Rimutaka Tunnel the first fully dieselised line in New Zealand. Today, DBR, DC, DFT and DX class locomotives run the route. There have been proposals to electrify the tunnel and the Wairarapa line as far north as Masterton as an extension of the Wellington suburban electrification. The tunnel was designed to enable catenary to be installed but this has not happened, and the catenary finishes just north of Upper Hutt station. In 2007, Greater Wellington Regional Council rejected a call to electrify the tunnel, on the basis that patronage did not justify the expenditure, and that the tunnel would "have to be
Beaminster Tunnel a white cross which can still be seen "in situ". The tunnel reduced the road's gradient from 1-in-6 (17%) to 1-in-10 (10%) and shortened it by a mile (1.6 km), as well as lowering its maximum elevation by . At the time of its opening, only a handful of road tunnels had been built in Britain; it pre-dates the construction of the first railway tunnels, and it is now the only pre-railway road tunnel in the country still in use. The tunnel was formally opened on 29 June 1832 with enthusiastic celebrations including a 21-gun salute fired from the top