New Zealand's Private Railways

While New Zealand decreed it would adopted Government run railway system, it never excluded the possibility of Private Railways operating alongside the Government trains. The best example of this was of course the Wellington and Manawatu Railway Company which constructed its own line north from Wellington along the west coat towards Palmerston North. As a Private entity, it set its own standard, and in some respects these were well above the Government Railways standard of the day and so created a true sense of competition between the two.

There were a number of other railways that started life as private ventures, each with their own aims and objectives. Some of these grew out of the District Railway Act 1877, a piece of legislation passed specifically to allow certain railways to be constructed in areas where the Government could not at that time allocate funding or construction resources. Others stemmed from a purely business perspective and still others were merely an extension of an industrial railway providing a limited public service.

The following is a list of all Private Railways in New Zealand, most of which operated for at least a short time [Still a work in progress at the moment 6/2023]

Dunedin & Port Chalmers Railway 1872 - 1875

Waimea Plains Railway 1880 - 1886

Awamoko Railway (originally Tramway) 1872 -

Duntroon and Hakataramea Railway 1881 - 1885

Waimate Railway 1878 -

Rakaia and Ashburton Forks Railway