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49-528: The Marsden Point Branch is a 19 km (12 mi) branch line railway , which is to be built in the Northland Region of New Zealand 's North Island . It will diverge from the North Auckland Line at Oakleigh , south of Whangārei , and serve Northport at Marsden Point . The proposal has existed since the 1970s and land for the rail corridor is being actively purchased. In October 2017,

98-643: A boost to local employment. The proposal was delayed in June 2006 when ONTRACK (now KiwiRail Network) declined to approve land designation for the line. ONTRACK wanted greater certainty about potential freight tonnages from potential users of the line such as the Marsden Point Oil Refinery and Carter Holt Harvey . By August 2006 both the Northland Regional Council and ONTRACK had entered into talks with interested parties. The result of these talks

147-510: A common sight along railroads in industrial and rural cities alike. As automobile and roadway technology improved throughout the early and mid-20th century, most low volume industry spurs were abandoned in favor of the greater flexibility and economic savings of trucking. Today, railroads remain the most economical way to ship large quantities of material, a fact that is reflected in industrial spurs. Most modern day spurs serve very large industries that require hundreds, if not thousands, of carloads

196-405: A cut as "a passage cut for the roadway through an obstacle of rock or dirt." Cuts can be created by multiple passes of a shovel , grader , scraper or excavator , or by blasting . One unusual means of creating a cut is to remove the roof of a tunnel through daylighting . Material removed from cuts is ideally balanced by material needed for fills along the same route, but this is not always

245-554: A feasibly study was undertaken, and it estimated that a 16 km line to Marsden Point from a junction with the North Auckland Line 25 km south of Whangarei in Oakleigh would cost NZ$ 86.5 million. Environmental issues include the need to cross a portion of wetland , and some substantial earthworks would be required for a cutting through a hill, but the line would remove a large number of trucks from local roads and provide

294-464: A mainline, they tend to have lower maintenance and signaling (train control) standards. Before the rise of the long-distance trucking in the early 1930s, railroads were the primary means of transportation around the world. Industries of the era were commonly built along railroad lines specifically to allow for easy access to shipping. Short (under a mile, oftentimes only several hundred yards) industrial spurs with very small (under ten car) capacities were

343-530: A rail-road freight transit centre. The Helensville railway station at the western extremity of Auckland's commuter network was New Zealand's northernmost main-line passenger railway station until services were reduced to Waitakere railway station in 2010; and to Swanson railway station in 2015 (because of low passenger traffic to Waitakere, and the expense of increasing clearance in the Waitakere tunnel for electrification ). Branch line A branch line

392-786: A section of the West Rail line . Discontinued services include the Sha Tau Kok Railway and the Wo Hop Shek Branch . A spur line to Siu Sai Wan has been proposed. Delhi On the Delhi Metro , the Blue Line has a Branch Line with 8 Stations, linking Yamuna Bank to Ghaziabad via Anand Vihar ISBT and terminating at Vaishali. The first section of the Branch opened on 8 January 2010 with Anand Vihar as its terminal with six stations. It

441-523: A subsidy for grain transport, and instead allowed railways to absorb branch line subsidies freely without making effort to improve the profitability of the lines. The term "grain-dependent branch lines" began being used as early as 1978 to refer to the special case of these branch lines in agricultural areas whose viability depended on the economics of grain transport. The Western Grain Transportation Act of 1983 addressed this case specifically, but

490-422: A transportation route alongside of, or around a hill, where the slope is transverse to the roadway or the railway. A sidehill cut can be formed by means of sidecasting, i.e., cutting on the high side balanced by moving the material to build up the low side to achieve a flat surface for the route. In contrast, through cuts, where the adjacent grade is higher on both sides of the route, require removal of material from

539-593: A tunnel, cross the Ruakaka River about 6 km from Oakleigh, pass farmland up to One Tree Point Road and swing east to parallel McEwen Road before crossing the road to enter the terminal. The report was prepared by the Auckland firm of Kingston, Reynolds, Thom and Allardice, following recommendations of the Northland Forestry Port Study in 1979. In the early 2000s, the 1979 proposal was revived. In 2003,

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588-461: A year. There is an international branch line between Italy and Vatican: the 300-metre Vatican Railway , connecting from the Pisa-Rome railway mainline at Roma San Pietro railway station , to Vatican City station . Many British railway branch lines were closed as a result of the " Beeching cuts " in the 1960s, although some have been re-opened as heritage railways . The smallest branch line that

637-569: Is a secondary railway line which branches off a more important through route, usually a main line . A very short branch line may be called a spur line . Branch lines may serve one or more industries, or a city or town not located on a main line. Branch lines may also connect two or more main lines. An industrial spur is a type of secondary track used by railroads to allow customers at a location to load and unload railcars without interfering with other railroad operations. Industrial spurs can vary greatly in length and railcar capacity depending on

686-552: Is still in operation in the UK is the Stourbridge Town Branch Line from Stourbridge Junction going to Stourbridge Town . Operating on a single track, the journey is 0.8 miles (1.3 kilometres) long and the train takes around two and a half minutes to complete its journey. In North America, little-used branch lines are often sold by large railroads to become new common carrier short-line railroads of their own. Throughout

735-422: Is used elsewhere to carry high volumes of Waikato coal, and the quantity required if the conversion took place would have almost certainly required coal to be carried by rail. The proposal was abandoned. In 1979, another proposal was made to establish a deepwater port at Marsden Point to export forestry products and the plan was resurrected. The branch to the port would have been an approximately 14 km long, and

784-529: The Bay of Plenty Region , lines were built inland to provide rail access to large logging operations. Today, many of the branch lines have been closed, including almost all of the general-purpose country lines. Those that remain serve ports or industries far from main lines such as coal mines, logging operations, large dairying factories, and steelworks . In Auckland and Wellington , two branch lines in each city exist solely for commuter passenger trains. For more, see

833-717: The Gladstone Branch in New Jersey; as well as the New Canaan Branch , Danbury Branch , and Waterbury Branch in Connecticut . The Long Island Rail Road also refers to its services as "branches". In Chile, there are a lot of branch lines on its main line, of only a few remain operational. Most only operating in turistic services (like the Antilhue-Valdivia branch line), others have been taken over by other railways (like

882-1013: The Grand Trunk , Canadian National , or Canadian Pacific ) which would acquire formerly independent short line railways for use as branch lines, with the short line often continuing to exist as a subsidiary. For example, when the Canadian Pacific acquired the Algoma Eastern Railway (a short line) in 1930, it soon after abandoned much of the Algoma Eastern mainline, but retained sections close to Algoma Eastern–Canadian Pacific junctions as short branch lines or spurs. The National Transportation Act of 1967 provided government subsidies for branch lines. Western railway development in Canada worked in concert with land settlement and cultivation, as pioneers were settled near railway lines, often on land

931-761: The North South Line between Jurong East and Choa Chu Kang stations was operated as a separate line, known as the Branch line . It was merged into the North–South Line with the opening of the Woodlands Extension in 1996. The future Jurong Region Line and Cross Island Line will also have branch lines. New Zealand once had a very extensive network of branch lines, especially in the South Island regions of Canterbury , Otago , and Southland . Many were built in

980-762: The Port of Auckland to Marsden Point by 2027. Peters had vowed in July that the building of the Marsden Point Branch at a cost of up to $ 1 billion was non-negotiable in any post–election coalition between NZ First and either National or Labour. As part of the Labour-NZ First coalition agreement for the Sixth Labour Government , there was a feasibility study of moving the Port of Auckland to Northport, with upgrades of road and rail to Northport. The interim report of

1029-672: The South Tseung Kwan O Spur Line to LOHAS Park station , opened in 2009. Earlier, a spur line was built in 1985 on the East Rail line to serve Racecourse station , bypassing Fo Tan station . Also, the Tsim Sha Tsui Extension  [ yue ] was built in 2004 on the East Rail line to serve East Tsim Sha Tsui station . However, after the Kowloon Southern Link was completed in 2009, this spur line turns into

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1078-415: The list of New Zealand railway lines . Cutting (transportation) Cuts are typically used in road , rail , and canal construction to reduce a route's length and grade . Cut and fill construction uses the spoils from cuts to fill in defiles to create straight routes at steady grades cost-effectively. Cuts are used as alternatives to indirect routes, embankments , or viaducts . They also have

1127-482: The North Auckland Line) was inadequate for the purpose it served and an alternative in deeper water was necessary. This was found at Onerahi, but construction was not approved until 1899 and the branch opened on 2 October 1911. The port served coastal shipping between Whangarei and Auckland, and when the North Auckland Line was completed in 1925 and provided a quicker overland route, traffic switched from ships to

1176-666: The San Rosendo-Talcahuano branch line, which has been taken over by Biotrén and the Laja-Talcahuano train service) however, there is one branch line that still remains as fully operative. The Talca-Constitución branch line, which uses trains with bus motors. Two extensions to the MTR rapid transit network were built as branches of existing lines: the Lok Ma Chau Spur Line to Lok Ma Chau station , which opened in 2007; and

1225-599: The U.S. state of New Jersey . The line is a short branch of the Northeast Corridor Line , running from Princeton Junction northwest to Princeton with no intermediate stops. Also known as the "Dinky Line", at 2.9 mi (4.7 km) it is the shortest scheduled commuter rail line in the United States. The run takes 4 minutes, 47 seconds. Other than the Princeton Line, other surviving branch lines include

1274-469: The United States and Canada, branch lines link smaller towns too distant from the main line to be served efficiently, or to serve a certain industrial site such as a power station either because of a location away from the main line or to reduce congestion. They were typically built to lower standards, using lighter rail and shallow roadbeds when compared to main lines. Much of Canada's branch line history relates to large rail transport conglomerates (such as

1323-444: The advantage of comparatively lower noise pollution than elevated or at-grade solutions. In river management , the term cut or cutting is also used, which refers to the action of short-cutting a meander , in order to speed a waterway's flow. The term cutting appears in the 19th century literature to designate rock cuts developed to moderate grades of railway lines. Railway Age's Comprehensive Railroad Dictionary defines

1372-594: The branch. The Marsden Point proposal has been preceded by two earlier lines: the Onerahi Branch of 1911–33, and a proposed Waipu Branch that was partially built and then abandoned. The former was built for the same purpose as the Marsden Point Branch: better harbour access for Whangarei. In 1885, the government officially acknowledged that the wharf serving the Whangarei to Kamo railway line (later part of

1421-509: The case when cut material is unsuitable for use as fill. The word is also used in the same sense in mining, in particular Open-pit mining . The use of cuttings often provides byproducts as a form of mineral extraction , commonly sand, clay or gravel; the cost of building drains, reinforcing banks against landslide and a high water table are factors which commonly limit its use in certain areas. There are at least two types of cut, sidehill cut and through cut . The former permits passage of

1470-589: The construction of the line from 2015 to 2017. In 2011, the joint venture to acquire land for the branch was formed between KiwiRail (as the successor to ONTRACK) and the Northland Regional Council, and properties along the route were acquired. In 2020, the government announced $ 40 million to purchase land along the corridor. Construction of the line featured in the Northland by-election, 2015 . New Zealand First candidate and leader Winston Peters argued

1519-546: The feasibility study investigating moving the Port of Auckland to Northport was published in April 2019. The interim report noted that further investment in Northport was not feasible without investment in the construction of the Marsden Point Branch and upgrades to the North Auckland Line. A business case for the upgrade of the North Auckland Line and the Marsden Point Branch's construction

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1568-552: The first president of the Canadian National Railway , said that although most branch lines cannot pay for themselves, they are even essential to make main lines pay. In the United States, abandonment of unproductive branch lines was a byproduct of deregulation of the rail industry through the Staggers Act . The Princeton Branch is a commuter rail line and service owned and operated by New Jersey Transit (NJT) in

1617-629: The land along the route. At completion, a press conference was held by minister Shane Jones plus KiwiRail chairman Greg Miller and acting Chief Executive Todd Moyle; although "the numbers still had to be crunched" before any announcement on construction was made. The Northland Rail rejuvenation project funding announced in January 2020 includes $ 40 million for land purchase on the Marsden Point/Northport rail route. KiwiRail has said that trains could be running to Marsden Point by 2023. In July 2020 it

1666-534: The late 19th century to open up inland regions for farming and other economic activities. The branches in the South Island regions were often general-purpose lines that carried predominantly agricultural traffic, but lines elsewhere were often built to serve a specific resource: on the West Coast , an extensive network of branch lines was built in rugged terrain to serve coal mines, while in the central North Island and

1715-411: The line "is not a short-term priority" for Northport, the company supported "the designation of the rail corridor" as it fits with the company's strategy of long-term growth. The company confirmed Peters had never visited the port. The matter became an issue during campaigning for the 2017 general election . On 31 August 2017, New Zealand First party leader Winston Peters announced a policy of relocating

1764-488: The line should be built to carry containers from NorthPort to Auckland. In response the New Zealand Taxpayers' Union claimed that Peters had never visited NorthPort, confused the port with the closed Port of Whangarei, and that Northport's CEO had stated that NorthPort "does not want a rail link" and that the line "does not feature in the Port's 30-year plan." NorthPort responded to these claims by stating that while

1813-534: The line will be made once the corridor is designated. In late 2008, ONTRACK served a notice of requirement to Whangarei District Council for the route's rail designation, seen as an important legal step towards the eventual line. This process began in January 2009 and was completed later that year. Land acquisition began following the KiwiRail designation of the route in 2009. New Zealand First candidate and leader (and former Northland MP) Winston Peters has proposed

1862-405: The long term) for commuters between Ruakaka and Whangarei. The population of Ruakaka and surrounds was expected to grow by 15,000 in the ten years from 2007, although the population at the 2018 census was only 2,586. Proposals for commercial precincts, residential subdivisions, and a tertiary education centre then led to calls for a commuter rail service and industrial development that would require

1911-404: The new Labour–NZ First coalition government announced that it would spend $ 600 million on rehabilitating the North Auckland Line and building the branch at a cost of $ 200 million, the total works to cost $ 800 million. In June 2021 it was announced that the line would be built and was expected to take about 5 years. In April 2023 it was announced that KiwiRail was "progressing" the business case for

1960-519: The railway and the wharf suffered a decline. The Great Depression further ruined the port's fortunes, and with insubstantial traffic, the Onerahi Branch closed on 30 June 1933. Although the Onerahi Branch mirrors the Marsden Point Branch in purpose, the Marsden Point proposal more closely follows the route of the proposed Waipu branch. The branch was intended to serve agricultural interests and

2009-556: The railways had owned. However, by the mid-20th century, railways began neglecting lines in western agricultural regions. This was historically driven by factors such as the Crow Rate , which regulated the price railways could charge for shipping grain. Railways had little incentive to invest in rural Prairie branch lines, but were legally unable to abandon them under the National Transportation Act , which also did not provide

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2058-507: The requirements of the customer the spur is serving. In heavily industrialized areas, it is not uncommon for one industrial spur to have multiple sidings to several different customers. Typically, spurs are serviced by local trains responsible for collecting small numbers of railcars and delivering them to a larger yard, where these railcars are sorted and dispatched in larger trains with other cars destined to similar locations. Because industrial spurs generally have less capacity and traffic than

2107-606: Was announced that land purchased by the Northland Regional Council for the line had been purchased by KiwiRail, who have also engaged a real estate company, The Property Group, to purchase the remaining land for the route. In addition to freight traffic, there is also the possibility of passenger services. The last passenger trains to service Whangarei were mixed trains and were cancelled in 1976. However, Northland Regional Land Transport Committee chairman Bill Rossiter suggested in February 2006 that passenger trains could be introduced (in

2156-496: Was further extended to Vaishali in 2011. The line is planned to be extended from Vaishali to Mohan Nagar via Sahibabad Station to link with the main line. The East West Line of the MRT system in Singapore has a two-station branch to Changi Airport . The first station, Expo , opened in 2001. It was extended to Changi Airport station the next year. From 1990 to 1996, the section of

2205-519: Was positive and in August 2007 the Council began work to purchase land for the proposed route. ONTRACK subsequently confirmed that once the land is acquired it will designate the route as a rail corridor. On 27 November 2007 ONTRACK and the Council confirmed that they were entering into a joint venture arrangement to progress the land designation process and share the costs of land acquisition. A commitment to build

2254-529: Was prepared by New Zealand Ministry of Transport and published May 2019. The business case found the total cost of the upgrade and Marsden Point line would be NZ$ 1.3 billion, with a benefit-cost ratio of 1.19 (assuming NorthPort's expansion goes ahead), meaning for every $ 1.00 spent there would be a return of $ 1.19. The estimated cost of the line was $ 300m. A KiwiRail arranged geotechnical survey carried out four test drills in December 2018 and January 2019 to check

2303-488: Was repealed in 1994 in the wake of the North American Free Trade Agreement and budget-balancing initiatives in favour of a one-time payout by the federal government directly to farmers, to arrange transport of grain themselves. From the mid-1970s to the late 2010s, more than 9,300 kilometres (5,800 mi) of Prairie branch lines were abandoned or had a discontinuance of service. David Blyth Hanna ,

2352-626: Was shelved due to a lack of development of the port. In 1981 the NZR released a proposal for a 17 km branch line to the Marsden Port terminal from Oakleigh , 13.7 km south of Whangarei. After studying coastal and inland routes, the report proposed an inland route through hills, marshy flats and farmland with a tunnel, five rail bridges, at least two road bridges and several culverts. The route would leave Oakleigh parallel to State Highway One for 3 km, cross Mata Creek, curve under Hewlett's Ridge in

2401-522: Was surveyed in 1914. After World War I , work began and formation was established. At least 25 men were at work on the line's construction in 1920. A lack of government will doomed the line, and before any track was laid it was cancelled in 1924. After the oil crisis of October 1973 , a proposal was made that the Marsden Point B power station could use coal from the Waikato rather than oil. The railway

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