night limited train repositioning, meaning trains wouldn't be in the correct place to resume normal services this morning."
Metlink said the disruption to services between Wellington and Wairarapa on Wednesday were because the trains weren't able to return to the correct place last night.
Hutt Valley line services, which had also been affected, now appear to be running on schedule.
Buses also replaced trains for some Wairarapa line services, or were operating with reduced capacity.
Hutt Valley line services are running as normal on Wednesday afternoon.
Metlink says the driver of the train and onboard staff are on paid time off and have been offered support following the death.
A spokesperson for Metlink said it was deeply saddened by the death and grateful to emergency services for their prompt response.
Metlink's thoughts were with the victim's family and friends, as well as affected passengers and all rail staff, the spokesperson said.
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