TheKaimai Express long-distance passenger train was operated byTranz Rail under theTranz Scenic brand (originally by New Zealand Rail Limited under the InterCity Rail brand) between theNorth Island cities ofAuckland andTauranga viaHamilton. It used theSilver Fernrailcars and operated from Monday 9 December 1991 until Sunday 7 October 2001.
In 1928, when theEast Coast Main Trunk Railway was completed toTaneatua, a passenger train commenced operating fromAuckland on a slow (12-hour) schedule. Within a year this was upgraded to 10.5 hours and named theTaneatua Express. For much of its life, it ran only twice or thrice weekly.
In 1959 the express was replaced by a daily railcar service using88 seater railcars: due to negligible traffic to Taneatua, it terminated atTe Puke. It did not last long, as the circuitous rail route struggled to compete with private cars, being withdrawn from 11 September 1967.[1]
In 1980Tauranga radio stationRadio BoP started running an excursion train from Tauranga toMatamata andRotorua via the newKaimai Tunnel under the nameKaimai Express, using NZR locomotives and carriages from Steam Inc and Railway Enthusiasts Society. The excursions were repeated in 1981 and 1982.
In 1991, theSilver Fern railcars that operated betweenWellington and Auckland were replaced by the locomotive-hauledOverlander, and they were transferred to new routes fromAuckland, theGeyserland Express toRotorua and theKaimai Express to Tauranga. The latter train's name came from theKaimai Tunnel through theKaimai Ranges, opened on 12 September 1978. This gave a much faster and more direct route to theBay of Plenty, substantially faster than theTaneatua Express and 88-seater railcars.
The firstKaimai Express ran on 9 December 1991, a morning service from Tauranga to Auckland and a return afternoon service, taking roughly 3.5 hours in each direction.
In June 2000 timings were changed to enable the introduction of theWaikato Connection morning and evening commuter service between Hamilton and Auckland. The southbound service departed Auckland at 8:20am and reached Tauranga 3 hours 31 minutes later at 11:51am, northbound from Tauranga at 1:05pm to Auckland at 4:34pm, 3 hours 29 minutes later.
Consideration was made at one point by Tranz Rail to extend the service toMount Maunganui, but this did not eventuate due to the cost of building a platform at Mount Maunganui which would be required.
Whilst the Kaimai Express service had the potential to compete with car and bus services, a lack of marketing and advertising resulted in insufficient patronage for the service to be profitable, and in 2001 it was announced that the service was too uneconomic to continue. No subsidies came forth from the government and no private companies wished to invest in it. It operated for the final time on 7 October 2001.