Across from Centrepoint Theatre on the Railway Reserve is an installationof six large steam train wheels. These commemorate the nearly 100 years that a railway line ran through the centre of Palmerston North, connecting it to the outside world. Hardly had the small settlement in the Papaiōea clearing been established in 1871, when planning was under way to link it to the river port at Te Awahou/Foxton.
Early roads were atrocious and by 1872 the first wooden rail tramway provided access to the provincial port. A replica of Palmerston North’s, the line’s first locomotive and the first to be fully manufactured in New Zealand sits outside Foxton’s Court House Museum.
By 1878, steel rails had reached Whanganui and a few years later the private Wellington Manawatū Railway Company connected Palmerston North directly with Wellington. The line through the Manawatū Gorge to Napier was completed in 1891 and the train station was moved from Te Marae o Hine/The Square to opposite where the New Railway Hotel is now on Main St.
An aerial photo of the railyards in Palmerston North, circa 1960s.
By the time the North Island Main Trunk line (NIMT) to Auckland went live in 1909, the town was already the lower North Island’s principal rail hub. With its marshalling yards, workshops, freight, goods and engine sheds sprawling along Main St from The Square to West St, Palmerston North rode those rails to prosperity.
In the mid-1960s, the Milson Deviation on what was then the city outskirts freed up the town centre. However, increasing private vehicle ownership and better commercial trucking operations meant the golden age of rail was fading – despite the 1988 electrification of the NIMT between Palmerston North and Hamilton.
Now, 60 years after the last train rattled through the city centre, we are on the cusp of a new rail era – albeit one that sees rail fully integrated with other transport and logistic modes.
Transportation, logistics and the role they play in the city’s development have been a theme of my past few Guardian columns. Prompting this continuation was attending the recent New Zealand Rail Conference with our Te Utanganui Central New Zealand Distribution Hub presentation.
Palmerston North Mayor Grant Smith.
Then came a visit to the new Morebank Intermodal Hub in Western Sydney, New South Wales with its neighbouring rail, road, logistics and distribution centres, and adjacent new West Sydney Penrith Airport Aerotropolis international airfreight hub. It struck me how Australian federal, state and local governments combined with the private sector to achieve these intermodal outcomes.
We had Government MPs and officials in our delegation, and it won’t be lost on them that our own Government and other partners need to be at the funding table if we are to achieve something similar.
Weirdly, this Australian mega-hub had some similarities to Palmy and Te Utanganui. With our unique road/rail/air nexus and strategic geographic position, we are perfectly suited to become a scaled-down Kiwi version of Morebank.
Along with existing infrastructure, the city retains considerable rail-related operations including KiwiRail workshops, a training base, an intermodal freight hub with Toll and Mainfreight and a forestry log hub. There are also support industries such as Norske Rail, which supplies air-conditioning units for KiwiRail locomotives.
Now there’s the promise of the new KiwiRail freight hub development along Railway Rd towards Bunnythorpe to service the whole lower North Island. The city is also being incorporated into Wellington passenger Metlink services by 2027.
So you can see rail still has a significant role to play in Palmerston North’s future. If we can get recognition for our Te Utanganui hub, these rail developments offer encouraging prospects for employment, business and city growth.
It’s a future that we in the council are anticipating and have been busy planning for.
