Transport in New Zealand

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Transport in New Zealand, with its mountainous topography and relatively small population, mostly located close to the a long coastline, has always faced many transport challenges. Before Europeans arrived, Māori either walked or used watercraft on rivers or along the coasts. Later on, European shipping and railways revolutionised the way of transporting goods and people, before being themselves overtaken by road and air, which are nowadays the dominant forms of transport.

However, bulk freight continues to be transported by rail and coastal shipping.

Contents

[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 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.

Paved roads  
53,568 km (including at least 144 km of expressways)
Unpaved roads 
38,632 km (1996 estimate)[citation needed]
Total  
92,200 km

[edit] Railways

Main article: Rail transport in New Zealand

[edit] Network

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 the New Zealand Railways Corporation trading as ONTRACK, a state-owned enterprise. The national network consists of three main trunk lines, seven secondary main lines and during it's peak in the 1950s, around ninety 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, protecting the railways from competition for fifty years. The transport industry became fully deregulated in 1983. Between 1986 and 1993 the rail industry underwent a major overhaul involing corporatisation, restructuring, downsizing, line and station closures and privatisation. In 1993 the network was privatised, and until 2003 the national network was owned by Tranz Rail, previously New Zealand Rail Limited. The government agreed to take over control of the national rail network back when Toll Holdings purchased Tranz Rail in 2003.

[edit] Operators and services

Bulk freights dominate services, particularly coal, logs and wood products, milk and milk products, fertiliser, containers, steel and cars. Long distance passenger services are limited to three routes - the TranzAlpine (Christchurch - Greymouth), the TranzCoastal (Christchurch - Picton) and the Overlander (Wellington - Auckland). Urban rail services operate in Wellington and Auckland, and interurban services run between Palmerston North and Wellington (the Capital Connection) and Masterton and Wellington (the Wairarapa Connection).

For most of its history, New Zealand's rail services were operated by the Railways Department. In 1982, the Department was corporatised as the New Zealand Railways Corporation. The Corporation was split in 1990 between a limited liability operating company, New Zealand Rail Limited, and the Corporation which retained a number of assets to be disposed. New Zealand Rail was privatised in 1993, and renamed Tranz Rail in 1995. In 2001, Tranz Rail's long-distance passenger operations, under the guise of Tranz Scenic, became a separate company; Tranz Rail chose not to bid for the contract to run Auckland's rail services, and the contract was won by Connex (now Veolia Transport Auckland). Proposals to sell Tranz Rail's Wellington passenger rail services, Tranz Metro, did not come to fruition, although the division became a separate company in July 2003. In 2003 Tranz Rail was purchased by Australian freight firm Toll Holdings, which renamed the company Toll NZ.

The only other significant non-heritage operator is the tourist oriented Taieri Gorge Railway in Otago, which runs regular passenger trains on part of the former Otago Central Railway and some on the Main South Line.

[edit] Heritage

The Federation of Rail Organisations of New Zealand coordinates the work of approximately sixty 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 a long history of international and coastal shipping. Both Maori and the European settlers arrived from overseas, and during the early European settler years, coastal shipping was one of the main methods of transportation.[1]

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. This is the only large-scale long-distance car / passenger shipping service left, with all others restricted to short ferry routes to islands like Stewart Island or Great Barrier Island.

New Zealand has 1,609 km of navigable inland waterways; however these are no longer significant transport routes.

[edit] Ferry services

Toll Shipping's Cook Strait ferry Arahura in the Marlborough Sounds.
Toll Shipping's Cook Strait ferry Arahura in the Marlborough Sounds.

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.

Depending on the vessel, usual transit time between the North and South Islands is between three hours and three hours twenty minutes. Faster catamaran ferries were used by Tranz Rail and its competitors. To reduce voyage times, Tranz Rail proposed to relocate the South Island terminal of its services to Clifford Bay in Marlborough, which would also 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, Wellington, the Marlborough Sounds and Lyttelton (Christchurch), and between Bluff and Half Moon Bay (Stewart Island/Rakiura).

[edit] Ports and harbours

[edit] Coastal shipping

In the financial year 2003 / 2004 coastal cargo in New Zealand totalled around 8.6 million tonnes, of which 85% was carried by local, and 15% by overseas shipping.[2]

[edit] Merchant marine fleet

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

[edit] Pipelines

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

[edit] Airports

Main article: Airports in New Zealand

There are 113 airports in New Zealand (2002 est.). The main international airport is Auckland Airport, which handled about 11 million passengers in 2005. [3] 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), Auckland, Mechanics Bay

[edit] 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

  1. ^ New Zealand's Burning: Overview of coastal shipping 1885 - Arnold, Rollo, Victoria Press, Victoria University of Wellington, 1994
  2. ^ Coastal Shipping Cargo - 2003/03 (from a Ministry of Transport report, March 2005)
  3. ^ Auckland Airport in 2005 (from the official Auckland International Airport website)

[edit] See also

[edit] External links


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Transport in Oceania

Australia

Australia · Norfolk Island · Christmas Island · Cocos (Keeling) Islands

Melanesia

East Timor · Fiji · New Caledonia · Papua New Guinea · Solomon Islands · Vanuatu

Micronesia

Guam · Kiribati · Marshall Islands · Northern Mariana Islands · Federated States of Micronesia · Nauru · Palau

Polynesia

American Samoa · Cook Islands · French Polynesia · New Zealand · Niue · Pitcairn · Samoa · Tokelau · Tonga · Tuvalu · Wallis and Futuna
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