Kelvin Grove Community Assn. Inc.

The Bay Express

Until it ceased running on 7 October 2001, a regular visitor to Kelvin Grove was the Tranz Scenic passenger train, the Bay Express. It had passed by daily at about 10:30 am, en route from Wellington to Napier, thereafter making the return trip at about 5:00 pm. 

Here the Napier-bound Bay Express emerges from under the Mihaere Drive overbridge, Kelvin Grove, at 10:30 am on Tuesday, 3 July 2001. 

Passenger trains began passing Kelvin Grove in 1876 (en route at that time to Feilding). However, with the exclusion of the Bay Express from the 2001 sale of some of the Tranz Scenic passenger trains (and closure of remaining services), the district lost an old friend - and mobile clock! 

In 2007, the only passenger trains that pass are the occasional excursion train. The only noteworthy train that passes regularly is the Milk Train bound from Oringi in Tararua, to Hawera in Taranaki, carrying milk for Fonterra. 

Last updated: 1 January 2007