New Zealand’s only rail freight company, KiwiRail, resumed its freight rail operations to the Napier Port after more than half a year of break that Cyclone Gabrielle caused in February 2023.
After the cyclone, in April, KiwiRail opened the Palmerston North – Gisborne Line by Hastings. A temporary container terminal was opened there, with cargo such as chilled and frozen meat, logs, pulp and timber, food products, imported machinery, and consumables used in manufacturing, reloaded from trains to trucks and then delivered to Napier.
Meanwhile, extensive recovery was made on the remaining part of the line, which was heavily damaged, especially around the Awatoto area. The work included rebuilding embankments, replacing 800 sleepers, 140 metres of rail, laying 3,000 cubic metres of rock formation under the tracks and 3,500 tonnes of ballast. Heavily damaged Bridge 217 was temporarily rebuilt to get freight moving as fast as possible, and a permanent new bridge will be designed and built over the next few years.
Now, with the rail line fully operating, Napier Port, which is vital to New Zealand’s supply chain, is again connected with the rest of the island in an ecological and efficient way – the rail.
