North Auckland Line
Encyclopedia : N : NO : NOR : North Auckland Line
The North Auckland Line is a major railway line in New Zealand's national rail network. It runs from Auckland to Otiria via Whangarei. The line was completed in 1925, with the first section north from Auckland opening in 1880.
The North Auckland Line previously continued to Opua in the Bay of Islands. The section from Kawakawa to Opua is now the Bay of Islands Vintage Railway, currently disused.
Construction
It took many years to build a complete line to serve the Northland Region, with different sections being developed at different times. The Kawakawa to Opua portion opened as a tramway in 1868 and was converted to railway standards a few years later, while in Whangarei, a short line ran to the coal mines in Kamo, and in 1875, the Kumeu-Riverhead Section opened, linking the Kaipara and Waitemata Harbours. It was clear that a main line was required to link these isolated railways to improve transport of both passengers and freight to and from New Zealand's northernmost region, and to open up land for greater economic development.
Construction of the main railway north of Auckland commenced in 1880, opening to Henderson on 21 December. The next section ran to Helensville and opened on 13 July 1881. Twenty kilometres south of Helensville, in Kumeu, the line met the formerly isolated Kumeu-Riverhead Section, turning it into the Riverhead Branch. The Kumeu-Riverhead section had provided transport to Auckland, linking with ferries on Waitemata Harbour at Riverhead. As the North Auckland Line made these services redundant, the Riverhead Branch closed on July 18.
The next section, to Kanohi opened on 3 May 1889, and the next five kilometres took eight years to construct. This section included the narrow Makarau tunnel and steep grades; the tunnel was later enlarged so that it new locomotives could pass through safely. During this time, construction progressed north from the short Whangarei section: Waro was reached in 1894, and Waiotu, some 30 kilometres from Whangarei, in 1899. This left a gap of 44 km between Waiotu and Kawakawa, and with authorisation granted by parliament, construction proceeded to connect the sections via Otiria. Construction of this section was slow due to access difficulties and poor weather, and it was not completed for 12 years.
To the south, construction was also proceeding slowly. From Makarau, the line had to pass through a number of valleys that ran east-west, necessitating a number of tunnels as the railway ran north-south. Road access to the area was poor and between 1900 and 1913, a succession of short segments of railway opened as the line crept northwards. By the start of World War I, the line terminated in Topuni, some 130 km north of Auckland and 80 km south of Whangarei. Wartime conditions meant that resources were diverted from railway projects but construction, especially of tunnels, still progressed. When peace was declared, construction surged northwards and was complemented by construction south from Whangarei, and within a few years only one tunnel was required to link the two sections, the 600 metre long Golden Stairs tunnel. The first attempt to build the tunnel was abandoned, with the southern portal still visible, but the second attempt was successful, and on 29 November 1925, the North Auckland Line was complete and the isolated Northland railways were linked to the national network.
Stations
The following stations are or were on the North Auckland Line, with distances from Westfield:
Junctions
Four branch lines diverged from the North Auckland Line, though only one remains. Otiria was the junction for the Okaihau Branch; near Whangarei was the junction of the Onerahi Branch; Waiotira is the junction for the extant Dargaville Branch, and Kumeu was at the western end of the Kumeu-Riverhead Section.
Operation
In the early days of the line, services were very localised and catered for local rather than national needs. During its period of isolation, Whangarei was home to up to half the WB class. When the line was completed, freight and passenger trains operated directly to Whangarei; freight trains further north were handled by services originating in Whangarei, but passenger trains ran from Auckland to Opua. This was known as the Opua Express, and by the 1950s, it ran thrice weekly and took 5 hours 20 minutes from Auckland to Whangarei. Unfortunately, due to the twisting nature of the line, passenger services were inherently slow and they struggled to compete with private cars.
In November 1956, the Opua Express carriage train was replaced by a railcar service utilising 88-seaters. These services barely lasted longer than a decade, being withdrawn in July 1967. The Auckland Harbour Bridge had opened in 1959 and drastically cut road transport times north, and in the face of heightened competition, the railway could not compete and no dedicated passenger service replaced the railcars. Passenger carriages were now attached to some freight trains to create mixed services; as they adhered to the freight schedules, these trains ran between Whangarei and Auckland and from Whangarei to Okaihau and Opua. They were unpopular due to their slow pace and they were withdrawn in 1976. No scheduled passenger trains run north of Waitakere.
Commuter services between Auckland and its western suburbs have been a mainstay of the North Auckland Line from its construction. By the early 20th century, an intensive suburban service ran between Auckland and Henderson, with some trains extended to Waitakere and Helensville. When the mixed trains were withdrawn, Helensville became New Zealand's northern passenger terminus, but in 1980 the daily train was cancelled. Commuter trains nowadays terminate at Waitakere, Swanson, or New Lynn, and with traffic volumes increasing, the line is progressively being double-tracked.
Freight services operate a couple of times daily between Auckland and Whangarei, with local services shunting the line north to Otiria. Diesel-electric locomotives has been used since 1966, when DB class (locomotive)DB and DG class locomotives took over from the B and J class steam locomotives that had worked the line for the previous couple of decades. In 1968, Makarau tunnel was enarged to accommodate the DA class and they were the dominant motive power well into the 1980s. Although the DA class had been withdrawn from many other parts of the New Zealand network, the inability of the DC class to fit through the Makarau tunnel meant the DAs continued to operate until February 1989. By this time, the DF and DX classes were permitted to run to Whangarei, and nowadays the DC class can also pass through the Makarau tunnel.
References
- Churchman, Geoffrey B., and Hurst, Tony; The Railways Of New Zealand: A Journey Through History, HarperCollins Publishers (New Zealand), 1991 reprint
- Leitch, David, and Scott, Brian; Exploring New Zealand's Ghost Railways, Grantham House, 1998 revised edition
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