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KiwiRail has confirmed that the Ohai Line will be mothballed, although the section as far as Lorneville will remain in use.
In a statement, the rail operator said much of the line between Invercargill and Ohai will be mothballed due to the planned closure of the coal mine near Nightcaps. The line has been in operation for more than 140 years.
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Bathurst Coal Ltd has advised that the Takitimu Mine will close in FY27 once the current coal resource is exhausted. Further expansion is not viable given its customers’ decarbonisation strategies. Coal transportation will cease by mid-to-late 2026, with rehabilitation and decommissioning of the mine to follow.
KiwiRail Chief Infrastructure Officer Siva Sivapakkiam said the mine closure means there will be no future freight to carry on most of the 79km Ohai Line, so that section will now be mothballed.
“The Ohai Line is in a poor state and most of it is already closed to trains. Significant damage to track and infrastructure occurred during an extreme weather event in September 2023. Since then, coal from the Takitimu Mine has been trucked to Invercargill and then loaded onto trains for the 450km journey north to near Timaru.
“The line requires more than $1 million in repairs just to reopen, and would then need tens of millions more in upgrades over the next five years, including replacing ageing wooden bridges with modern structures.
“The national rail network is publicly funded, and with the mine closing this level of investment cannot be justified.”
Mr Sivapakkiam stressed that “KiwiRail always supports the use of rail where it makes sense. The first 9km of the Ohai Line, which services the Alliance Group’s meat works at Lorneville, is unaffected and will remain fully operational, supporting this important trading corridor.”
Coal will continue to be moved by road until the Takitimu Mine officially closes.
KiwiRail will also remove level crossing signage from just north of Lorneville, as trains will not be permitted beyond that point. However, periodic inspections using rail vehicles and low-level maintenance will continue between Lorneville and Ohai to keep the corridor safe and minimise deterioration, in case new freight opportunities arise and the line is reopened in the future.
No KiwiRail jobs will be affected by the mothballing decision.
The Ohai Line, formerly known as the Ohai Industrial Line—and previously the Wairio Branch and the Ohai Railway Board’s line—is a 54.5km branch railway in Southland. It opened in 1882 and is one of just two remaining branch lines in the region, as well as one of only a handful still operating in New Zealand.