Rail transport in Fiji
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Rail transport in Fiji largely consists of the Cane Trains, but there were also two horse-drawn street tramway systems, some other passenger systems, an underground mine system and some tramways on construction projects.
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[edit] Cane Trains
Tramways have been used to transport sugar cane from the fields to the mill since 1876 when a 2.4 km horse tramway was constructed on the Selia Levu estate on the island of Taveuni. The Holmhurst Mill on Tavenui had tramways from 1882 of 762 mm (2’ 6”) gauge. A tramway was also built on the island of Mago.
Most cane tramways though, were of 610 mm (2’ 0”) gauge, and were on the main islands of Viti Levu and Vanua Levu. Steam engines were used, later replaced with diesel engines. Most of the mills and tramways were built by the Colonial Sugar Refining Company (Fiji) (CSR), an Australian-owned company, and transferred to the Fiji Sugar Corporation in 1973, when CSR withdrew from Fiji.
Many lines were on road reserve provided by the government, and combined road-rail bridges were common. Some passenger services were provided, eg the famous Free Train from 1915, with one or two trains a week from Lautoka to Kavanagasau and Rarawai on the Rarawai-Kavanagasau Light Railway.
In 1988 according to Cane Train, there was 645 km of permanent cane railway in Fiji; for the Lautoka and Rarawai, and Penang Mills on Viti Levu, and the Labasa Mill on Vanua Levu.
[edit] Passenger Lines
In the 1970s a holiday resort on Malololailai Island in Nadi Bay built a short tramway from the air strip to the resort complex, using 610 mm gauge equipment from the Fiji Sugar Corporation.
The Coral Coast Railway Company operated a daily return trip for visitors, from Yanuca Island to Natadola Beach (16 km towards Nadi) on Viti Levu from 1986.
[edit] Tramways
In 1884 the Levuka Tramway Company operated a tramway along the streets of Levuka to connect warehouses with the wharves, of 762 mm (2’ 6”) gauge. Similar tramways were laid in the new capital of Suva in the 1880s, and were put on an official footing in 1891, Both were horse-operated, with the help of manpower.
[edit] Mine Railways
The Emperor Gold Mine at Vatukoula in northern Viti Levu used 610 mm tramways underground, with 21 battery-electric locomotives.
[edit] Construction Tramways
Tramways were built for reclamation at Suva and Lautoka, airfield construction at Nadi (1941-42), tunnelling for the Suva sewerage system, and for the Monasavu hydroelectric scheme in the centre of Viti Levu in the 1980s.
[edit] References
- Cane Train: The Sugar-cane Railways of Fiji by Peter Dyer and Peter Hodge (1988: available from the publisher New Zealand Railway and Locomotive Society, Wellington) ISBN 0908573502 It is a revision and expansion of:
- Balloon Stacks and Sugar Cane by Peter Dyer and Peter Hodge (1961: New Zealand Railway and Locomotive Society, Wellington)
