Lyttelton Rail Tunnel |Heathcote portal of Lyttelton railway
tunnel.| |Line||Main South Line| |Location||Christchurch, New
Zealand| |Opened||9 December 1867| |Line length||2.595
kilometres (1.612 mi)| |Track gauge||1,600 mm (5 ft 3 in) (1863
- 1876) 1,067 mm (3 ft 6 in) (1876 - present) |Electrified||1500
V overhead (1929 - 1970)| The Lyttelton Rail Tunnel, initially
called the Moorhouse Tunnel, links the city of Christchurch with
the port of Lyttelton in the Canterbury region of New Zealand’s
South Island. It is the country’s oldest operational rail
tunnel, and is on one of the first railway lines in the
district. On completion in 1867 it became the first tunnel in
the world to be taken through the side of an extinct volcano,
and at 2.7 km, the longest in the country. Its opening made the
Ferrymead Railway, New Zealand's first public railway line,
obsolete. Canterbury’s first settlers had two options for
transporting themselves and their goods between the harbour at
Lyttelton and the Canterbury plains: the B