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
Railway preservation in New Zealand over an existing historic formation abandoned in 1955. This is the route of the former Rimutaka railway and Rimutaka Incline over a distance of some 20 km, including 5 km of the 1 in 15 incline worked by the Fell centre-rail system. Although the Taieri Gorge Railway in Dunedin is a much longer and successful heritage railway at 60 km length, it has the advantage that all its track was still in place when it was set up in 1990. The Rimutaka proposal faces many obstacles from the construction of new track and formation rehabilitation works, to the building of