South Island Main Trunk Railway
The South Island Main Trunk Railway is the main railway line on the South Island of New Zealand .
It starts at Picton ferry terminal and runs along the east coast via Christchurch and Dunedin to Invercargill in the south of the island. The section from Picton to Christchurch is also referred to as the Main North Line and the section from Christchurch to Invercargill as the Main South Line . Construction of this line began in the 1860s, but continuous train service has only been possible since 1945.
The total route is 949 km long, single-track, non-electrified and laid out in the gauge of 1067 mm used in New Zealand.
Building history
Main South Line
Construction of the southern section in the province of Canterbury began in 1865 in the broad gauge of 1600 mm. The section from Christchurch to Rolleston was completed in 1866, and Selwyn was reached a year later. Due to financial difficulties, further construction stopped and Rakaia was only reached in 1873. After a decision was made in New Zealand to build railways only in the gauge of 1067 mm, the previously created line was converted to the new gauge by 1876.
Further south, in 1873, a first section between Dunedin and Port Chalmers was created in the new gauge. The entire Main South Line to Invercargill could finally be opened by 1879.
Main North Line
The construction of the Main North Line is likely to be the longest construction project in New Zealand's history.
Starting in 1870, construction began in a northerly direction from Christchurch, and Rangiora and Waipara were reached in 1880. In 1875 the section between Picton and Blenheim was opened at the northern end. From then on, construction stalled because there was no agreement on the route to be chosen. Some interest groups favored a direct coastline, others a connection in the hinterland and others even saw this route as an approach to crossing the New Zealand Alps. In 1912 the section from Waipara to Parnassus was extended. The outbreak of the First World War brought construction work to a standstill again.
In the 1920s, the route along the coast finally prevailed, and the Second World War again impeded construction. However, this was completed on December 15, 1945 when the two halves of the route met in Kaikoura .
Train traffic
At the time of steam operation, there were through trains between Picton and Christchurch as well as Christchurch and Invercargill, and steam locomotives of the J and Ja series were used. The route on the section near Rakaia was very straight, where the trains reached the highest speeds in the New Zealand rail network. In 1971 the steam service was stopped, in 1970 the Southerner train connection was introduced (pulled by a class DJ diesel locomotive). This train connection was very popular, but was discontinued in February 2002. From the late 1950s to the 1970s, diesel railcars from Fiat ran on the Main North Line. Since 1988 there has been a train specially designed for tourists between Picton and Christchurch. This was initially called Coastal Pacific and was later renamed TranzCoastal. Since August 2011 it has been operating again under the name Coastal Pacific . In the larger metropolitan areas along the route, there was urban local transport for a long time, and there were also regional transport offers to develop the branch lines. However, most of the branch lines were shut down from 1980, and urban transport connections also disappeared.
Nowadays the only passenger connections on this route are the Coastal Pacific and the TranzAlpine on the section between Christchurch and Rolleston.
For a long time, freight transport existed on the route connecting rural areas to the metropolitan areas and ports, since the closure of numerous branch lines, freight transport has mainly consisted of through trains with longer routes. In Picton there is a connection to the ferry to Wellington. Today, ferry times for freight trains between Auckland and Christchurch are 30 hours.
literature
- Churchman, Geoffrey B., and Hurst, Tony; The Railways of New Zealand: A Journey Through History , HarperCollins Publishers (New Zealand)