Scenic route
TranzAlpine
Christchurch → Greymouth · New Zealand
TranzAlpine in pictures
Photographs by their authors, hosted on Wikimedia Commons · tap through for the licence
- Distance
- 223 km
- Fastest time
- ≈ 5 h
- Average speed
- 45 km/h
- Top speed
- 100 km/h
- Operator
- KiwiRail
- Train
- AK panorama cars
- Countries
- New Zealand
- In service since
- 1987
- Runs
- 1× daily each way
- Highest point
- 737 m
- Riders per year
- ≈ 200k
Figures are published values, not live data · corrections log
Coast to coast across the Southern Alps: the Waimakariri gorges, Arthur’s Pass and the 8.5 km Otira Tunnel in one morning.
Few trains cross an entire climate divide before lunch. From Christchurch the line sprints the chessboard Canterbury Plains, then climbs into gorge country on a ladder of short tunnels and tall viaducts, the Staircase among them, high above the Waimakariri’s turquoise braids, while the open-air viewing car fills with wind-blasted photographers. Beyond the alpine crest everything flips: beech rainforest, cloud, greenstone rivers and the moody West Coast light down to Greymouth.
How this line was checked
- The 230 km this route shares with OpenStreetMap relation 1598960 is drawn from that relation's own nodes, thinned to within under 25 m of them
- Checked against OpenStreetMap: the whole line lies on real track, a median 4 m from it
- The operator publishes this line's timetable: KiwiRail — a place to look it up, not a check of our drawing
- Wikipedia has an article for this line
Along the way
- Canterbury Plains sprint
- Staircase Viaduct
- Craigieburn high country
- Bealey braids below Arthur’s Pass
- Otira rainforest descent
- Lake Brunner (Moana) shore
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More train routes in New Zealand.