The East Coast Main Trunk (ECMT) is a railway line in the

North Island The North Island, also officially named Te Ika-a-Māui, is one of the two main islands of New Zealand, separated from the larger but much less populous South Island by the Cook Strait. The island's area is , making it the world's 14th-largest ...

New Zealand New Zealand ( mi, Aotearoa ) is an island country in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. It consists of two main landmasses—the North Island () and the South Island ()—and over 700 smaller islands. It is the sixth-largest island count ...

, originally running between Hamilton and Taneatua via Tauranga, connecting the Waikato with the Bay of Plenty. The ECMT now runs between Hamilton and Kawerau, with a branch line to Taneatua from the junction at Hawkens. The line is built to narrow gauge of , the uniform gauge in New Zealand. It was known as the East Coast Main Trunk Railway until 2011, when the word "Railway" was dropped.

History

Construction

In 1880, the

North Island Main Trunk The North Island Main Trunk (NIMT) is the main railway line in the North Island of New Zealand, connecting the capital city Wellington with the country's largest city, Auckland. The line is long, built to the New Zealand rail gauge of and ser ...

railway had reached Frankton,

Hamilton Hamilton may refer to: People * Hamilton (name), a common British surname and occasional given name, usually of Scottish origin, including a list of persons with the surname ** The Duke of Hamilton, the premier peer of Scotland ** Lord Hamilt ...

, from

Auckland Auckland (pronounced ) ( mi, Tāmaki Makaurau) is a large metropolitan city in the North Island of New Zealand. The List of New Zealand urban areas by population, most populous urban area in the country and the List of cities in Oceania by po ...

. From there, it was delayed by construction of the original Waikato River bridge (now carrying road traffic as part of Claudelands Road), before the line made its way to

Morrinsville Morrinsville is a provincial town in the Waikato region of New Zealand's North Island, with an estimated population of as of The town is located at the northern base of the Pakaroa Range, and on the south-western fringe of the Hauraki Plains. ...

in October 1884,

Te Aroha Te Aroha ( mi, Te Aroha-a-uta) is a rural town in the Waikato region of New Zealand with a population of 3,906 people in the 2013 census, an increase of 138 people since 2006. It is northeast of Hamilton and south of Thames. It sits at the f ...

in March 1886 and

Paeroa Paeroa is a town in the Hauraki District of the Waikato Region in the North Island of New Zealand. Located at the base of the Coromandel Peninsula, it is close to the junction of the Waihou River and Ohinemuri River, and is approximately 20 kilo ...

in 1898. There were also minor delays, such as in the delivery of

totara ''Podocarpus totara'' (; from the Maori-language ; the spelling "totara" is also common in English) is a species of podocarp tree endemic to New Zealand. It grows throughout the North Island and northeastern South Island in lowland, montane and ...

sleepers. The route to

Waihi Waihi is a town in Hauraki District in the North Island of New Zealand, especially notable for its history as a gold mine town. The town is at the foot of the Coromandel Peninsula, close to the western end of the Bay of Plenty. The nearby res ...

through the

Karangahake Gorge The Karangahake Gorge lies between the Coromandel and Kaimai ranges, at the southern end of the Coromandel Peninsula in New Zealand's North Island. A sharply winding canyon, it was formed by the Ohinemuri River. State Highway 2 passes throug ...

was surveyed in the next few years with construction starting in 1900, with three bridges, including a road-rail bridge and a kilometre-long tunnel, which has a 1:50 grade and took three years to build, being completed in 1904. The line between Paeroa and Waihi opened in November 1905. Surveys were undertaken for the route beyond Waihi in 1907 and construction started in March 1912, but was suspended in November of the same year. The work started again in 1914, but was suspended again in March 1917 because of a shortage of staff due to

World War I World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...

. The works started again in 1918, and the railway through the Athenree Gorge opened to

Tahawai Tahawai is a rural community in the Western Bay of Plenty District and Bay of Plenty Region of New Zealand's North Island. runs through it. A peninsula on the eastern side of the area in Tauranga Harbour ends with the small settlements of T ...

in 1927 and

Tauranga Tauranga () is a coastal city in the Bay of Plenty region and the fifth most populous city of New Zealand, with an urban population of , or roughly 3% of the national population. It was settled by Māori late in the 13th century, colonised by ...

in March 1927. The remaining length of line to

Te Puke Te Puke is a town located 18 kilometres southeast of Tauranga in the Western Bay of Plenty of New Zealand. It is particularly well-known for the cultivation of Kiwifruit. Te Puke is close to Tauranga, Mount Maunganui, Papamoa, and Maketu, whi ...

and Taneatua opened in 1928, and the

Taneatua Express The ''Taneatua Express'' was an express passenger train operated by the New Zealand Railways Department that ran between Auckland and Taneatua in the Bay of Plenty, serving centres such as Tauranga and Te Puke. It commenced in 1929 and operated ...

started in 1929.

Original intention

Originally in the 1910s and 1920s, the East Coast Main Trunk line was to run from Pokeno to Gisborne via Paeroa, Tauranga, Opotiki and through the Waioeka Gorge, connecting with the

Moutohora Branch The Moutohora Branch was a branch line railway that formed part of New Zealand's national rail network in Poverty Bay in the North Island of New Zealand. The branch ran for 78 km approximately North-West from Gisborne into the rugged a ...

to Gisborne; creating a link from the isolated Gisborne Section line to Auckland via the Bay of Plenty. This followed on from an original proposal to link Gisborne with Auckland with a line via Rotorua, with a ''Gisborne-Rotorua line'' from Makaraka to

Mōtū Mōtū is a rural community in the Gisborne District of New Zealand New Zealand ( mi, Aotearoa ) is an island country in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. It consists of two main landmasses—the North Island () and the South Island ()� ...

of about being authorised by the Railways Authorisation Act, 1904. Gisborne was subsequently linked to the south with Wellington via Wairoa and Palmerston North by the

Palmerston North - Gisborne Line Palmerston may refer to: People * Christie Palmerston (c. 1851–1897), Australian explorer * Several prominent people have borne the title of Viscount Palmerston ** Henry Temple, 1st Viscount Palmerston (c. 1673–1757), Irish nobleman and ...

in 1942. Work began on extending the line from the Taneatua Branch to Opotiki in March 1928 and on building the

Paeroa–Pokeno Line The Paeroa-Pokeno railway line or deviation in the upper North Island of New Zealand between Paeroa on the East Coast Main Trunk (ECMT) and Pokeno on the North Island Main Trunk (NIMT) was a proposed route with construction started but abandoned. ...

in 1938, when the Minister of Public Works

Bob Semple Robert Semple (21 October 1873 – 31 January 1955) was a union leader and later Minister of Public Works for the first Labour Government of New Zealand. He is also known for creating the Bob Semple tank. Early life He was born in Sofala, New ...

on 28 January ''turned the first sod'' it was said that the proposed line would shorten the distance from Auckland to towns on the ECMT by nearly . The Kaimai Tunnel later cut the distance by about . Due to two world wars, an economic depression, and an influenza epidemic, the full railway was never completed. In June 1928, 250 men employed by the Public Works Department (many living in government houses or huts) were dismissed, to be replaced by NZR staff. As late as 1939 £45,000 was provided for extension from Taneatua to Opotiki and a route pegged out as far as a proposed

Waimana Waimana is a rural valley in the Whakatāne District and Bay of Plenty Region of New Zealand's North Island. It is located in the northern Te Urewera. Waimana River, originally known as Tauranga River, runs through the valley, joining the Ohinemat ...

railway station. Several routes for the link from the

to the Taneatua Branch were surveyed (20 routes by 1920), but the expense of a line descending to the Bay of Plenty could not be justified (see

Kaimai Tunnel deviation

The

Kaimai Tunnel The Kaimai Tunnel is a Rail transport in New Zealand, railway tunnel through the Kaimai Range in the North Island of New Zealand. Since it was opened in 1978, it has held the title of Tunnels in New Zealand#Railway Tunnels, longest tunnel, at , ...

runs for 8,896 m under the

Kaimai Ranges The Kaimai Range (sometimes referred to as the ''Kaimai Ranges'') is a mountain range in the North Island of New Zealand. It is part of a series of ranges, with the Coromandel Range to the north and the Mamaku Ranges to the south. The Kaimai R ...

. Construction started from both sides of the range in 1969: the headings met in 1976 and the tunnel opened on 12 September 1978, at which time it became the longest tunnel in the Southern Hemisphere. It was eclipsed by the 13,400 m No. 4 tunnel of the

Hex River Tunnels The four Hex River Tunnels consist of a twin tunnel of and three single tunnels of , and , on the Hexton railway route between De Doorns and Kleinstraat through the Hex River Mountains of the Western Cape Province, South Africa. The line, wh ...

system in 1989.

Closure of the northern route

After the opening of the Kaimai Tunnel, the route through the Karangahake Gorge to the eastern junction closed in 1978 and was dismantled from 1980 to 1983. The railway from Morrinsville to Paeroa stayed open and continued (via the

Thames Branch The Thames Branch railway line connected Thames, New Zealand, with Hamilton and was originally part of the East Coast Main Trunk railway. Part of the line between Morrinsville and Waitoa remains open and is in use as the Waitoa Branch line, ...

) to

Thames The River Thames ( ), known alternatively in parts as the River Isis, is a river that flows through southern England including London. At , it is the longest river entirely in England and the second-longest in the United Kingdom, after the R ...

until closure in 1991 and lifting between Waitoa and Thames in 1996/1997. The 11 km section from Morrinsville to Waitoa reopened in 2004 to serve the

Fonterra Fonterra Co-operative Group Limited is a New Zealand multinational publicly traded dairy co-operative owned by around 9,000 New Zealand farmers. The company is responsible for approximately 30% of the world's dairy exports and with revenue exce ...

dairy factory at Waitoa. The rail bridge at Te Aroha is now a walkway over the Waihou River; the route from the tunnel to Waikino through the Karangahake Gorge is now a walkway; from Waikino to Waihi the

Goldfields Railway The Goldfields Railway is a heritage railway that operates between Waihi and Waikino in the Bay of Plenty region of New Zealand's North Island. It operates over a section of track that was part of the East Coast Main Trunk Railway until the Ka ...

heritage line preserves the old railway, and State Highway 2 runs through the Athrenee Gorge along part of the original rail alignment. Along parts of State Highway 2, parts of the old railbed, bridge piers and abutments are still visible. Old bridges are also extant at Waitoa, Te Aroha, Karangahake, Waikino and Aongatete. Near Apata, the old and newer bridges of both routes can be seen from the highway spanning the Wainui Stream. There were proposals to keep the 14.3km Apata - Katikati section of the railway open as a branch line to carry kiwifruit exports to the Port of Tauranga. The proposal gained the support of Associated Minister of Railways,

Aussie Malcolm Anthony George "Aussie" Malcolm (born 11 December 1940) is a former National Party politician in New Zealand. Early years Malcolm was born in Melbourne, Australia, in 1940. He was educated in Canada and Australia (Sydney Church of England Gram ...

, who announced on 26 June 1981 that the section would be retained. In July 1981 New Zealand Railways began legal work to re-open the line as an industrial line. There was strong opposition to reopening the line though. The local county council and the chamber of commerce opposed re-opening as that would mean keeping two road overbridges they were seeking to eliminate to improve roads in the area. The chamber of commerce described the reopening as an election bribe in the lead-up to the 1981 general election and it was opposed by the Labour Party. In the end, deregulation of land transport and the creation of the

New Zealand Railways Corporation New Zealand Railways Corporation (NZRC) is the state-owned enterprise that owns the land beneath KiwiRail's Rail transport in New Zealand, railway network on behalf of the Crown. The Corporation has existed under a number of guises since 1982, wh ...

in 1982 led to the re-evaluation of the business proposal to reopen the line, resulting in the decision to lift the remaining section on 18 June 1982. On 30 July the National Union of Railwaymen announced that its members had banned the lifting of the line, which proceeded anyway and was completed by 1983. Karangahake-rail-bridge

Electrification

A paper written in 2008 for the then railway infrastructure owner ONTRACK (now KiwiRail Network) investigated the possibility of electrifying the East Coast Main Trunk from Hamilton to Tauranga. In May 2021, KiwiRail, Beca and Systra published the North Island Electrification Study, which put the expected estimate for electrification of the ECMT from Hamilton to Mt Maunganui at $426m.

Passenger services

Taneatua Express

When the line opened to its terminus at Taneatua, the

ran from Auckland. The service took 12 hours, later reduced to 10½ hours, and ran two or three times weekly. The last train ran on 7 February 1959, and was replaced by a railcar service as far as Te Puke, due to negligible traffic to Taneatua. The railway struggled to compete with private cars and the service was withdrawn on 11 September 1967. Other than special excursions, there were no passenger services until 1991.

Kaimai Express

In 1991, the

Kaimai Express The ''Kaimai Express'' long-distance passenger train was operated by Tranz Rail under the Tranz Scenic brand (originally by New Zealand Rail Limited under the InterCity Rail brand) between the North Island cities of Auckland and Tauranga via Ham ...

started and ran to Tauranga. Along with the

Geyserland Express The ''Geyserland Express'' was a long distance passenger train operated by the Tranz Scenic division of Tranz Rail (previously the New Zealand Rail Limited division InterCity Rail) between Auckland and Rotorua in New Zealand's North Island. It ut ...

it used the

Silver Fern ''Alsophila dealbata'', synonym ''Cyathea dealbata'', commonly known as the silver fern or silver tree-fern, or as ponga or punga (from Māori or ),The Māori word , pronounced , has been borrowed into New Zealand English as a generic term fo ...

railcars that had been used on the North Island Main Trunk line. The first train ran on 9 December 1991, running a morning service from Tauranga to Auckland and afternoon service from Auckland to Tauranga, taking 3½ hours. The times changed in 2000 to enable the introduction of the

Waikato Connection The ''Waikato Connection'' was a short-lived express passenger train between Hamilton and Auckland in New Zealand's North Island. It consisted of a weekday single return service using diesel multiple unit railcars. Like its southern counterpar ...

commuter service between Hamilton and Auckland. In 2001, it was announced that the service was too uneconomic to continue, and the last service was on 7 October 2001.

Freight

The ECMT carries 52% of freight between Waikato and Bay of Plenty and is one of Kiwi Rail's most profitable lines. In 2018 163 trains a week passed under Hamilton, 90 of them on weekday nights, or evenings, 37 at weekends and 36 between 8am and 5pm, Monday to Friday. The line is at 70% capacity and growing. By 2022 the average had increased slightly to 38 trains a day. To provide extra capacity crossing loops were added about 2012 at

Ruakura Ruakura is a semi-rural suburb of Hamilton City, in the Waikato region of New Zealand. The University of Waikato is nearby. The area lies to the east of urban Hamilton and to the west of State Highway 1B (a variant of State Highway 1 which avo ...

Eureka Eureka (often abbreviated as E!, or Σ!) is an intergovernmental organisation for research and development funding and coordination. Eureka is an open platform for international cooperation in innovation. Organisations and companies applying th ...

, Motumaoho, Tamihana and Apata. There are 11 passing loops between Hamilton and Tauranga, 7 of them long and 4 shorter. In 2020 a new

container terminal A container port or container terminal is a facility where cargo containers are transshipped between different transport vehicles, for onward transportation. The transshipment may be between container ships and land vehicles, for example train ...

at Kawerau was announced.

Connecting lines

Connecting private railways

References

Citations

References

* * * *

External links

1937 Railways Magazine article about Hamilton bridge over the Waikato River.
* *Timetables
18841886
Photos -
1923 photos of construction of Tauranga Harbour Bridge
*[http://www.aucklandcity.govt.nz/dbtw-wpd/exec/dbtwpub.dll?AC=NEXT_RECORD&XC=/dbtw-wpd/exec/dbtwpub.dll&BU=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.aucklandcity.govt.nz%2Fdbtw-wpd%2FHeritageImages%2Findex.htm&TN=heritageimages&SN=AUTO14639&SE=219&RN=25&MR=20&TR=0&TX=1000&ES=0&CS=1&XP=&RF=HIOReport&EF=&DF=HIORecord&RL=0&EL=0&DL=0&NP=2&ID=&MF=WPEngMsg.ini&MQ=&TI=0&DT=&ST=0&IR=152999&NR=0&NB=1&SV=0&SS=1&BG=&FG=&QS=index&OEX=ISO-8859-1&OEH=ISO-8859-1 1926 photos of Waihi to Tauranga construction]
1935 train crossing Hamilton Railway Bridge over Waikato

{{NZR Lines Railway lines in New Zealand Long-distance passenger trains in New Zealand Rail transport in the Auckland Region Rail transport in the Bay of Plenty Region Rail transport in the Gisborne District 3 ft 6 in gauge railways in New Zealand Railway lines opened in 1877 1877 establishments in New Zealand