Ngatapa Branch

v t e Ngatapa Branch 1911 - 1931
Legend
Port of Gisborne 0 km Gisborne Palmerston North - Gisborne Line (1942) Makaraka Branch Park Racecourse Makaraka Ngatapa Branch Patutahi Repongaere 18.5 km Ngatapa Moutohora Branch
Distances approximate, source: NZR Mileage Table 1957.

Map

The Ngatapa Branch was a secondary branch line railway 18.5 kilometres (11.5 mi) long that for a short time formed part of the national rail network in Poverty Bay in the North Island of New Zealand. The Ngatapa branch diverged from the Moutohora branch line about 6 kilometres (3.7 mi) from Gisborne and ran a further 12.5 kilometres (7.8 mi) across the coastal flat to a terminus at Ngatapa. It was sometimes referred to as the Ngapata branch.^[1][2]

Built to the New Zealand standard 3 ft 6 in (1,067 mm) gauge the branch was originally authorised as part of the proposed inland route for the Wairoa to Gisborne section of the Palmerston North – Gisborne Line. However, in 1924, an engineer's report recommended that the then-new isolated section between Wairoa and Waikokopu in Hawke's Bay be incorporated as the southernmost portion of a new coastal route from Wairoa to Gisborne. The Public Works Department (PWD) accordingly stopped work on the inland Ngatapa route, which was officially opened as a branch line on 15 December 1924, and began work on the coastal route.^[3] The Ngatapa branch became a dead end, and it was closed on 1 April 1931.^[4]