The Little River Rail Trail is a cycling and walking track on Banks Peninsula in the

Canterbury Canterbury (, ) is a cathedral city and UNESCO World Heritage Site, situated in the heart of the City of Canterbury local government district of Kent, England. It lies on the River Stour. The Archbishop of Canterbury is the primate of ...

region 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 ()—and over 700 smaller islands. It is the sixth-largest island count ...

's South Island.

Location

The rail trail utilises the

formation Formation may refer to: Linguistics * Back-formation, the process of creating a new lexeme by removing or affixes * Word formation, the creation of a new word by adding affixes Mathematics and science * Cave formation or speleothem, a secondar ...

of the Little River Branch

railway Rail transport (also known as train transport) is a means of transport that transfers passengers and goods on wheeled vehicles running on rails, which are incorporated in tracks. In contrast to road transport, where the vehicles run on a pre ...

, which ran from a junction with the Southbridge Branch from Hornby via

Lincoln Lincoln most commonly refers to: * Abraham Lincoln (1809–1865), the sixteenth president of the United States * Lincoln, England, cathedral city and county town of Lincolnshire, England * Lincoln, Nebraska, the capital of Nebraska, U.S. * Lincol ...

Little River Little River may refer to several places: Australia Streams New South Wales *Little River (Dubbo), source in the Dubbo region, a tributary of the Macquarie River * Little River (Oberon), source in the Oberon Shire, a tributary of Coxs River (Haw ...

. The railway closed on 30 June 1962 and the formation had remained largely undisturbed until the early 2000s, when a trust was formed to revitalise it for public use.

Rail trail history

On 28 May 2006 the first section of the rail trail was opened, between Motukarara and Catons Bay Reserve. It has since been extended, first to the Little River hotel, and then to Wairewa Pa Road, some 500 m short of the restored Little River station, which has preserved ex- New Zealand Railways freight wagons and a craft centre. The second section between

Prebbleton Prebbleton is a small town in the Selwyn District in the Canterbury Region of New Zealand. It is 11 km southwest of the centre of Christchurch and about 2 km south of the outlying industrial suburb of Hornby. Prebbleton dates back to ...

and Lincoln (7 km) opened on 30 November 2006. This section is an offroad track adjacent to the old railway line that runs alongside Birchs Road. The third section between Hornby and Prebbleton (3.6 km) opened on 20 September 2009.http://viastrada.co.nz/news/2009/hornby-prebbleton-railtrail-opened Hornby to Prebbleton Rail Trail opened This section is an offroad track adjacent to Shands Road and Marshs Road. Between Marshs Road and Springs Road, the track is located within the old railway corridor. This extension thus incorporates part of the also closed Southbridge Branch's formation, as that was the line that linked the Little River Branch to the

Main South Line The Main South Line, sometimes referred to as part of the South Island Main Trunk Railway, is a railway line that runs north and south from Lyttelton in New Zealand through Christchurch and along the east coast of the South Island to Inverca ...

in Hornby.

Awards

The Little River Rail Trail was awarded a Cycle Friendly Award in 2006 for the best cycle facility project in New Zealand by Cycling Advocates' Network.

References

External links

*
Patrick Dunford's Railways of New Zealand – Little River Branch
contains pictures of the rail trail. {{coord, 43, 46, S, 172, 47, E, display=title Tourist attractions in Canterbury, New Zealand Hiking and tramping tracks in Canterbury, New Zealand Rail trails in New Zealand