page_title: New Zealand Railways Department
section_title: 1960s
hierarchical_section_title: New Zealand Railways Department / History / 1960s
caption_attribution_description: English: Former Cook Strait rail ferry Aranui, in Queen Charlotte Sound, New Zealand. Original file was labelled as Aramoana, the crossing's first roll on-roll off ferry. Closer inspection reveals that this vessel is Aranui, sister ship to Aramoana.
context_page_description: The New Zealand Railways Department, NZR or NZGR and often known as the "Railways", was a government department charged with owning and maintaining New Zealand's railway infrastructure and operating the railway system. The Department was created in 1880 and was corporatised on 1 April 1982 into the New Zealand Railways Corporation. Originally, railway construction and operation took place under the auspices of the former provincial governments and some private railways, before all of the provincial operations came under the central Public Works Department. The role of operating the rail network was subsequently separated from that of the network's construction. From 1895 to 1993 there was a responsible Minister, the Minister of Railways. He was often also the Minister of Public Works.
  Apart from two experiments with independent boards, NZR remained under direct ministerial control for most of its history.
context_section_description: In 1960 the second Christchurch railway station, at Moorhouse Avenue, was opened. The station was closed in 1990, with a new station being built at Addington.
  The introduction of GMV Aramoana in 1962 heralded the start of inter-island ferry services run by NZR. The service was very successful, leading to criticism, when the Wellington–Lytellton overnight ferry was withdrawn, that NZR was competing unfairly with private operators. Before the Aramoana was introduced, NZR could not compete for inter-island freight business, and the rail networks of both the North and South Islands were not well integrated. To send goods between the islands, freight had to be unloaded from wagons onto a ship on one island, unloaded at the other and then loaded back into wagons to resume its journey by rail. The introduction of a roll-on roll-off train ferry changed that. Wagons were rolled onto the ferry and rolled off at the other side. This led to many benefits for NZR customers.
  NZR's 1963–1964 year-end financial report showed that inter-island ferry services contributed $1.07 million to NZRs profit of $1.077 million. A second ferry, MV Aranui, arrived in 1965.
  Closures of rural branch lines reduced the total network length to 3,254 miles (5,237 km) in 1966.
  In 1968 the "Blue Streak" refurbished railcars were introduced to the Wellington–Auckland run, having failed to raise patronage between Hamilton and Auckland. The success of the Blue Streaks led to the purchase of three new railcars in 1972. The Blue Streaks were then allocated to the Wellington—New Plymouth service. The introduction of the Japanese-built DJ class diesels from that year in the South Island accelerated the demise of steam, replacing the remaining steam locomotives. The final demise of steam came on 26 October 1971 with the withdrawal of the last class of mainline steam locomotives, the Ja class in the South Island (although the NZR-operated heritage Kingston Flyer service, using two AB class locomotives began just two months later in December 1971).
caption: MV Aranui, the second inter-island rail ferry operated by NZR
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