Little River Rail Trail

The Little River Rail Trail is a cycling and walking track established near Little River on Banks Peninsula in the Canterbury region of New Zealand's South Island. It can be considered similar to the popular and longer Otago Central Rail Trail. It utilises the formation of the Little River Branch railway that ran from a junction with the Southbridge Branch in Lincoln to Little River. The railway line closed on 30 June 1962 and the formation had remained in situ, remarkably undisturbed, until the early 2000s, when an organisation was formed to revitalise it for public use.

On 28 May 2006, the first section of the rail trail was opened, between Motukarara and Catons Bay Reserve. It has since been extended to the Little River hotel, some 800 m short of the restored Little River station, which has preserved ex-New Zealand Railways freight wagons and a craft centre. There are also plans to extend it towards Christchurch, though this may deviate from the railway's original route in order to provide ease of accessibility. This extension will also incorporate part of the also closed Southbridge Branch's formation, as that was the line that linked the Little River Branch to the Main South Line in Hornby.

The second section between Prebbleton and Lincoln (7 km) opened on 30 November 2006. This section is an offroad track adjacent to the old railway line that runs alongside Birchs Road.

External links

* [http://www.littleriverrailtrail.org.nz Christchurch-Little River RailTrail official website]
* [http://www.trainweb.org/enzedrail/branch/bankspeninsula/01/ Patrick Dunford's Railways of New Zealand - Little River Branch] : contains pictures of the rail trail.