North Auckland Line
The North Auckland Line is a major section of New Zealand's national rail network, and is made up of the following parts: the portion of track that runs northward from Westfield Junction to Newmarket Station; from there, westward to Waitakere; from there, northward to Otiria via Whangārei. The first section was opened in 1868 and the line was completed in 1925. The line, or sections of it, have been known at various times as the Kaipara Line, the Waikato-Kaipara Line, the Kaipara Branch and the North Auckland Main Trunk.
North Auckland Line is a designation for the section of track, not a service route. The southernmost portion from Westfield Junction to Newmarket was originally built as part of the North Island Main Trunk railway, with Newmarket serving as the junction of the two lines. The North Island Main Trunk was re-routed in 1930 via the Westfield Deviation through Glen Innes and Panmure. Westfield-Newmarket was then incorporated into the North Auckland Line, and Newmarket-Auckland became the Newmarket Line, which today connects the North Auckland Line to Waitematā.
Three passenger lines of Auckland's suburban rail network make use of the North Auckland Line. Southern Line services travel on it between Westfield Junction and Newmarket Station. Onehunga Line services travel on it between Penrose Station and Newmarket Station. Western Line services travel on it between Swanson Station and Newmarket Station.
The North Auckland Line previously continued to Opua in the Bay of Islands, with the section from Otiria to Opua sometimes known as the Opua Branch. It is now owned by the Bay of Islands Vintage Railway but regular operations were suspended in 2001, with resumption on a short section of the line in 2008.
The North Auckland Line was under review as part of KiwiRail's turnaround plan. In 2020, the government announced $109.7 million for upgrades to the line, focussing on rebuilding and lowering the floors of 13 tunnels along the line to enable hi-cube containers. A container terminal is to be built at Otiria. A new branch line, the Marsden Point Branch, will serve Northport, a deepwater port at Marsden Point, by diverging from the North Auckland Line south of Whangarei at Oakleigh.
In 2023 the NAL was expected to be out of action to at least June after floods in January;, and it was announced that KiwiRail was "progressing" the business case for the new Marsden Branch.
Branch lines
Three branch lines are on the line:- The Onehunga Branch line connects with the North Auckland Line at Penrose and forms part of the route of Onehunga Line suburban passenger train services operating between Newmarket and Onehunga.
- The Newmarket Line meets the North Auckland Line at Newmarket and provides a connection with Waitematā.
- Further north, the Dargaville Branch branches off in Waiotira. It is currently mothballed, with a portion in use by a tourist rail cart operator. The Dargaville Branch also possessed a branch of its own until 1959, built by the Kaihu Valley Railway Co., and running northwestwards to Kaihu and Donnelly's Crossing.
Construction
It took many years to build a complete line to serve the Northland Region, with different sections being developed at different times. Eventually, it became clear that a mainline was required to link these isolated railways to improve transport for both passengers and freight to and from New Zealand's northernmost region, and to open up land for greater economic development.A line north of Helensville from Maungaturoto towards Maungatapere of about 20 miles was authorised by the Railways Authorisation Act, 1904.
However, the construction was not without criticism. In 1910, the Minister of Railways himself criticised the project, arguing that the project of extending it would bring little benefit, as most traffic from north of Auckland was already covered by only going as far as Helensville, while country to the north was poor and would not be able to support the line.
Many sections of the line were considered technically challenging, especially the tunnels, construction of which had been called "notorious" at the time.
Kawakawa–Taumarere
The first section of what became the North Auckland Line opened as a private industrial line on 2 March 1868 between Kawakawa and a wharf at Taumarere. It was constructed not as a railway, but as a wooden-railed bush tramway to carry coal to the wharf for export, and was built to the international standard gauge of. The standard New Zealand track gauge, adopted a few years later, is narrow gauge, but when the Kawakawa-Taumarere tramway was converted into a metal railway in 1870, it retained its gauge of. In 1875, the government purchased the line and converted it to gauge two years later.Kaipara–Riverhead
The second portion of what became the North Auckland Line was built as a temporary measure. Timber interests around the Kaipara Harbour had poor access to markets in Auckland, so a line was built overland from the Kaipara to a wharf in Riverhead for transhipment. The Auckland Provincial Council began construction on 31 August 1871, but work was taken over by central government on 1 January 1872. Due to delays with acquiring rails, construction was delayed and the line did not open until 29 October 1875. The section from the shores of the Kaipara at Helensville South station to Kumeū later became part of the North Auckland Line, while the section to Riverhead became a branch line. This brief line cut transport costs and time in comparison to a bullock team or lengthy coastal shipping.Whangārei–Kamo
The discovery of coal in the Kamo area created a need for transportation from the mines to export wharves. The first mine opened in December 1864, and as the 1870s progressed, mining activity increased and so did pressure for a railway. In 1877, the government approved a tramway, but a preliminary survey the next year found a tramway would be inadequate; accordingly, a railway was approved from Kamo to Whangārei. Construction began on 10 March 1879 but quickly fell behind schedule due to unstable terrain and slips. On 28 October 1880, the first 7.3 km of line opened, but this featured a temporary 1 km siding to an alternative wharf while the full line was completed to the intended wharf. At 10.64 km, the full line opened on 30 November 1882. The line in Whangārei was raised, the station moved and level crossings eliminated in 1925–26, when it was linked to the Helensville section.Auckland–Helensville
The earliest Auckland portion, between Newmarket and Westfield, was actually built as part of the Onehunga Branch in 1873 and was only classified as part of the North Auckland Line at a later date. The first section of a line northwards from Auckland was not officially begun until later that decade, and work took place concurrently with the Whangarei–Kamo section. The first portion, from Newmarket to Glen Eden, opened without ceremony on 29 March 1880. On 21 December 1880, it was opened to Henderson, and on 13 July 1881, it was opened to Helensville. The extension to Helensville connected to the Kaipara–Riverhead section; its northern terminus was extended from Helensville south to a more central Helensville station, and the portion from Kumeu to Riverhead was made redundant as it was quicker to convey goods by train directly to Auckland than transshipping them to ships at Riverhead. Accordingly, Kumeu–Riverhead was closed on 18 July 1881.Taumarere–Opua
By the mid-1870s, the inadequacy of the Taumarere wharf was becoming apparent. In 1876 plans were drawn up for a deepwater wharf and an associated township named "Newport", later Opua. A railway was surveyed to link Kawakawa to Opua, and was opened on 7 April 1884. It left the original line not far from the Taumarere wharf, relegating the short section from junction to Taumarere wharf to the status of a spur. Both spur and wharf were made redundant by the new extension and closed the day of the opening to Opua.Kamo–Kawakawa
In the latter half of the 1880s, impetus developed to link Kamo and Kawakawa. Surveys had already been undertaken in 1879 and 1883 for a line, but both times, government disapproval blocked construction. Ultimately, a dispute about the fate of the Puhipuhi forest brought about the extension. Logging interests wished to chop down the forest, but lacked viable transportation to Whangarei so the timber could be exported; others wished to burn the forest so the land could be used for agriculture. In 1888, fires were started deliberately in the forest and it became obvious that considerable timber wealth would be lost if a railway were not built soon. The local member of parliament announced the construction of a tramway on 7 August 1889, but both that year and next, the Public Works Department rebuffed him.In 1891, Whangarei interests established a syndicate to extend the line under the Railways Construction and Land Act of 1881, and their detailed offer prompted the newly elected government. The Railway Authorisation and Management Act of 1891 approved the extension by transferring funds from a plan to duplicate the line from central Auckland to Penrose.
Initially, the syndicate was disappointed with the government's progress, as work did not commence until March 1892 due to a shortage of labour. However, by 2 July 1894, the line was opened to Waro. Locals believed this was the first part of the link to Kawakawa, but Richard Seddon had not authorised the full project, just the extension to the Puhipuhi forest. This was originally meant to terminate in Whakapara, but a further extension to Waiotu was required to provide easier access and this opened on 28 December 1898. A further extension to Hūkerenui was requested, but it was delayed due to the failure of the Railway Authorisation Act of 1898 to pass parliament. Considerable political pressure was applied to close the gap between the Kawakawa and Whangārei sections as the road in between was poor and muddy, and the Railway Authorisation Act of 1899 accordingly authorised Waiotu – Hūkerenui along with 8 km of line south from Kawakawa. The succeeding year's Act allowed for the construction of the remaining 24 km to complete the line via Otiria.
On 1 March 1901, the line was opened to Hūkerenui, and by 1904, the PWD was able to run trains south of Kawakawa for 12.8 km. However, a lack of detailed surveys, poor finances, unstable terrain, and the PWD being overburdened with jobs contributed to a slow rate of progress. In May 1910, the 7 km section from Hūkerenui to Towai was opened, and the full section was finally completed the next year. It was handed over from the PWD to the New Zealand Railways Department on 13 April 1911, thus linking Whangarei to the Bay of Islands. Construction had cost nearly a million dollars.