Ross Branch
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The Ross Branch, officially known as the Hokitika Line since 2011, and previously as the Hokitika Industrial Line, is a branch line railway that forms part of New Zealand's national rail network. It is located in the Westland District of the South Island's West Coast region and opened to Hokitika in 1893. A further extension to Ross operated from 1909 until 1980.
The first line opened in the region was a bush tramway built to a gauge of 1,219mm (4 ft). It ran from Greymouth south to Paroa and opened in 1867. Ten years later, an extension inland to Kumara was opened, with the Taramakau River crossed by a cage suspended from a wire. Around this time, plans were formulated to replace the tramway with a railway and link Greymouth and Hokitika. Work began in 1879, but the economic conditions of the Long Depression brought construction to a halt the next year with only 5 km of track laid. Furthermore, the residents of Kumara, led by future Prime Minister Richard Seddon, were indignant that the railway was going to take a more coastal route than the tramway and thus bypass their town. In 1886, work restarted, and the continued attempts from Kumara residents to have the line's route changed failed to force an alteration to the plans. Work progressed steadily over the next few years, and on 18 December 1893, the complete line from Hokitika to Greymouth opened.
To the south of Hokitika was thickly wooded country, and with the prospect of significant logging traffic, surveys for an extension of the railway were undertaken. In 1901, the government approved construction of the extension, and preliminary work was well under way by August 1902. The first section, from Hokitika to Ruatapu, was opened on 9 November 1906, and the full line to Ross was completed on 1 April 1909. Proposals for further southward extension were made but never came to fruition. One of these involved linking Ross to the Otago Central Railway (which at the time terminated in Omakau) via the Haast Pass and Wanaka, and this proposal was viewed favourably by Richard Seddon during his Prime Ministership in the early 20th century as a tourist route. Despite the failure of the railway to progress beyond Ross, a number of bush tramways fanned out from the railway to provide more convenient access to sawmills and other industrial activity. The most notable of these was the one owned by Stuart and Chapman Ltd, which extended south from Ross for about 20 km to the Lake Ianthe area.
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Wikipedia