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The Rapahoe Branch is a branch line railway that forms part of New Zealand's national rail network and is located on the West Coast of the South Island. It has been operational since 1923 and was named the Rapahoe Industrial Line until 2011. [1]
The line was built as a sub-branch of the now-closed Rewanui Branch, with the junction in Runanga. Approximately four kilometres in length, it was opened on 3 September 1923 to serve the Strongman Mine. [2] When the Rewanui Branch closed on 19 August 1985, the Rapahoe Branch gained the six kilometres from Greymouth to Runanga that was opened 1 December 1904. [3]
The most recent significant upgrade on the line involved the replacement of Bridge No. 1 in 2006. The original S-shaped wooden structure, built by the Greymouth Point Elizabeth Coal Company in 1896, was considered to be structurally unsound.
The new bridge, using a concrete channel design with a ballasted deck, was built by contractors HEB Smithbridge Limited using designs drawn up by ONTRACK in consultation with their building contractors. The $15m project was funded largely by state coal miner Solid Energy and took 18 months to build. Located upstream from the original bridge, it is slightly longer than the original at 285 meters. Its southern end has also been reorientated away from Greymouth to a new junction at Omoto, a move designed to eliminate the need for trains to and from the branch to need to enter Greymouth to reposition the locomotives and the attendant road and rail disruption this caused.
The last northbound train to cross the old bridge was empty coal shunt X-1 on 28 May 2006. The following day, the track at the Cobden end of the old bridge was severed and a day later, the track at the Greymouth end was also cut. Over the next four days, work was carried out on switching the line over to the new bridge. The first revenue train over the new bridge was No. 834, a Christchurch-bound coal train, on 2 June 2006.
Despite being offered by ONTRACK to the Department of Conservation for preservation, the old bridge was demolished in July. The Department cited the unsound nature of the structure and noted that the funds that would be required to restore it would exceed its budget for the area. Two truss sections have been preserved. One is located on the southern bank of the Grey River. [4] The other is on the Cobden side of the river, in its original position.
In the era of steam locomotives, the line was typically worked by members of the A, B, and BA classes. In 1969, the line was dieselised and members of the DJ and DSC classes became the typical motive power. [3]
The line was slightly abbreviated in the first years of the 21st century. The mines served at the terminus had closed, so the Rapahoe terminus was moved to Rocky Creek, closer to its current source of business. [5]
The only traffic on the line is coal. It was originally exported via coastal shipping from Greymouth's wharf, but it is now exported via the deepwater port of Lyttelton, near Christchurch on the opposite coast of the South Island. Services were temporarily suspended during the second half of 2007 as the coal mine served ceased production while a programme of upgrades was undertaken. Trains operated twice daily between Rapahoe and Lyttelton [6] until early June 2007, when they were adjusted to run only when required. [7] Later that month, services were fully cancelled and the line was not in use by any regularly scheduled trains for approximately six months. [8] In mid-December, the resumption of services was announced as the coal mine resumed operation. The initial schedule provided for two trains each way, one in the early morning and one in the early afternoon. Each carries 1,500 tonnes of coal in 30 wagons and takes two hours to load. [9]
Trains now operate very infrequently on the Rapahoe Branch. They only operate by demand between Christchurch and Rapahoe.
The only station on the line from Runanga is the terminus at Rapahoe. [10] The Rapahoe station was situated 3.72 km from the junction, with the end of rails at the 4.09 km peg. [2]
Rail transport in New Zealand is an integral part of New Zealand's transport network, with a nationwide network of 4,375.5 km (2,718.8 mi) of track linking most major cities in the North and South Islands, connected by inter-island rail and road ferries. Rail transport in New Zealand has a particular focus on bulk freight exports and imports, with 19 million net tonnes moved by rail annually, accounting for more than half of rail revenue.
Runanga is a small town on the West Coast of the South Island of New Zealand. It is located eight kilometres to the northeast of Greymouth, to the north of the Grey River. Barrytown is 21 kilometres (13 mi) further north. State Highway 6 and the Rapahoe Branch railway run through the town. Runanga was formerly a railway junction, with the steep Rewanui Branch diverging from the Rapahoe line until closure in 1985.
The Main South Line, sometimes referred to as part of the South Island Main Trunk Railway, is a railway line that runs north and south from Lyttelton in New Zealand through Christchurch and along the east coast of the South Island to Invercargill via Dunedin. It is one of the most important railway lines in New Zealand and was one of the first to be built, with construction commencing in the 1860s. At Christchurch, it connects with the Main North Line to Picton, the other part of the South Island Main Trunk.
The Kaitangata Line, also known as the Kaitangata Branch in its first years of operation, was a railway line in Otago, New Zealand. It was built by a private company and was later acquired by the government's Mines Department, and operated from 1876 until 1970. It provided a link from coal mines to the Main South Line, and was never integrated into the network managed by the New Zealand Railways Department, thus although it could be seen as a branch line of the Main South Line, it officially never was.
The Ngapara and Tokarahi Branches were two connected railway branch lines in northern Otago, New Zealand, part of the national rail network. The Ngapara Branch opened in 1877 and almost all of it closed in 1959; the remaining few kilometres, called the Waiareka Industrial Line, were removed in 1997. The Tokarahi Branch branched off the Ngapara Branch. It operated from 1887 until 1930 and was originally known as the Livingstone Branch, though it never progressed beyond Tokarahi to Livingstone. In early 2008 there is a proposal to reinstate the first 4.5 km of the Ngapara Branch.
The Mount Somers Branch, sometimes known as the Springburn Branch, was a branch line railway in the region of Canterbury, New Zealand. The line was built in stages from 1878, reaching Mount Somers in 1885. A further section to Springburn was added in 1889; this closed in 1957, followed by the rest of the line in 1968. A portion has been preserved as the Plains Vintage Railway.
The Midland line is a 212 km section of railway between Rolleston and Greymouth in the South Island of New Zealand. The line features five major bridges, five viaducts and 17 tunnels, the longest of which is the Otira tunnel. It is the route of the popular TranzAlpine passenger train.
The Whitecliffs Branch was an 18.4 kilometres (11.4 mi) long branch line railway that formed part of New Zealand's national rail network in the Canterbury region of the South Island. It was more industrial than the many rural branches on the South Island's east coast whose traffic primarily derived from agriculture, and it operated from 1875 until 1962.
The Main North Line, sometimes referred to as part of the South Island Main Trunk railway, is a railway line that runs north from Christchurch in New Zealand up the east coast of the South Island through Kaikōura and Blenheim to Picton. It is a major link in New Zealand's national rail network and offers a connection with roll-on roll-off ferries from Picton to Wellington. It was also the longest railway construction project in New Zealand's history, with the first stages built in the 1870s and not completed until 1945.
Ngahere is a locality in the Grey District of the West Coast of New Zealand's South Island. The 2013 New Zealand census gave the population of Ngahere and its surrounding area as 363, an increase of 5.2% or 18 people since the 2006 census. Ngahere is located on the south bank of the Grey River, and State Highway 7 and the Stillwater–Westport Line (SWL) railway pass through the village.
The Blackball Branch was a branch line railway of New Zealand's national rail network on the West Coast of the South Island and worked from the 1900s to 1966. It included the Roa Branch, also known as the Roa Incline. Roa was sometimes known as Paparoa.
The Ross Branch, officially known as the Hokitika Line since 2011, and previously as the Hokitika Industrial Line, is a branch line railway that forms part of New Zealand's national rail network. It is located in the Westland District of the South Island's West Coast region and opened to Hokitika in 1893. A further extension to Ross operated from 1909 until 1980.
The Picton Express was a passenger express train operated by the New Zealand Railways Department (NZR) between Christchurch and Picton. It ran from December 1945 until February 1956, and was thus the shortest-lived provincial express in New Zealand. Following the end of railcar services in 1976, a new carriage train between Christchurch and Picton began, under the same name as the earlier service, until it was replaced in 1988 by the Coastal Pacific Express.
The Rewanui Branch, sometimes referred to as the Rewanui Incline and known as the Point Elizabeth Branch in its early years, was a branch line railway located in the West Coast region of New Zealand's South Island. It branched from the Midland Line near its western terminus in Greymouth and ran up to Rewanui in the Paparoa Ranges. The branch closed in 1985 but the first six kilometres to Runanga remain in operation as part of the Rapahoe Branch.
The Seddonville Branch, later truncated as the Ngākawau Branch, is a branch line railway in the West Coast region of New Zealand's South Island. Construction began in 1874 and it reached its terminus at the Mokihinui Mine just beyond Seddonville in 1895. In 1981 it was closed past Ngākawau and effectively became an extension of the Stillwater–Westport Line, since formalised as the Stillwater–Ngākawau Line.
The Conns Creek Branch was a 2.7 kilometre branch line railway in the West Coast region of New Zealand's South Island. It diverged from the Seddonville Branch at Waimangaroa and followed the southern bank of the Waimangaroa River to the line's terminus at Conns Creek at the foot of the Denniston Incline. The line operated from 1877 until 1967 and existed for the sole purpose of conveying coal from mines to the port of Westport.
The Marsden Point Branch is a 19 km (12 mi) branch line railway, which is to be built in the Northland Region of New Zealand's North Island. It will diverge from the North Auckland Line at Oakleigh, south of Whangārei, and serve Northport at Marsden Point. The proposal has existed since the 1970s and land for the rail corridor is being actively purchased.
Lyttelton Line is a name sometimes used to refer to the section of the Main South Line in New Zealand's South Island between Lyttelton and Christchurch, and can also be used to refer to the operations on this section. As it has always been part of the Main South Line, this name has never been officially used to refer to the track itself.
Otiria is a rural locality in the Northland Region of New Zealand's North Island. It neighbours Moerewa to the east, with the nearest major town, Kawakawa a few kilometres further eastwards. Other nearby localities include Pokapu to the south, Orauta to the west, and Hupara to the north.
