page_title: Lyttelton Rail Tunnel
section_title: Background
hierarchical_section_title: Lyttelton Rail Tunnel / History / Background
caption_attribution_description: English: Oblique view of Banks Peninsula, New Zealand next to Christchurch, taken from International Space Station.
context_page_description: The Lyttelton Rail Tunnel, initially called the Moorhouse Tunnel, links the city of Christchurch with the port of Lyttelton in the Canterbury region of New Zealand's South Island. It is the country’s oldest operational rail tunnel, and is on the Lyttelton Line, one of the first in the province.
  On completion in 1867 it became the first tunnel in the world to be taken through the side of an extinct volcano, and at 2.7 km, the longest in the country. Its opening made the Ferrymead Railway, New Zealand's first public railway line, obsolete.
context_section_description: Canterbury’s first settlers had two options for transporting themselves and their goods between the harbour at Lyttelton and the Canterbury plains: the Bridle Path over the Port Hills, or by ship over the Sumner Bar then up either the Heathcote or Avon Rivers.
  It was therefore with concern over access to the plains that the Canterbury Provincial Council, formed in November 1853, established four months later a Commission to examine the options for improvement. Only one road route was considered feasible, the Sumner Road passing under the summit of Evans Pass via a 350-yard tunnel. There were two contenders for the rail line: a direct route down the Heathcote Valley and through a 2.5 km tunnel to the Lyttelton foreshore, or a more circuitous route via the Avon Heathcote Estuary and around the shore to Sumner, where a shorter tunnel would take the line to Gollans Bay and Lyttelton.
  The inability of the Commission in its final report to make an unequivocal recommendation as to the best option for connecting the port to the plains resulted in plans for the railway to be temporarily suspended. This only exacerbated the problem to the point where, in 1858, Superintendent William Sefton Moorhouse prevailed upon the Provincial Council to consider the matter again. In response, the council set aside £4,000 to engage the services of an engineer and to seek tenders from reputable engineering firms that may be interested in the project.
  The provincial Commission that had been established to implement the recommendations of the council, chaired by W. B. Bray, set about investigating the two railway proposals that had earlier been considered, west and east of Mount Pleasant.
  Provincial Engineer Edward Dobson favoured the latter route as it meant that Gollans Bay could be used to berth ships at a deepwater jetty without having to dredge the area.  However, there were several factors against the Gollans Bay route that had to be considered, not least that it bypassed Lyttelton, a growing commercial centre of some importance; its exposure to the wind; and the lack of suitable land at the bay for port facilities. Though the commission considered it to be the best route to the harbour, they discounted the route and decided against a detailed survey of it, as their terms of reference had tasked them with finding a route to Lyttelton.
  The report from George Robert Stephenson, a consulting engineer to the Provincial Commission, was largely in favour of the "Bray" route, and made the following points: it was the shortest route providing access to all necessary points; construction costs would be 32% less than the alternative; it would be cheaper to work; and less expensive to maintain.  The only point he noted in favour of the route via Gollans Bay was that it would take three years to construct as opposed to five years for the direct route.
  Having considered the available data, the commission adopted the report from Stephenson and requested that he obtain a tender from a suitable English contractor.
caption: The tunnel allowed passage between Lyttelton Harbour and the Canterbury Plains (top)
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