Taieri Gorge Railway

The Taieri Gorge Railway ( TGR ) is a heritage railway in Otago on the South Island of New Zealand. It operates on a 13 km section of the Main South Line ( Christchurch - Invercargill ) and on a 64 km section of the otherwise disused Otago Central Railway. With a route length of 77 km of it is the longest heritage railway in the country.

Geography

The route of the Taieri Gorge Railway branches from the Main South Line in Wingatui at Mosgiel on the eastern edge of the Taieri Plains from, then in | ascend North Taieri with a hairpin curve and a slope of 20 per thousand in the hill country. Half a mile after crossing the 197 m long and 47 m high Winagatui viaduct reaches the rail system, the Taieri Gorge, a 38 km long canyon with numerous tunnels and viaducts. Shortly before Pukerangi she leaves the valley of the Taieri River and crosses the southern part of the plain of Strath Taieri to the present terminus of Middlemarch.

History

The route of today's Taieri Gorge Railway of Wingatui after Middlemarch is the first part of 1891 years opened Otago Central Railway. Construction of the track was in 1879, in 1921 it reached its end point in Cromwell. The line was nearly 100 years the backbone of the economic development of the interior of the Otago region. The promotion of road traffic over the railway and its flexible transport options over an increasingly developed road network led to the suspension of operations on April 30, 1990.

The Otago Excursion Train Trust, which organized 1979 Train travel with historical tension material since October, campaigned for the preservation of the railway line. However, it took about 1 million NZ $ to take the line as a tourist attraction back into operation. The city of Dunedin bought the route of Wingatui after Middlemarch by the New Zealand Railways Corporation to let them operate private sector can. They rented the track at the Otago Excursion Train Trust, of the 1.2 million NZ $ collected with public support and now operative on the Taieri Gorge Railway. Financing problems of the Trust made ​​repeated municipal support needed. This led in 1995 to the founding of the Taieri Gorge Railway Limited, which is jointly owned by the City of Dunedin (72% ) and the Trust ( 28%).

Operation

The Taieri Gorge Railway Limited is now the operator of the line. It lets the train every day one to two times - depending on the season - run between the Dunedin Railway Station and Pukerangi or Middlemarch. The Taieri Gorge Railway transported 2007 60.000 passengers and is a major attraction of Dunedin. It stands on the tour program of investing in Port Chalmers cruise ships.

In order to operate the line economically, the tourist offer has been extended in recent years. So the " Seasider " was accepted into the program, a train along the coast of the Pacific Ocean as far as the 66 km distant Palmerston. In addition, a round trip is offered, including both trains via Palmerston and Middelburg March and with a guided bus tour to Macraes Flat insight into the Macraes gold mine, the largest gold mine in New Zealand offers.

The rest of the former route of the Otago Central Railway of Middlemarch by Cromwell will be expanded to the hiking and biking trail since 2000 to Clyde as Otago Central Rail Trail. On the 150 kilometers of the route uses the route of the former railway line, with 68 bridges and three tunnels - including the Pries Creek Tunnel and the Pool Burn George tunnel. The track is closed to motor vehicles and provided with numerous signs, which, as the bike path itself, are maintained by the Department of Conservation.