Originally, New Zealand's railways were constructed by
provincial governments and private firms. The largest provincial operation was the
Canterbury Provincial Railways, which opened the first public railway at
Ferrymead on 1 December 1863. During
The Vogel Era of the late 1860s to the 1870s, railway construction by central government expanded greatly, from just in 1869 to in 1880. Following the abolition of the provinces in 1877, the
Public Works Department took over the various provincial railways. Since the Public Works Department was charged with constructing new railway lines (among other public works) the day to day railway operations were transferred into a new government department on the recommendation of a parliamentary select committee. At the time of railway lines were open for traffic, in the North Island and in the
South Island, mainly consisting of the
Main South Line from the port of Lyttelton to Bluff.
Formation and early years The Railways Department was formed in 1880 during the premiership of Sir
John Hall. That year, the private
Port Chalmers Railway Company Limited was acquired by the department and new workshops at
Addington opened. Ironically, the first few years of NZR were marked by the
Long Depression, which led to great financial constraint on the department. As a result, the central government passed legislation to allow for the construction of more private railways. A Commission, ordered by Hall, had in 1880 reviewed 85 proposed and partly-constructed railway lines in the colony, and it proposed postponing 21 projects and recommended against proceeding with 29 others. The Commissioners were especially critical of the colony's existing railways' inability to generate sufficient income to pay the interest on the loans that had funded their construction:The extent to which this fatal mistake has been made may be in some degree realized by a comparison of the relations between railways and population in this and other countries. In Great Britain the amount of population to each mile of railway is 1,961; in the United States, 580; in New South Wales, 1,108; in Victoria, 924; while in New Zealand we have only a population of 362 to each mile of railway already made.In August 1881 the Railways Construction and Land Act was passed, allowing joint-stock companies to build and run private railways, as long as they were built to the government's standard
rail gauge of and connected with the government railway lines. The Act had the effect of authorising the
Wellington and Manawatu Railway Company to build the
Wellington-Manawatu Line. In 1877 the first American locomotives were purchased; the
NZR K class (1877) from
Rogers, followed by the
NZR T class of 1879 from
Baldwin. The most important construction project for NZR at this time was the central section of the
North Island Main Trunk. Starting from
Te Awamutu on 15 April 1885, the section—including the famous
Raurimu Spiral—was not completed for another 23 years. The economy gradually improved and in 1895 the
Liberal Government of Premier
Richard Seddon appointed
Alfred Cadman as the first
Minister of Railways. The Minister appointed a General Manager for the railways, keeping the operation under tight political control. Apart from four periods of government-appointed commissions (1889–1894, 1924–1928, 1931–1936 and 1953–1957), this system remained in place until the department was corporatised in 1982. In 1895, patronage had reached 3.9M passengers per annum and 2.048M tonnes. NZR produced its first New Zealand-built steam locomotive in 1889; the
W class built in the
Addington Railway Workshops. Along with opening new lines, NZR began acquiring a number of the private railways which had built railway lines around the country. It acquired the
Waimea Plains Railway Company in 1886. At the same time, a protracted legal battle began with the
New Zealand Midland Railway Company, which was only resolved in 1898. The partially completed
Midland line was not handed over to NZR until 1900. By that time, of railway lines were open for traffic. By 1912, patronage had reached 13.4M passengers per annum (a 242% increase since 1895) and 5.9M tonnes of freight (a 188% increase since 1895). In 1913, damages of £15 were awarded against New Zealand Railways to S. J. Gibbons by the Supreme Court in a precedent-setting case; for damages to a car that hit a train at a level crossing: see
Cliff Road railway station.
Pre-1914 coaches In 1863
Canterbury Provincial Railways had the first 4 coaches in the country, two 1st and two 2nd class, built by W. Williams, Melbourne. From 1867 to 1875 the
Bluff-
Invercargill-
Winton lline was standard gauge. In 1867 one article mentioned that carriages for the
Great South lines were imported from the
Metropolitan Carriage Company. When those lines were converted to 3ft 6in gauge about 1875, new stock was needed. 31 carriages were landed from Britain in 1873. They generally arrived in packing cases, but that didn't always protect them, resulting in claims against the builders. Some were built by
Oldbury Railway Carriage & Wagon Company. In 1873
A & G Price built 3 1st class and 7 2nd class carriages for £2,217 at their Onehunga works, using
kauri and imported axles. In later years there were complaints that coaches could as well be built locally, though in 1876 it had been claimed the quality was poorer. In 1875 the Kaipara and Riverhead railway had 6 English built coaches. In 1880 the Auckland-Waikato line was using 30 C Class ( long with 32 seats) & 20 D Class ( long with 16 seats) carriages. 1st class cars had cushioned, leather-covered, longitudinal seats, with
coir mats on the floor, Smoking compartments had brass
spitoons screwed to the floor. 2nd class seats were straight backed and wooden with no cushions. All doors were sliding with the doors kept locked between 1st and 2nd class compartments, as were the gates between cars. No heating or toilets were provided.
Colza oil lamps hung through holes in the roof. The cars had straight sides, low flat-top roofs, narrow bodies and small, high,
drop down windows. Until the 1880s trains were
loose coupled. By 1900 the last 6 of the 1870s and 1880s coaches had been scrapped, or transferred away from the main lines. long bogie coaches, built in Christchurch and Auckland, were introduced from 1884 to give a smoother ride.
Birdcage (or gallery) bogie carriages, built at
Addington, with toilets, were introduced to the
Marton–New Plymouth line in 1889. Similar coaches were built at
Newmarket for the opening of the
Napier line in 1890. Their bodies were long, wide and high, built of kauri,
mangeao ,
puriri,
rewarewa,
totara and
rimu, with reversible seats and
linoleum floors. Gas lighting was first trialled in 1879, but didn't come into widespread use until
Pintsch gas lighting replaced oil lamps from 1895, initially between
Hurunui (from 1905 renamed Ethelton) and Bluff. The cost was claimed to be reduced from ¾d per light per hour to ¼d. Pintsch plants were built in Auckland and Wellington in 1897.
Westinghouse air brakes were fitted to stock from 1900. 63 American built coaches were imported in 1901 and again there were complaints that they could have been built locally. Until 1908 NZR carriages were small ( to ), with a few long. The great majority were bogie carriages, but 6-wheeled and 4-wheeled cars existed. About 1908 the
NZR 50-foot carriage was introduced, initially for the newly completed
North Island Main Trunk. NZR had 1,002 carriages on 1 April 1908. On 31 March 1909 it had 1,116 cars. NZR workshops built 58 new 50 ft cars - 24 day cars, 6 sleeping-cars and 4 refreshment cars for NIMT, plus 14 Class A cars and 10 postal cars.
Steam heating was provided in the new 50-footers. Previously
footwarmers were used.
Petone workshops built 8 sleeping cars, wide, with 20 berths (4 x 4-berth cabins, 2 x 2-berth), or 30 seats, in -wide compartments. From 1886 carriages were classed as A for bogie carriages over 30 feet long, Aa for wide coaches, B for 30 foot bogies, C for 6 wheelers and D for 4 wheelers.
Increasing competition and great depression became Minister of Railways in 1923. His tenure was to have a profound effect on the department.
Garratt locomotives failed to live up to expectations. were introduced from July 1938. This example, RM 31, is seen at Paihiatua,
Wairarapa. also appeared in 1939. This locomotive, J 1211, survived for preservation. In 1920 the milestone of open railway lines was reached and 15 million passengers were carried by the department. An acute housing shortage following the war led to the creation of
Railways Department's Housing Scheme in 1922. The first of the now-iconic railway houses were prefabricated in a factory in
Frankton for NZR staff. This scheme was shut down in 1929 as it was considered improper for a government department to compete with private builders. The
Otira Tunnel was completed in 1923, heralding the completion of the
Midland Line in the
South Island. The tunnel included the first section of
railway electrification in New Zealand and its first electric locomotives, the
original EO class. The section was electrified at 1,500 V DC, due to the steep grade in the tunnel, and included its own hydro-electric power station. The second section to be electrified by the department was the
Lyttelton Line in Christchurch, completed in 1929, at the same voltage and current. This again saw English Electric supply locomotives, the
EC class.
Gordon Coates, on 24 October 1922, as Minister of Public Works, during the second reading debate of his
Main Highways Act, said, “
I say the day will come when it will be found that through the use of motor transport certain railways in New Zealand will be relegated to a secondary place altogether, and probably will be torn up, and we shall have motor traffic taking their place.” Section 12 of that Act allowed for government borrowing and Section 19 required local councils to provide half the cost of road improvements. By setting in place a system of subsidy from ratepayers and taxpayers, whilst requiring railways to make a 3¾% profit (at that rate, interest amounted to over 22% of total earnings), Coates ensured his prophecy came true, as railways gradually became uneconomic. He also encouraged publicity for rail travel. The following year, Gordon Coates became the Minister of Railways. Coates was an ambitious politician who had an almost "religious zeal" for his portfolio. During the summer of 1923, he spent the entire parliamentary recess inspecting the department's operations. The following year, he put forward a "Programme of Improvements and New Works'". Coates scheme proposed spending £8 million over 8 years. This was later expanded to £10 million over 10 years. The programme included: • The Auckland–Westfield deviation of the
North Island Main Trunk; • New marshalling yards at Auckland, Wellington and Christchurch; • The Milson Deviation of the North Island Main Trunk through
Palmerston North; • The
Rimutaka Tunnel under the
Rimutaka Ranges in Wellington; • The
Tawa Flat deviation of the North Island Main Trunk out of Wellington; • Electric lighting; • New locomotive facilities and • New signalling systems. An independent commission, led by Sir
Sam Fay and Sir
Vincent Raven produced a report known as the "Fay Raven Report" which gave qualified approval to Coates' programme. The reports only significant change was the proposal of a
Cook Strait train ferry service between Wellington and Picton, to link the two systems up. Coates went on to become Prime Minister in 1925, an office he held until 1928 when he was defeated at the
general election of that year. While the Westfield and Tawa Flat deviations proceeded, the Milson deviation and Rimutaka Tunnel projects remained stalled. The onset of the
Great Depression from late 1929 saw these projects scaled back or abandoned. The Westfield deviation was completed in 1930 and the Tawa deviation proceeded at a snail's pace. A number of new lines under construction were casualties, including the
Rotorua-Taupo line, approved in July 1928 but abandoned almost a year later due to the depression. An exception was the
Stratford–Okahukura Line, finished in 1933. However, there was criticism that maintenance was being neglected. In the
Liberals last year of office in 1912, of line had been relaid, but that was reduced to 118 in 1913, 104 in 1914, 81 in 1924 and 68 in 1925, during the
Reform Government's years. Once again, growing traffic requirements led to the introduction of a new type of locomotive, the ill-fated
G class Garratt locomotives in 1928. Three of the locomotives were introduced for operation on the North Island Main Trunk. They were not well suited to New Zealand conditions: they had overly complex
valve gear, were too hot for crews manning them and too powerful for the wagons they were hauling. The failure of this class lead to the introduction of the
K class in 1932.
Government Railways Board Tough economic conditions and increasing competition from road transport led to calls for regulation of the land transport sector. In 1931 it was claimed half a million tons of freight had been lost to road transport. That year, the department carried 7.2 million passengers per year, down from 14.2 million in 1923. In 1930 a Royal Commission on Railways recommended that land transport should be "co-ordinated" and the following year Parliament passed the
Transport Licensing Act 1931. The Act regulated the carriage of goods and entrenched the monopoly the department had on land transport. It set a minimum distance road transport operators could transport goods at before they had to be licensed. The Act was repealed in 1982. Alongside these changes, in 1931 the Railways Department was briefly restructured into the Government Railways Board. Another Act of Parliament, the Government Railways Amendment Act 1931 was passed. The Railways Board was independent of the Government of the day and answered to the
Minister of Finance. and had 10 members from around the country. The Board stopped building on the
Dargaville branch, Gisborne line, Main South Line, Nelson Section,
Okaihau to
Rangiahua line and
Westport-Inangahua line. For that it was criticised by
Bob Semple, the new Minister of Public Works, in a speech in 1935 Three new locomotive classes appeared in 1939: the
KA class,
KB class and the
J class. The KA was a further development of the K class, while the J class was primarily for lighter trackage in the South Island. The numerically smaller KB class were allocated to the
Midland line, where they dominated traffic. This led to the coining of the phrase "KB country" to describe the area, made famous by the
National Film Unit's documentary of the same title.
World War II and its aftermath class were introduced in 1946, and were the last steam locomotives built by NZR. As with the first world war, the
Second World War had a significant impact on railways. The war created major labour shortages across the economy generally, and while considered "essential industry", railways were no exception. A large number of NZR employees signed up to fight in the war. For the first time, the department employed significant numbers of women to meet the shortages. The war created serious coal shortages as imported coal was no longer available. Despite this, NZR had record revenues in 1940. Despite the war and associated labour and material shortages, new railway construction continued. In 1942 the
Gisborne Line was finally opened, followed by the
Main North Line between Picton and Christchurch being completed in 1945. The final section of the then ECMT, the
Taneatua Branch, was also completed.
Centralised Traffic Control (CTC) was installed from Taumaranui to Auckland at the same time. In 1946 the last class of steam locomotives built by NZR was introduced, the
JA class. Due to coal shortages the
K,
J,
KA, JA classes of steam locomotives were converted from coal to oil burning. Following the war, NZR contracted the
Royal New Zealand Air Force from 1947 to ship inter-island freight across Cook's Strait between Paraparaumu in the North Island and Blenheim in the South Island, as part of the "
Rail Air" service. In 1950, Straits Air Freight Express (later known as SAFE Air) took over the contract from the RNZAF. The service was discontinued in the early 1980s.
Modernisation locomotive, the first diesel-electric locomotives introduced by NZR. locomotive, the first mainline diesel-electric locomotives. locomotive. during the 1960s. The General Manager of NZR,
Frank Aickin, was an advocate for electrifying the entire North Island Main Trunk to alleviate the shortage of coal and the cost of importing diesel fuel; though he also recognised that steam and diesel traction would be required on other lines. NZR's first diesel-electric locomotives, the
English Electric built
DE class, were introduced in 1951. The locomotives gave good service but were not powerful or numerous enough to seriously displace steam traction. On Christmas Eve 1953, the worst disaster in NZR's history, and
one of the worst in New Zealand's history occurred. 151 people died when the
Wellington-
Auckland express was derailed due to a bridge collapse north of Tangiwai due to a
lahar from a volcanic eruption, in what became known as the
Tangiwai disaster. In 1954, the New Zealand railway network reached its zenith in terms of distance with , 60% of it on gradients between 1 in 100 and 1 in 200 and 33% steeper than 1 in 100. The
EW class electric locomotives introduced for the Wellington electric system. They were the second class of electric locomotive to be used on this section of electrification. They were the most powerful locomotives on the system until the DX class were introduced in 1972. Aicken went as far as negotiating a tentative contract for the construction of electrification of the North Island Main Trunk and locomotives for it, but fell out with the Government in late 1951 and resigned. His successor,
Horace Lusty, terminated the contract, instead ordering diesel electric locomotives from
English Electric. The following year, NZR introduced the dual-cab
DF class in 1954, the first main-line
diesel-electric locomotives in service. They proved to be unsuccessful with numerous mechanical issues, and the original order of 31 was cancelled. Instead,
DG class locomotives, also built by English Electric, were ordered. While the DG class proved more successful than the DF class, steam remained the dominant form of traction. NZR then entered into an agreement with General Motors for the supply of 40
EMD G12 model locomotives, designated by NZR as the
DA class. The first of these locomotives entered service in September 1955, with all of this initial order running by September 1957. The introduction of the DA class, more than any other class, displaced steam locomotives from the
North Island. On 3 November 1955 the long
Rimutaka Tunnel opened, greatly reducing transit times between the
Wairarapa and Wellington. This led to the closure of the Rimutaka Incline and its unique Fell railway system. Because steam locomotives could not be operated through the new tunnel, the
Wairarapa Line was the first to be fully "dieselised". Amid many protests, the isolated
Nelson Section was closed, although future
Nelson Railway Proposals resurfaced from 1957. The
RM class "88 seater" or "Fiats" also began entering service from 1955. The railcars were designed to take over provincial inter-city routes but proved to be mechanically unreliable. Despite large orders for diesel-electric locomotives, NZR was still building steam locomotives until 1956, when the last steam locomotive built by NZR, JA1274, was completed at
Hillside Workshops,
Dunedin. The locomotive is now preserved in Dunedin near the railway station. During the 1950s New Zealand industry was diversifying, particularly into the timber industry. On 6 October 1952 the
Kinleith Branch, formerly part of the
Taupo Totara Timber Company Railway, was opened to service a new pulp and paper mill at its terminus. NZR's first single-purpose log trains, called "express loggers", began to operate on this branch. The Kinleith Branch was shortly followed in 1957 by the long
Murupara Branch, which was opened running through the
Bay of Plenty's
Kaingaroa Forest. The branch is the last major branch line to open in New Zealand to date. The line was primarily built to service the
Tasman Pulp and Paper Mill in
Kawerau, with several loading points along its length. The line's success led to several
Taupo Railway Proposals being put forward, with extensions of the branch being mooted at various times.
1950s Commissions In 1952 the Minister of Railways,
Stan Goosman, set up a Commission to Inquire Into New Zealand Government Railways. It was chaired by Auckland mayor, Sir
John Allum, and its other members were also businessmen,
Carl Smith and Walter Oswald Gibb. It made many recommendations, including to abandon the
Pōkeno-Paeroa railway, not complete the Nelson Section, close the
Eyreton,
Foxton,
Greytown,
Outram,
Waikaia,
Waimate,
Waiuku and
Wyndham branches, as only one branch made a profit, close
Kaitoke and Woodville refreshment rooms and not electrify the North Island Main Trunk. It noted that interest on construction amounted to 10.6% of running costs (without which NZR was still profitable) and that there were reductions in services, due to coal and staff shortages between 1944 and 1952; for example, New Plymouth-Whanganui and Balclutha-Dunedin services dropped from 12 to 2. Noting that most general managers held the post for no more than 4 years, it said, "no business of this magnitude has any hope of being successful if changes in major policy can occur every few years with a change of managership" and "we do not believe that in these days of constantly changing economic conditions it is possible for one man to run successfully a trading concern with a turnover of £24,000,000 annually". They recommended setting up a New Zealand Railways Corporation, with no obligation to pay interest and a 5-man board, with 7-year contracts. Instead of setting up a Corporation, a Railways Management Commission was formed in 1953. It was dissolved in 1956 and control reverted to the Minister and General Manager.
1960s In 1960 the second
Christchurch railway station, at Moorhouse Avenue, was opened. The station was closed in 1990, with a new station being built at Addington. In 1961, livestock was exempted from the Transport Licensing Act, effectively opening the sector up to competition. The introduction of
GMV Aramoana in 1962 heralded the start of inter-island ferry services run by NZR. The service was very successful, leading to criticism, when the Wellington–Lyttelton overnight ferry was withdrawn, that NZR was competing unfairly with private operators. Before the
Aramoana was introduced, NZR could not compete for inter-island freight business, and the rail networks of both the North and South Islands were not well integrated. To send goods between the islands, freight had to be unloaded from wagons onto a ship on one island, unloaded at the other and then loaded back into wagons to resume its journey by rail. The introduction of a roll-on roll-off train ferry changed that. Wagons were rolled onto the ferry and rolled off at the other side. This led to many benefits for NZR customers. In 1968 the "
Blue Streak" refurbished railcars were introduced to the
Wellington–
Auckland run, having failed to raise patronage between
Hamilton and Auckland. The success of the Blue Streaks led to the purchase of three new railcars in 1972. The Blue Streaks were then allocated to the Wellington—
New Plymouth service. The introduction of the Japanese-built
DJ class diesels from that year in the
South Island accelerated the demise of steam, replacing the remaining steam locomotives. The final demise of steam came on 26 October 1971 with the withdrawal of the last class of mainline steam locomotives, the
JA class in the South Island (although the NZR-operated heritage
Kingston Flyer service, using two
AB class steam locomotives began just two months later in December 1971).
1970s Railways' management had entered the 1970s with a modernisation plan around the theme "Great things are happening to Railways", to counter negative views of the railways' held by the general public and political elites. In 1970, a red, black and white corporate logo designed by Barry Ellis was introduced and a new Passenger Division was established.
The Southerner between
Christchurch and
Invercargill was introduced, replacing the
South Island Limited. The new service featured buffet cars and modernised rolling stock. New rolling stock included the
Silver Star luxury
Wellington–
Auckland overnight train, sourced from Japan. The service never lived up to its promise and was withdrawn in 1979 due to poor patronage. In 1972 the first
Silver Fern railcars were introduced for the daytime Wellington–Auckland run. Freight traffic was again changing. In October 1969, the first unit coal trains were introduced, between coal mines at
Huntly and
New Zealand Steel at
Mission Bush. NZR introduced its first purpose-built container wagons, the UK class, for the growing traffic that was quickly changing freight patterns. NZR was criticised for not investing enough in new bogie wagons. Freight volumes greatly increased during the 1970s, despite the oil shocks of 1973 and 1979, with the greatest setback for freight volumes being Britain's entry into the
European Economic Community in 1973. Inflationary pressures within the economy greatly rose, at the same time exports were falling. In reaction to this, the government attempted to control inflation by fixing prices; in 1972 it was decided that NZR could only charge for its services at no more than 1971 rates, despite rising fuel and labour costs. As a result, Railways' accounts were in a deficit for much of the decade and were topped up with a special "Vote Stabilisation" in the budget. Following a change of Government in 1975, the
Robert Muldoon led
National Government decided to increase the transport licensing limited from to 150 km. This change took effect from 1977, and greatly increased competition for NZR on key routes between larger centres within 150 km of each other—routes such as Auckland–Hamilton, Hamilton–Tauranga, Wellington–Palmerston North and Christchurch–Ashburton. TMS resulted in an 8 per cent improvement in wagon utilisation. Using dual
IBM System/370 systems, one in active standby mode, the TMS system became a centralised system for tracking all wagon and locomotive movements.
"Time for Change" Following the increase in distance for road transport licensing in 1977, NZR General Manager Trevor Hayward published a pamphlet entitled "Time for Change". ==Branches==