North Island Main Trunk Railway
|
The North Island Main Trunk railway. |
The
North Island Main Trunk Railway (
NIMT) is the
railway line connecting
Auckland and
Wellington, the two major cities of
New Zealand's North Island. The line is built to the standard New Zealand gauge of 1067
mm (3
ft 6
in). By convention, a train going to Auckland is referred to as an
"up" train, and a train heading away from Auckland as a
"down" train. The line includes the famous
Raurimu Spiral.
Construction
Construction of the line begun on
15 April 1885, when
Wahanui Maniopoto paramount chief turned the first sod near
Te Awamutu. The line was completed 23 years later, on
6 November 1908; the last spike was ceremonially driven by the Prime Minister, Sir
Joseph Ward. The 'Last Spike' monument is at , near
Pokaka.
The
Wellington - Longburn (near
Palmerston North) section of the NIMT was built by a private company, the
Wellington and Manawatu Railway Company and acquired by the
New Zealand Railways Department in
1908Electrification
The
Wellington -
Paraparaumu section of the NIMT is electrified at 1,500 V
DC. Electric traction in this section is used only by
Tranz Metro for its urban passenger services and was opened in 1940 to Paekakariki and 1983 to Paraparaumu respectively. There are currently proposals to extend the
electrification to Lindale or
Waikanae, further north. The section between
Palmerston North and
Hamilton was electrified at 25 kV 50 Hz
AC and fully opened in
National government's "
Think Big" energy development projects.
Motive power
The line has always received the most powerful NZR locomotives. When it opened in 1908, the powerful
X class steam locomotives were introduced to handle heavy traffic over the mountainous central North Island section. 1972 saw the introduction of the
DX class locomotives. With electrification the DX class was mainly re-assigned to the
South Island and replaced by the
EF class electric locomotives, introduced in the late 1980s.
In
1971,
New Zealand Railways introduced the
Silver Star service, a luxury night sleeper train. The service was not ultimately economically viable, and was withdrawn in
1979. Much more successful was the
Silver Fern, a daytime
railcar service, which was withdrawn in 1991 and replaced by
The Overlander, operated by
Tranz Scenic.On 25 July 2006 it was announced that the Overlander would cease operation at the end of September 2006.
Auckland
Within the Auckland Region (between Britomart and Pukekohe) suburban trains runs on the NIMT regular intervals.
All Eastern Line (Pukekohe, Papakura and Otahuhu to Britomart via Glen Innes) train services run along the NIMT between Pukekohe and Britomart.
Southern Line (Pukekohe, Papakura and Otahuhu to Britomart via Newmarket) train services run along the NIMT from Pukekohe to Westfield where it diverges on to the
North Auckland Line (NAL). It continues via the NAL to Newmarket where it branches off again on the
Auckland-Newmarket Line. The Southern Line rejoins the NIMT at Quay Park junction near Britomart.
Wellington
Wellington's suburban network, operated by
Tranz Metro, includes the southern portion of the NIMT, between Wellington and Parapararumu, known as the
Paraparaumu line. The 1940 electrification terminated at
Paekakariki, and it was extended north to Paraparaumu in 1983. Currently, there is a proposal to extend the electrification eight kilometres north to
Waikanae. The
Capital Connection currently provides passenger services between
Palmerston North and Wellington.
*
List of Auckland railway stations*
List of Wellington railway stations*
The Overlander - the current passenger service.
*
Raurimu Spiral*
NZ Engineering Heritage North Island Main Trunk line page
