Remutaka Range 30 October 1955, when it was replaced by the Rimutaka Tunnel. The former route is now the popular Remutaka Rail Trail and part of the Remutaka Cycle Trail. The Rimutaka Incline Railway Heritage Trust has plans to rebuild the railway from Maymorn, including the Incline, as a tourist and historical attraction. Remutaka Range The Remutaka Range (spelled Rimutaka Range before 2017), is one of several mountain ranges in the North Island of New Zealand that together form a ridge running parallel with the east coast between East Cape and Wellington. The ridge is at its most pronounced in the southern
Wairarapa Line North Island Main Trunk section between Wellington and Palmerston North. The line originally included the famous Rimutaka Incline, which used the Fell mountain railway system to cross the Rimutaka Range between Upper Hutt and Featherston. In the mid-1950s, the line between Petone and Featherston was substantially realigned, with the line diverted to the east of the Hutt River between Petone and Haywards to serve new housing developments in northern Lower Hutt, and the construction of the Rimutaka Tunnel to replace the Rimutaka Incline. Part of the former route west of the Hutt River has been retained as the Melling Branch.