Transport in New Zealand

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

With mountainous topography and a relatively small population, mostly located around a long coastline, New Zealand has always offered many transport challenges. Before Europeans arrived, Māori either walked or used watercraft on rivers. Road and air are the dominant forms of transport, although bulk freight continues to be transported by rail.

Contents 1 Highways 2 Railways 3 Water transport 3.1 Ferry services 3.2 Ports and harbours 3.3 Merchant marine 4 Pipelines 5 Airports 5.1 Airports - with paved runways 5.2 Airports - with unpaved runways 5.3 Heliports 5.4 Transport used by overseas visitors 6 References 7 See also 8 External links

[edit] Highways

The New Zealand State Highway network, which provides the backbone infrastructure between towns, is administered by Transit New Zealand. Other roads and streets are managed by city or district councils. Some roads are under the control of the New Zealand Department of Conservation.

All funding for state highways and around 50% of funding for local roads comes directly from road users through the National Land Transport Fund. Road user revenue directed to the fund includes all fuel excise duty on LPG and CNG, around 55% of revenue from fuel excise duty on petrol, all revenue from road user charges (a prepaid distance/weight licence that all vehicles over 3.5 tonnes, and all non petrol/LPG/CNG vehicles are liable to pay) and most non ACC revenue from motor vehicle registration and licensing fees. In addition, in the last three years the government has increasing allocated additional funds to land transport, to the extent that today the total expenditure by Land Transport New Zealand on land transport projects exceeds road tax revenue collected.

The remainder of funding for local city and district roads primarily comes from local authority property rates.

The maximum speed limit on the open road is 100 km/h, with 50 km/h the most common limit in residential areas. Speed limits of 60, 70, and 80 km/h are also used. Speeds are often reduced to 30 km/h beside roadworks.

New Zealand has an unusual lane marking system; see lane for more information.

(see New Zealand State Highway network)
total: 92,200 km
paved: 53,568 km (including at least 144 km of expressways)
unpaved: 38,632 km (1996 est.)

[edit] Railways

Main article: Rail transport in New Zealand

There is a total of 3,898 km of railway line in New Zealand, built to the narrow gauge of 1067 mm. Of this, 506 km is electrified (2002 data). The national network is owned by ONTRACK, a state-owned enterprise; most services are operated by Toll Rail.

The national network consists of three main trunk lines, seven secondary main lines and around 90 branch lines. The majority of the latter are now closed. Most lines were constructed by government but a few were of private origin, later nationalised. In 1931 the Transport Licensing Act was passed, and for 50 years the railways were protected from competition. In 1993, NZ Rail was privatised, and until 2003 the national network was owned by Tranz Rail. The government agreed to take over control of the national rail network back when Toll Holdings purchased Tranz Rail in 2003.

The Federation of Rail Organisations of New Zealand coordinates the work of approximately 60 heritage railways and rail museums. Most of these are operated by groups of volunteers and have a historical or tourist focus.

[edit] Water transport

New Zealand has 1,609 km of navigable inland waterways; these are no longer of importance for transport. The two main islands are separated by Cook Strait, 24 km wide at its narrowest point, but requiring a 70-km ferry trip to cross.

[edit] Ferry services

Regular roll-on roll-off ferry services link the North and South Islands between Wellington and Picton. Toll NZ, a division of Australian firm Toll Holdings, owns the main inter-island ferry service, the Interislander. Two of the three ferries used by the Interislander, the Arahura and the Aratere, are rail ferries with special rail decks. The largest and newest ferry, Challenger (marketed as Kaitaki) came into operation in September 2005. A competitor service is operated by Strait Shipping Ltd, using ex-French ships Santa Regina and Monte Stello (not yet in service), under the Bluebridge brand.

Usual transit time between the North and South Islands is between 3 hrs and 3 hrs 20 mins, depending on the vessel, although faster catamaran ferries have been used in the past by Tranz Rail and its competitors. Tranz Rail proposed to relocate the South Island terminal of its services to Clifford Bay in Marlborough to reduce the ferry trip time, and to avoid a steep section of railway. This proposal has been shelved since the takeover by Toll Holdings in 2003.

Smaller ferries operate in the Bay of Islands, Rawene (Northland), Auckland, WellingtonWellington, the Marlborough Sounds and Lyttelton (Christchurch), and between Bluff and Half Moon Bay (Stewart Island/Rakiura).

[edit] Ports and harbours

• Container ports: Auckland, Tauranga, Napier, Wellington, Lyttelton (Christchurch), Port Chalmers (Dunedin)
• Other ports: Whangarei, Devonport (Auckland), Gisborne, New Plymouth, Wanganui, Nelson, Picton, Westport, Greymouth, Timaru, Bluff.
• Harbours: Akaroa, Half Moon Bay (Stewart Island/Rakiura), Milford Sound.
• Freshwater: Rotorua (Lake Rotorua), Taupo (Lake Taupo), Queenstown and Kingston (Lake Wakatipu), Te Anau and Manapouri (Lake Manapouri)

[edit] Merchant marine

Total: 9 ships (1,000 GRT or over) totaling 69,685 GRT/106,627 DWT Ships by type:bulk 3, cargo 2, container 1, petroleum tanker 2, roll-on/roll-off 1 (2002 est.)

[edit] Pipelines

Petroleum products 160 km; natural gas 1,000 km; liquified petroleum gas (LPG) 150 km.

[edit] Airports

There are 113 airports in New Zealand (2002 est.). The main international airport is Auckland Airport, which handled about 11 million passengers in 2005 [1]. Christchurch Airport and Wellington Airport each handle about 4 million passengers per year.

[edit] Airports - with paved runways

total: 46
10,000 ft (3048 m) or more: 2
8000 ft to 9999 ft (2438 m to 3047 m): 1
5000 ft to 7999 ft (1524 m to 2437 m): 10
3000 ft to 4999 ft (914 m to 1523 m): 28
under 3000 ft (914 m): 5 (2002)

[edit] Airports - with unpaved runways

total: 67
5000 ft to 7999 ft (1524 m to 2437 m): 2
3000 ft to 4999 ft (914 m to 1523 m): 26
under 3000 ft (914 m): 39 (2002)

[edit] Heliports

1 (2002)

[edit] Transport used by overseas visitors

Nearly one-third of those surveyed in the International Visitor Survey in 2000 had used domestic air services; rental cars and coach tours were each used by one-quarter. Transport by private car and ferry were the fourth and fifth most common means of transport, ahead of scheduled bus and train.

Rental car was the preferred method of transport for visitors from Australia in 2000, by 30%. Next in importance were domestic air travel (18%) and private car (17%). Rental cars, private cars and ferries were the top three methods of transport for visitors from the United Kingdom and Canada. The popularity of private cars for visitors from Australia, the United Kingdom and Canada could be attributed to the high proportion of visitors from these countries who come to visit friends and relatives.

[edit] References

• This article contains material from the CIA World Factbook which, as a US government publication, is in the public domain. 2003

[edit] See also

• Airports in New Zealand
• Tunnels in New Zealand

[edit] External links

• Ministry of Transport
• The Interisland line
• Bluebridge - Cook Strait Ferry