Any chance they'll open the line again? As picturesque as it is, it's always sad to see tracks with no trains.

Back in 2004 the last industry on the like stopped shipping by rail and pulled up there 8km private siding and then a bridge got washed out shortly afterwards. A few years after that someone stole 400m of rails and due to repeated bridge strikes the two bridges in Edgecumbe have had their girders removed and more recently a road realignment to replace a life expired over bridge over the tracks has severed the line near the end of track in Taneatua.

That said there is a rail bike operation on a section between the next town from Edgecumbe and the old combined road/rail bridge near Taneatua.

The line was never actually finished as it was supposed to go to Gisborne on the East coast but they worked out that the line would never be able to pay its construction costs through the mountains even though on the Gisborne side had passed over the highest point.

The line is still known as the East Coast main Trunk despite the fact that the coastline it runs alongside faces north.

totally would rebuild this line

Every time I see an abandoned track I think of all that wasted effort... :/

Even more the line was never completed in the first place. It is call the East Coast main Trunk yet it runs along the north coast of NZ. It was supposed to reach Gisborne but the section from Taneatua to Motuhora was never completed.