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
Kaitoke Upper Valley Gliding Club for the purposes of gliding the area's thermals. The Pakuratahi River flows through the eastern Kaitoke Basin from its source in the Remutaka Ranges. The old route of the Wairarapa Line railway, which closed with the opening of the Rimutaka Tunnel in November 1955, ran from Upper Hutt via Maymorn to Kaitoke and around Goat Rock up the Pakuratahi to the Summit, and from there, because of excessive steepness, the Fell mountain railway system was used to aid trains on the Rimutaka Incline between Summit and Cross Creek. This railway is now the Remutaka Rail Trail.