Port of Tauranga is holding up its inland port at Onehunga as part of the answer to avoiding further reclamation of the Waitemata Harbour for port business.
Each day, up to six freight trains carrying 106 containers make the 224km journey from Ports of Tauranga to MetroPort, located at the industrial epicentre of Auckland.
In the past year, 180,000 containers were handled at the inland site - at prices competitive with what Ports of Auckland would charge, says Port of Tauranga commercial manager Graeme Marshall.
This month, the port company announced it had spent $37.2 million acquiring a further 6.8ha next to its MetroPort operation, which chief executive Mark Cairns said would be key to expanding access to and from international markets for Auckland.
The area of industrial land is almost the same size as Ports of Auckland's latest plans to extend Bledisloe Wharf into the harbour.