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Brookfield & Greerton Class 150 (Coach 1)

(This is 'concept art' for a fictional railway company. It is recommended that you look at Tauranga on Google maps to understand all the place names and their geographical location. All places, streets, schools, healthcare centres and business mentioned on this page do exist in real life).

The Brookfield and Greerton Railway is an underground metro system in the city of Tauranga. It runs for a distance of 6.7 kilometres from Brookfield to Greerton, going on a north-to-south axis. The line runs entirely underground, thus saving passengers from getting stuck in traffic. It was built between 2015 and 2020, opening on Tuesday the 9th of June.

The line starts at the Brookfield Transit Centre, where there are connections with the local Bayhopper buses. Passengers can also access the New World supermarket at Brookfield, which is great when they want something quick for dinner. At the southern end - Chadwick Road (Greerton), there is another bus-train interchange.

There are 10 stations on the line, all of which are located in specific areas to maximise convenience. Some of them are located in purely residential areas, and the station names are as follows:

Brookfield Transit Centre
Windsor Road (for Otumoetai College and Otumoetai Intermediate School)
Otumoetai Gardens (for the Health Centre and Cherrywood shops)
Bureta Park
Pillans Road (for Pillans Point Primary School)
Tauranga Central (underneath the Willow Street bus station)
Avenues North (for Tauranga Primary School)
Avenues South
College Park (for Tauranga Boys College)
Tauranga Hospital
Gate Pa
Greerton Hall
Chadwick Road (Greerton)

Although the section used by passenger trains itself is underground, the depot is not. It is located on a previously empty lot on 17th Avenue, just down from Tauranga Hospital and opposite the Historic Village. Trains access the depot via the short branch line that starts from the hospital station.

The two Avenues stations need some explanation. Avenues North is located under the Salvation Army op-shop, which is near 5th Avenue. There's a whole are in Tauranga known as 'The Avenues'. It gets its name because the side roads are named '1st Avenue' to '23rd Avenue'. This area spans from Elizabeth Street all the way down to Gate Pa, which is south of the Hospital.

B&G trains run once every 30 minutes in each direction, but only on weekdays and only from 6:30am to 9:00pm.There are plans to launch weekend services on an hourly schedule, but these are yet to be approved. Motive power consists solely of 20 heavily-rebuilt Class 150 Sprinter units that were imported from England. The trains have had their diesel engines removed as part of the conversion to electric power. As the B&G is entirely underground, it can only be electrified on 750 volt DC third-rail. This is the only time a third-rail system has ever been used in New Zealand.

Plans for the extension of the system are already being considered. One proposal is to have the line continue west of Brookfield and out to Bethlehem College, with new stations serving the Bob Owens Retirement Village, Bethlehem Town Centre and Decor Garden World. For reference, D.G.W. is a garden centre.

The long-awaited arrival of a metro system in Tauranga is set to play a big role in the "on-going efforts" to reduce traffic congestion on the city's roads. It should attract railfans from all over the country, and looks set to become a vital part of Tauranga's public transport network for many years to come.