Kaimai Tunnel. New Zealand

[beakaboy]

This is the Waikato side of the Kaimai Tunnel which links up with the Bay of Plenty area where I am based. It was built to shorten the original route which was through a gorge and required tight radius curvature with resultant limit on train tonnage. Also the gorge was prone to flooding with damage to bridges and rail structure. The tunnel is being assessed at present for repairs to track concrete foundation which is cracking and eroding. Approx. 1KM in the tunnel is built on material which forms part of an earthquake fault line and is not as stable as the rest of the base material. increased tonnage and trains requires a solution ASAP. While building the tunnel on this side, there was a huge slip which required removal of a large amount of surrounding terrai this is why the tunnel mouth is situated in its present positon

 

 

[ozman2009]

Is it all freight there, or is there passenger service too?

[beakaboy]

Hi ozman. Mostly freight with the occasional chartered or special excursion for passengers. they used to have a railcar (silver fern) between Tauranga -Rotorua and also Tauranga-Auckland , but patronage dropped off. Kiwis like their cars. Freight has increased dramatically between Tga and Akl due to Tga port gaining a lot of big contracts because of their efficiency, so rail transports containers between Tga and akl as well as milk products from Waikato and logs from Eastern Bay of Plenty.

[westfalen]

If I remember correctly the last timetable I saw for the Tauranga passenger service it was one of those things that are 'rationalised' to suit utilisation of rollingstock rather than the passengers and so had a quick turnaround either late at night or the wee hours of the morning when it suited no one.  It and the Rotarua service were unfortunately gone by the time I got around to visiting NZ in 2005.

[beakaboy]

You are right Westfalen. The other problem was speed restrictions for a railcar that could easily hit 70mph.and having to wait in sidings for freight trains. I remember travelling on the Silver fern railcar in 1977 from Akl to Wellington and return.They had Hostesses and aircraft recliner seats and I Remember them hitting 70mph on occasions.