Tokanui Branch

The Tokanui Branch, also known as the Seaward Bush Branch, was a branch line railway located in Southland, New Zealand. It diverged from the Bluff Branch south of the main railway station in Invercargill and ran for 54 kilometres in a southeasterly direction. Construction began in 1883 and it operated until 1966.

The line was built to access timber resources south-east of Invercargill and to open up the region to farming development, replacing an earlier bush tramway that had run in the area in the 1870s. Governments of the Southland Province and Otago Province had rejected a railway line due to lack of finances and an 1880 Royal Commission did not view the line as advisable. However, by 1882, the Provinces of New Zealand had been abolished and the railways centrally controlled by the New Zealand Railways Department, and despite the Long Depression, funds for construction were made available. Work commenced in March 1883 and the first section opened by 2 July 1886 to Waimatua, followed by Mokotua on 16 January 1888. The opening to Mokotua was marked by the operation of a special train from Invercargill hauled by a steam locomotive of the 1874 J class.

The next extension, into the lower Mataura River area, was ten kilometres long and not constructed immediately as there was some debate over whether the Wyndham Branch should be extended south from Glenham instead. Ultimately, the Wyndham Branch proposal was rejected and the line beyond Mokotua to Gorge Road was opened on 1 March 1895, and when a bridge over the Mataura River was completed, a further eleven kilometre extension to Waimahaka was opened on 18 June 1899. A connection with the Catlins River Branch was proposed and a further thirteen kilometres was added to the branch when it opened to Tokanui on 20 December 1911, making it 54.42 kilometres in total length. Although a connection with the Catlins River Branch appears logical on a map, the rugged country beyond Tokanui discouraged further extension, and the 'promise' to connect the two branches may have merely been an electoral ploy. A ten kilometre route to Marinui was surveyed, but no further work was done and Tokanui remained the line's terminus.

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