| Mount Maunganui Branch | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Overview | |||
| Status | Open | ||
| Owner | KiwiRail | ||
| Locale | Tauranga | ||
| Termini | |||
| Service | |||
| Type | Industrial | ||
| Operator(s) | KiwiRail | ||
| Technical | |||
| Line length | 6.50 km (4.04 mi) | ||
| Number of tracks | Single | ||
| Character | Industrial | ||
| Track gauge | 1,067 mm (3 ft 6 in) | ||
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Mount Maunganui Branch | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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TheMount Maunganui branch is a short industrial branch line inTauranga,New Zealand, servicing the eastern side of thePort of Tauranga. It branches from theEast Coast Main Trunk at a triangle junction outsideBaypark Stadium before running north-west throughMount Maunganui to the port complex.
A number of services use the branch daily. Its primary traffic is bulk products - export timber and some timber products from local forests and theKinlieth andTasman mills; and coal destined for theHuntly power station and theNew Zealand Steel mill at Glenbrook. It is also used for shunts to and from the container handling facilities of the Port of Tauranga, which are located at Sulphur Point on the other side ofTauranga Harbour. With 21 freight trains per day the line was estimated (1990) as the fifth busiest line in New Zealand.[1]
By 1910 the Mount Maunganui wharf was used by thePublic Works Department (PWD) with workshops for railway construction material in the area, so was not handed over to the NZR until 1924. With the Great Depression the PWD workshop was closed about 1930, and the branch had no regular traffic from 1934. In 1942 because of a shortage of track material the track was lifted and relaid to the nearby RNZAF base (nowTauranga Airport).[2]
With the establishment of theKawerau Branch the port was to be used for exporting paper and timber. The line was relaid with heavy rails and reopened on 28 March 1955. In the 1950s a large marshalling yard was built at Mount Maunganui and extended in the 1960s and 1970s.[3] A new marshalling yard had been built at Te Maunga the junction with theEast Coast Main Trunk (ECMT), but more recently most trains run into Mount Maunganui and the line is operated as part of the ECMT.[2] The Frankton Junction picnic train for Railways staff fromHamilton to Mount Maunganui used to bea very significant event.[4]
In the 1970s and 1980s there was consideration to a combined road and rail bridge across theTauranga Harbour to shorten the distance from Tauranga to the port, but as a low-level bridge would affect shipping a high-level bridge was built; the steep approach grades precluded its use by rail.[2] There was local pressure in the 1970s to reroute the branch line, and before the1972 general election SirBasil Arthur theLabour spokesman on transport had promised to reroute the line if Labour was elected.[5] But the deviation did not proceed. It would have cost $3 million (1974), with extra operating costs of $3000 per year. The new route would have required sharp curves and a level crossing.[6]
In 2016, the junction with the East Coast Main Trunk was relocated westward and the line diverted west of Owens Place. The diversion was to allow room forState Highway 2 to be widened and grade separated between Bayfair and Baypark.[7]
