NEW RAILWAY ROUTE.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXIV, Issue 19730, 1 September 1927, Page 10

NEW RAILWAY ROUTE.

TAWA FLAT .DEVIATION. OBVIATING STEEP CLIMBING. - [BY TELEGRAPH. OWN CORRESPONDENT. ] WELLINGTON, Wednesday. The Tawa Flat railway deviation, a start on the construction of which has been made, will offer a much straighter line than the present devious and steep route on the Main Trunk railway out of Wellington. It will cut 2} miles off the distance ' from WeUingto to Auckland, and hy means of two long tunnels will obviate climbing the tremer.dous rise as at present, making a saving in time which will place Tawa Flat within about 20 minutes of Wellington City. Khandallah, Ngaio, and Johnsonville residents will not be affected. The new line will start off with a ramp graded 1 in 110, just beyond the Kaivvarra station yard, and will cross the Hutt Road just past the new roaa to Khandallah, known as Onslow Road. The crossing will be by means of a railway over-bridge, the new line plunging almost immediately into a tunnel. The difference in the grading of the new line is shown by the fact that the present Manawatu line, when it leaves the level, starts off at a grade of 1 in 45, and a portion of the long climb to Khandallah is as steep as 1 in 36, while the bulk of the distance is graded steeper than 1 in 50. The K'i'ade of the new line, on the other hand, is nowhere greater than 1 in 100. The first tunnel will be just over threequarters of a mile long. It will emerge above the Ngahauranga Gorge Road, over •vhif-h it is to be carried by a brirljre. -Aff(-T only 15 chains in the open the line w.'il enter what will be the second longest 'nnne! iri New Zealand, a straight "hole tbronch the hill." graded at 1 in 110, and extending for 2 miles 53 chains, on a line 'hat takes it right tinder the heart of folmson vilie. •A contrast is shown by the existing line, which, in the short distance of four miles f rom Thermion to Khandallah. rises 492Tt. above sea level, and then, in the next halfmile, rises again to a heicrht of 518 ft. The highest point in the new line will be 195 ft.. a saving of 323 ft to be climbed.