Save Our Trains Campaign says the mothballed Stratford-Okahukura railway line must be urgently re-opened to save the New Plymouth-Marton freight route.

Passenger rail campaigning group Save Our Trains says changes to freight rail operations make it an urgent priority to re-open the Stratford-Okahukura railway line.

The railway line once linked Taranaki with the North Island Main Trunk Line. Mothballed in 2009 after a derailment, experts estimate repair and upgrade costs would be between $100 and 200 million.

Important railway line with troubled history

Dr André Brett's 2021 book on New Zealand’s passenger rail history, Can't Get There From Here, names Stratford-Okahukura as an integral part of passenger services between New Plymouth and Auckland until closed to passengers in 1983. Timetabling eventually made it unattractive to use, with the only departure from New Plymouth at 2:35am.

Until 2009, the Stratford-Okahukura route gave a more efficient way to connect freight from Taranaki to the upper North Island ports of Tauranga and Auckland via the North Island Main Trunk.

“Operationally it was more efficient for freight compared to the Marton-New Plymouth route – less steep grades, larger tunnels with easier curves that enabled heavier, longer trains on a more direct route to upper North Island centres and ports,” says rail, freight and public transport advisor Michael van Drogenbroek.

Rail freight price rises date back to loss of Stratford-Okahukura

Although the Stratford-Okahukura line closed in 2009, KiwiRail kept charging freight prices that reflected savings made through its use. In December 2022, they raised prices to reflect using the more costly New Plymouth-Marton route due to commercial pressures.

Higher rail freight prices have seen freight customers planning to switch from rail to road, meaning heavy goods vehicles will flood onto roads in Taranaki, Whanganui and Manawatū. Without major rail freight flows, the New Plymouth-Marton route would probably be mothballed.

“This is outrageous for Taranaki, Whanganui and Manawatū people who already face daily risks on the road from heavy goods vehicles. People want to see rail freight used much more to make roads safer, reduce maintenance costs and decrease transport emissions. This is a classic example of how failure to maintain one important piece of rail infrastructure has put wider rail and road infrastructure in peril,” says Save Our Trains’ Taranaki-based spokesperson Suraya Sidhu Singh.

Sidhu Singh continues: “Reopening the Stratford-Okahukura railway line would ease pressure on our state highways, particularly the dangerous and congested Mount Messenger. Initially freight, and later passenger services on Stratford-Okahukura, would reduce traffic.”

Nationally significant infrastructure for resilience

KiwiRail considered reopening the Stratford-Okahukura railway line a priority as recently as 2019 for reasons of national infrastructure resilience. “The line, shut since a derailment in 2009, is the only alternative north-south rail link should the main trunk line through National Park be shut by a natural disaster,” its press release said, costing work at $40 million.

But the 2021 New Zealand Rail Plan doesn’t name re-opening Stratford-Okahukura as a strategic priority.

“The cost to reopen Stratford-Okahukura to freight may now be closer to $100 million. A further $100 million could add resilience, consistently increase axle loads to 18 tonnes for more modern locomotives, geotechnological formation work and upgrades for heavier trains needed to improve competitiveness with road freight. The costs of re-opening a legacy rail route like this compares well with alternatives like widening roads, so the economics make sense as well as the resilience value. The longer it is left mothballed, the more costly to reopen,” says Michael van Drogenbroek.

Taranaki’s Mount Messenger bypass road has raised many conservation concerns and is now expected to cost $280 million.

“It’s a great aspiration for Taranaki to one day have passenger trains linking New Plymouth and Auckland via a re-opened Stratford-Okahukura route. Driving is falling among young people and in many countries our tourists come from – eventually Taranaki will be cut off the tourist map if it can’t be accessed by rail. Sleeper trains are ideal for this length of journey but it also offers spectacular views during the day,” says Suraya Sidhu Singh.

The Save Our Trains campaign was founded in late January 2022 by members of the public concerned about threats to passenger rail services throughout New Zealand.

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