View source for South Island Railway Development

This wiki page aims to give an overview of how the railway lines of the South Island came to be, and the rapid demise of most of them during a 30 year period toward the end of the 20th century.


In 1853, the administration of public facilities in the South Island was placed under the control of three Provincial Councils. By 1868, due mainly to geographical difficulties, this had grown to 6 Provinces, with Marlborough, Westland and Southland being divided off Nelson, Canterbury and Otago respectively. Each Council was challenged by different drivers to best meet the needs in their particular area. There was however one common issue and that was transport, and in each case, railways provided a solution to quite specific needs.

Canterbury was very quick in initiating an ambitious scheme of railway construction in order to have a reliable transport route from its productive lands to its capital, and on to the port. Legislation was passed in 1860 authorising the first stages of construction, and key to that was to getting a link to the port of Lyttelton. The design of this railway was strongly influenced by early English systems, with three members of the famous Stephenson family involved at various stages. Track was constructed to 5'3" gauge (also referred to as Irish or Broad gauge) and locomotives and rolling-stock sourced from Melbourne, Australia where similar systems were already in operation. The crucial piece of railway was of course the Christchurch to Lyttelton Line which ensured efficient transport of goods and passengers between the port and the provincial capital. This Line necessitated the construction of a tunnel through the side of an old volcano, something new for civil engineers of the day and the longest tunnel in the Southern Hemisphere at the time. With the tunnel taking some 4 years complete, railway construction was well underway both north and south of Christchurch during that time. Somewhat grandiose titles of Great Northern Railway and Great Southern Railway were given to lines that reached Rangiora in the north and Rakaia in the South.