KEY POINTS:
The first significant length of new railway track in New Zealand since the 1950s is being laid on the West Coast.
Track is now being built at the access point to the main rail system for Pike River coal deliveries from the West Coast to the export port at Lyttelton.
The $12 million rail loading facility is alongside the main Trans Alpine rail line near the small community of Ikamatua in the Grey Valley, 54km north east of Greymouth.
