International Railroad Discussion > New Zealand rail traffic status with volcano eruption

I was reading this AM about the eruption and I just came on line and I'm surprised that I can't find
any online info on any rail site. Does anyone have a source that would have any info?

Larry Dodgion
Wilsonville, OR

I don't know...Maybe they don't have a railroad on that island?..

 The eruption was on an Island off the East Coast of the North Island, rail is on the main land.
 Malcolm
New Zealand.

MMD Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
>  The eruption was on an Island off the East Coast
> of the North Island, rail is on the main land.
>  Malcolm
> New Zealand.

Thank you, the report that I saw on tv didn't name which island.

Larry Dodgion
Wilsonville, OR

Doubt White Island would make sense to most people....

earthquakes occur with it?

NZ is on the Pacific's "Ring of Fire" and most small islands off the coast are volcanic.

Most of the reporting seems to come from Whakaatane which is where I think the tourist boats depart from. The railway in that part of New Zealand comes down the coast from Tauranga as far as Matata and then goes inland, behind Whakatane, to Edgecumbe. When I was in New Zealand a few years ago I saw very little traffic except for the passenger services around Wellington and Auckland both of which have been upgraded in the last 10 years (the work in Auckland continues). That's not to say there is no traffic but I was never in the right place at the right time.

The country has suffered various earthquakes over the years. There was a major quake around Christchurch in 2011 and again in 2016. The main line (and road) along the coast from Picton to Christchurch was severed by a quake which left an intermodal/container train trapped around Kaikoura in 2016 and took about a year to recover.

Kiwirail have various procedures in place when quakes and eruptions occur. It's arguable that they don't need to be as comprehensive as in Japan for the Shinkansen but they are probably comparable to the procedures Japan has for the 3ft 6in (the same as New Zealand) system. White Island seems to be some way out to sea and doesn't seem to be causing major disruption to railway traffic in fact neither of New Zealand rail facebook pages I follow seem to have even mentioned the eruption.

The island is very small,  just the top of a huge undersea volcano.  I don't think anyone lives there....just tourists, such as those off the Royal Carribean ship that were caught by the eruption.

Hi.
This eruption has not effected the railroad in any way. This section of Railroad which runs from the Port of Mt Maunganui to the Pulp and paper mill at Kawerau, and to the Murupara
Branch with large log loading Facilities, in effect just about all traffic is logs and pulp paper.
We have three active volcanos in New Zealand, plus New Zealand's largest City Auckland is built on many extinct volcanos, well for the time being.

around this time of the year  in 1953 a volcanic eruption caused a  full crater n lake to spill over and cause a river to swell with debris and destroyed a rail bridge and passenger train with loss of life around 150 or so


Tangiwai NZ 12-24-53 if you want to look up more info