Reconstruction of a slip-damaged section of railway at Old Tokatoka Road, south of Whangārei. Photo: Supplied / KiwiRail
Freight trains are due to start running again in Northland next month for the first time since the destruction unleashed by last year's storms.
The Anniversary Weekend deluge and Cyclone Gabrielle in early 2023 damaged the 185km railway line from Swanson, in West Auckland, to Whangārei in more than 200 places.
The damage included overslips, slumps, washouts and underslips, with 35 sites requiring major engineering work.
Initial hopes of reopening the line in mid-2023 were soon dashed, as were plans to get trains moving again early this year.
The closure of Northland's only rail line comes as State Highway 1, the only other major freight route between Auckland and Northland, remains closed at the Brynderwyn Hills, also due to damage inflicted by last year's storms.
A giant slip on the Northland railway line near Maungaturoto, after 21,000 cubic metres of saturated material was dug out in preparation for rebuilding the embankment. Photo: Supplied / KiwiRail
However, there is finally hope on the horizon for businesses that previously relied on rail, and for motorists forced to share roads with even more heavy trucks than usual.
Northland rail upgrade programme director Eric Hennephof said the Northland line was now expected to reopen to freight trains in late July, as long as testing uncovered no major problems with the rebuilt track.
The line had so far been fully reinstated from Swanson to about 25km south of Whangārei, and relaying of track at the last of the major damage sites was due to be completed this weekend.
Work was now focused on testing and recommissioning the rail line.
Excavation gets underway at a slip-damaged section of railway at Old Tokatoka Road, south of Whangārei. Photo: Supplied / KiwiRail
While the line was out of use, KiwiRail had taken the chance to upgrade the track between Whangārei and Kauri to allow heavier loads.
Kauri, about 10km north of Whangārei, is the location of a Fonterra dairy plant, the railway's biggest customer until January last year.
Since the closure, the plant's milk products have been transported by road, hitting the dairy cooperative with increased costs and carbon emissions.
Motorists and pedestrians reminded to be cautious
One potential downside of the railway line's reopening is the danger posed by Northland drivers no longer used to looking for trains at level crossings.
To alert motorists to rail's imminent return, TrackSafe and KiwiRail are about to launch a campaign raising awareness about work trains and testing vehicles on the tracks.
A 100m-long stretch of railway embankment near Maungaturoto is being rebuilt after damage in the 2023 storms. Photo: Supplied / KiwiRail
TrackSafe NZ Foundation manager Megan Drayton said the campaign would continue when freight services resumed.
"It's been around 16 months since trains ran on the line to and from Whangārei, so it's completely understandable that drivers and pedestrians may have forgotten about the need to be cautious when crossing the rail line," she said.
"It's great to see trains returning, but we need to make sure that people behave safely. The best thing people can do is remember to stop and always take a good look in both directions before they cross the tracks."
What was fixed?
According to the latest KiwiRail update, sites where repair work is about to finish include a massive slip below the line south of Maungaturoto, where a 100m stretch of railway embankment failed entirely.
About 21,000 cubic metres of saturated soil, eight metres deep, has been excavated, and the embankment has been rebuilt.
Completed repairs include a massive, 350m-wide slip at Tahekeroa, between Helensville and Wellsford, where 35,000 cubic metres of earth slipped 400m down a hill across a road and the rail line below.
One of many slips that blocked Northland's railway line during the storms of early 2023. Photo: RNZ / Rayssa Almeida
In 2019, the then Labour-NZ First government pledged $95 million from the Provincial Growth Fund to maintain and improve the line to Whangārei.
The plans included upgrades to 30 percent of the track, replacing wooden bridges, and tunnel repairs.
Since then total government funding allocated to Northland rail improvements has swollen to $263m, a mixture of PGF and New Zealand Upgrade Programme funding.
That increases to $303m if the cost of land purchases for a proposed Marsden Point rail spur is included.
The full Northland railway - officially called the North Auckland Line - used to continue north to Ōtiria, near Moerewa, a total distance of 284km.
The section from Kauri to Ōtiria was mothballed in 2016.
The Dargaville branch line closed in 2014. The nation's northernmost branch railway, from Ōtiria to Ōkaihau, shut down in 1987.
Before the storms of early 2023, KiwiRail was moving about 100,000 tonnes of freight to and from Northland annually, taking about 7500 trucks off the region’s crumbling state highways each year.