Taneatua

Taneatua is a small town in the Bay of Plenty region of New Zealand's North Island. It is officially defined as a "populated area less than a town". [Land Information New Zealand, [http://www.linz.govt.nz/apps/placenames/index.html?p=43103 Geographic Placenames Database: Place Name Detail - Taneatua] , accessed 3 November 2007.] The 2001 New Zealand Census of Population and Dwellings found its population to be 750, a 14.7% decline since the previous census in 1996. [Statistics New Zealand, [http://www2.stats.govt.nz/domino/external/web/CommProfiles.nsf/FindInfobyArea/542100-rl Taneatua Community Rural Centre Community Profile] , accessed 3 November 2007.] The town is located southeast of Pekatahi, a similarly small settlement; Whakatane is the nearest significantly sized town. Just to the southwest of Taneatua, the Whakatane River and Waimana Rivers meet. The Whakatane River itself flows to the west of Taneatua, while the Waimana River is south of the township.

State Highway 2 passes through Taneatua on its route from Opotiki to Edgecumbe. The Taneatua Branch railway, now mothballed, terminates in Taneatua. Formerly considered part of the East Coast Main Trunk Railway, it is now a branch line off the main line from Hawkens Junction, northwest of Edgecumbe.

Plans existed in the first half of the twentieth century to extend the railway through to Gisborne to meet the Palmerston North - Gisborne Line, and although some formation was established to Opotiki, the Great Depression and World War II caused the project to be abandoned and the line terminated in Taneatua. [Geoffrey B. Churchman and Tony Hurst, "The Railways of New Zealand: A Journey Through History" (Wellington: Grantham House, 1991)] The line to Taneatua opened in 1928 and a daily passenger train known as the Taneatua Express was established to provide a link between the Bay of Plenty and Auckland. By the early 1950s, the train operated just thrice weekly - sometimes only twice weekly - due to coal shortages and this infrequency helped to seal the fate of the express. [J. D. Mahoney, "Kings of the Iron Road" (Palmerston North: Dunmore Press, 1982)] It nonetheless survived to be the second-last steam-hauled provincial express in New Zealand, with the final service operated on 7 February 1959. [Tony Hurst, "Farewell to Steam: Four Decades of Change on New Zealand Railways" (Auckland: Harper Collins Publishers, 1995)] This was the permanent end of passenger trains to Taneatua; subsequent railcar services terminated in Te Puke or Tauranga due to low passenger volumes beyond those points.

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