Paeroa–Pōkeno Line

The Paeroa-Pōkeno railway line or deviation in the upper North Island of New Zealand between Paeroa on the East Coast Main Trunk (ECMT) and Pōkeno on the North Island Main Trunk (NIMT) was a proposed route with construction started but abandoned.

[3] Proposals were also made to shorten the route by a further 12 mi (19 km), by starting it at Manurewa and serving Hūnua.

With the opening of the tunnel in 1978, the Paeroa – Katikati section of the East Coast Main Trunk was closed.

Originally the line was to be the first part of the East Coast Main Trunk Railway crossing the Bay of Plenty to Ōpōtiki and then inland to Gisborne via the Moutohora Branch.

[1] The policy consists of completing the Pōkeno-Paeroa line, re-using part of the now-closed Thames Branch between Paeroa and Te Aroha and a new link between Te Aroha and the western portal of the Kaimai tunnel, altogether creating a more direct link along a faster route, providing more capacity on the very busy rail freight corridor between Auckland and Tauranga, together with linking the towns of Maramarua, Ngatea, Paeroa and Te Aroha as potential future satellite suburbs of Auckland on a new commuter rail service route between Auckland and Tauranga.