Forestry, tourism sectors looking to cash in on Napier to Wairoa railway restoration

The line will mainly be used to transport timber but other industries want to get on board.

Work is underway to restore the Napier to Wairoa railway just weeks after a $5 million cash injection into the project from the government.

It's purpose will be to freight wood from thousands of hectares of harvested forests in the coming years.

"There is a extensive amount of work that going to be done over the next few months," says Kiwi Rail's Henare Clarke.

The track was mothballed six years ago because of storm damage. At the time Kiwi Rail deemed it not worth repairing. 

But soon it will be needed again with 11,000 hectares of forest from the Wairoa region ready to harvest and the town of Wairoa at the start of the line will benefit.

"The forestry that was planted in the 1990's is now ready to be harvested so the timing is right for this it does make it more viable then historically was the case…the wall of wood is coming," says Mr Clarke.

"There will be jobs there managing that log volume there and ultimately we would want to see is a wood processing sector develop in Wairoa," says James Palmer from Hawke's Bay Regional Council.

Re-opening the line will take about 5000 trucks off the road between Napier and Wairoa, reducing carbon emissions.

It'll also ease pressure on trucking companies which are struggling to find enough drivers.

The tourism industry also wants to capitalise on the re-opened route.

"We've had approaches from many companies that want to use the trail to get people up to Wairoa which is pretty exciting," says Annie Dundas from Hawke's Bay Tourism.

With the wall of wood well on the way, the first trains will start running by Christmas.

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