Rail transport in New Zealand
From Open Encyclopedia
| Rail transport in New Zealand | |
|---|---|
| Locomotives of New Zealand | |
| List of New Zealand railway lines | |
| List of Auckland railway stations | |
| List of Wellington railway stations | |
| Rail operators of New Zealand | |
| Toll Rail | |
| Connex Auckland | |
| Tranz Metro | |
| Tranz Scenic | |
| Taieri Gorge Railway |
Image:NewZealandRailNetwork.png New Zealand's national rail network consists of approximately 3,898 km of track, reaching most major cities. It is used primarily for freight haulage, although passenger services still run on some lines.
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Ownership
Ownership of the national rail network is currently vested in a government-owned organisation, ONTRACK (the New Zealand Railways Corporation). Rail services are run by private companies. The primary operator is Australian-owned Toll Rail, and Connex operates commuter services in Auckland.
From 1993 to 2004 the entire network (including track) was owned by a private company, Tranz Rail. However, the track has since been renationalised.
Infrastructure
Track
The New Zealand rail network has around 3,898 km of track. Around 500 km of this track has been electrified. The track is 1067 mm (narrow) gauge, which was chosen due to the need to cross mountainous terrain in the country's interior. Difficult terrain has necessitated a number of complicated engineering feats, notably the Raurimu Spiral. There are 1787 bridges and 150 tunnels.
The national network has been the subject of major upgrading works on a number of occasions. The most major of these were the Tawa Deviation in Wellington, opened 19 June 1937; the Rimutaka Deviation to the Wairarapa, 3 November 1955; and the Kaimai Deviation in the Bay of Plenty, 12 September 1978. All of these involved major tunnelling works, of around 8 km each in the two latter cases. Significant infrastructure improvements were also carried out on the North Island Main Trunk in the mid 1980s as part of the electrification scheme.
See also: List of New Zealand railway lines, Tunnels in New Zealand
Motive power
Until the 1950s, most motive power on the national network consisted of steam locomotives. There were also three sections operated electrically at 1500 V DC, of which only the Wellington suburban lines remain so powered. Dieselisation began in the late 1940s with shunting engines; the first mainline locomotives were introduced in 1954, when the DF class entered service. By the mid 1960s steam had virtually disappeared from the North Island but remained in the South Island until 1971. Since 1983 a small number of privately-owned steam and diesel locomotives have been permitted to operate special trains on the national network. In 1988 electrification of the North Island Main Trunk between Palmerston North and Hamilton, at 25 kV AC, was commissioned. About 500 km of line is now electrified.
See also: Locomotives of New Zealand
Operations
Freight
Most freight operations are now carried out by Toll, formerly Tranz Rail. Since Tranz Rail was previously accused of forcing freight onto the roads, the government has required minimum level of freight tonnages for Toll to keep its monopoly freight rights on most lines. In 2002, Tranz Rail Ltd introduced a controversial containerisation scheme which assumed that most freight would be carried in containers, carried on unit trains made up of fixed consists of flatdeck wagons. Container loading depots were constructed at the major freight terminals. Freight levels have now reached the level that they were at when the railway had a virtual monopoly, prior to 1983. After the 1982 deregulation a large level of rationalisation of freight facilities around the country occurred; many stations and smaller yards were closed and freight train services were sped up.
Long-Distance Passenger Services
National passenger services are operated by Tranz Scenic, a subsidiary of Toll. In the heyday of passenger rail in the 1950s and 1960s most provincial routes had railcar and locomotive-hauled passenger services, but now there are only four long-distance passenger trains: The Overlander between Auckland and Wellington; the Capital Connection between Wellington and Palmerston North; the TranzCoastal between Picton and Christchurch; and the TranzAlpine between Christchurch and Greymouth. The Southerner, running from Christchurch to Dunedin and Invercargill, ceased running in 2002, and passenger services to Tauranga, Rotorua and Napier stopped in 2001. The Northerner night-time service between Auckland and Wellington ceased running in 2004, but the day-time Overlander service remains.
Suburban Passenger Services
Toll also operates Tranz Metro suburban passenger services in the Wellington region. There are four railway lines, which are all elecrified, except for the section between Upper Hutt to Masterton where there are no overhead wires. TranzMetro uses EMUs and, when neccessary, Diesel Locomotives for their services. In the 1930's Wellington was the first city in New Zealand to introduce electric passenger trains, and today they remain the only city running electric passenger trains. Wellington is regarded to have the best passenger train system in New Zealand for this reason.
For many years Tranz Metro also ran the suburban passenger trains in Auckland, the largest city in New Zealand. However in mid-2004, Connex Auckland won the contract to run Auckland suburban trains. Tranz Metro did not tender for the contract since it was no longer interested in running the Auckland services. Currently there are 3 passenger lines in Auckland: the Southern Line; Eastern Line and the Western Line. All trains are diesel-operated, using both DMUs and Locomitive-hauled trains. There are plans to establish new railway lines and electrify the existing lines to improve the quality of service.
Heritage Passenger Services
Four heritage rail operators, Railway Enthusiasts Society, Steam Incorporated, Mainline Steam Trust and Otago Excursion Train Trust own and operate their own carriage and mainline-certified steam or diesel locomotive fleets. These groups have operated special excursion trains on the national network since 1978, and have been allowed to use suitable locomotives to haul these trains since 1983. A small number of other groups have overhauled their own locomotives for mainline use with either heritage or public passenger carriages.
History
New Zealand's rail network was primarily constructed largely by government entities from 1863 onwards. New Zealand's first public railway was opened in that year at Ferrymead. Some of the earliest lines were constructed by the provincial governments of NZ in the mid 19th century. After these were abolished, the lines were controlled by the central government. A few lines were privately built; only the Wellington and Manawatu Railway, which was nationalised in 1908, achieved any measure of success.
At the network's peak in the 1950s, about 100 different lines were operating around the country. There were large-scale closures of branch railways in the 1960s and 1970s. The network was protected from road transport competition until 1983.
The railways were administered by government's Railways Department, with the Minister of Railways being a member of Cabinet. In 1981, the Railways Department was reformed into a Crown corporation, the New Zealand Railways Corporation. In 1990, core rail operations were reconstituted as New Zealand Rail Ltd, with non-core assets retained by the New Zealand Railways Corporation. NZ Rail was privatised in 1993, with the new owners adopting the name Tranz Rail in 1995.
During the period of private ownership of the network by Tranz Rail, the company was widely accused of diverting some freight to its road trucks and forcing other freight off its rail tracks. The company was also accused of deliberately running down some lines through lack of maintenance. The Midland Line, which carries mostly coal from the West Coast to Lyttelton, was assessed to be in a poor state by the LTSA government safety body in 2003, and has needed major repairs. One of the reasons often cited for these policies was the subsidies given to road transport that were not available to rail operators. The company was also alleged to have denied reasonable access to the rail network by heritage operators, who were faced with a lack of access to certification resources and high charges that made their operations marginally economic at best. In recent years heritage groups have also faced increased bureacratic requirements in the arena of safety certification, as well as problems obtaining suitable public liability insurance.
In 2002 shares in Tranz Rail dropped to a record low price as a result of the poor financial state of the company. The government then considered various schemes for bailing out the company in return for regaining control of the rail tracks. Cited reasons included moving freight traffic from road to rail and ensuring access to the tracks for all interested parties. In the event, Toll Holdings of Australia made a successful takeover bid for Tranz Rail, subject to an earlier agreement to sell back the rail tracks to the government.
Accidents
New Zealand's most serious rail disaster occurred on Christmas Eve 1953, during the visit of Queen Elizabeth II, when a lahar washed away the bridge at Tangiwai. 151 lives were lost when the bridge collapsed as a Wellington-Auckland express passenger train was crossing it.
Heritage and Museum Railways
About 60 groups operate rail heritage lines or museums around NZ. Almost all are members of the Federation of Rail Organisations of NZ, and include street tramcars and bush tramways as well as railways. Large-scale rail preservation in NZ got underway in the 1960s when many steam locomotives were withdrawn and branch lines closed.
Rail museums in NZ usually focus around storage and displays of rolling stock with a short line of approx 1 km or more in length on which trains are operated. This covers most of the historic rail groups in NZ. A smaller number of lines are operated as heritage railways, usually on a closed section of a former national network branch line. Typically these lines are longer, usually 5 km or more, and most of their activities are focused on train operations with less emphasis on display and storage.
Current operations of the heritage railway type include the Bay of Islands Vintage Railway, Glenbrook Vintage Railway, Bush Tramway Club, Waitara Railway Preservation Society, Weka Pass Railway and Taieri Gorge Railway. The Taieri Gorge Railway, which is operated as a Local Authority Trading Enterprise of the Dunedin City Council, is 60 km in length, making it the most ambitious project of its type to date. All other lines are operated by voluntary societies. The Weka Pass Railway at 13 km is the most lengthy of these; although the Bay of Islands Vintage Railway is 11 km in length, it is in poor condition and has been closed since 2002.
