The train was carrying logs and pulp from Kawerau to Mount Maunganui. Photo / Tyson Smith
The train was carrying logs and pulp from Kawerau to Mount Maunganui. Photo / Tyson Smith
A train track closure near Te Puke could cause “serious problems” for the logging industry if it is not fixed soon, the Forest Owners Association says.
The incident happened about 5.30am north of Te Puke after significant rainfall in the area overnight. The train was travelling on the East Coast Main Trunk Line from Kawerau to Mount Maunganui.
A KiwiRail spokesperson said the locomotive was still on the tracks but up to 10 wagons, carrying logs and pulp, derailed. The train’s two crew members were not injured.
The spokesperson said the section of the East Coast Main Trunk Line between Te Puke and Te Maunga was currently closed. However, the major freight corridor on the East Coast Main Trunk Line (Tauranga – Hamilton) remained open.
“KiwiRail teams are still assessing the site of the wagon derailment near Te Puke and undertaking preparation to recover the track. Currently, water levels remain high at the site and this is impeding the investigation and track assessment.”
Up to 10 wagons from a freight train derailed near Te Puke on Sunday. Photo / Tyson Smith
Forest Owners Association spokesman Don Carson said it could put up with these disruptions “in the short-term”.
“But anything that goes beyond a few days of having the track out then causes serious problems,” he said.
“We have a supply chain, we have harvesting crews that take logs out and the storage capacity is limited because the assumption is that they will be on the train or on the trucks and off to the port and on to the ship.
“Any bottleneck in there is always going to be difficult, but it doesn’t happen immediately. We can work around that for a brief period of time but after that it gets serious.”
Asked how long a “brief period of time” would be, Carson said it depended on the shipping timetable.
“That’s intermittent - it costs money to have a ship demurrage sitting out there ... waiting to berth and load. And if there are empty ships, that gets very expensive.
“If this derailment isn’t fixed soon, then those problems start to get serious.”
As an alternative, Carson said trucks could be used to keep the supply going.
“But then that becomes difficult because you’re taking trucks out of commission somewhere else and you’ve then got accommodation issues with drivers being out of their home patch. There’s more traffic on the roads and you’re putting logistics pressure on truck loading rather than rail loading.”
Timberlands Rotorua sustainability manager Colin Maunder said it understood the repairs could take “at least two weeks”.
“The outage will affect our delivery of export logs to the port, which will have a flow on to shipping, port and harvesting operations as well as domestic customers.”
Maunder said it had established an incident team who was working with KiwiRail, its customers and contractors to manage the situation and consequent disruption.
