The map below draws every government railway line New Zealand has opened since the first train ran at Ferrymead in 1863, and then takes away every one it closed. Scroll and the network grows to its 1953 peak, then shrinks for 60 years, and finally lights up again in the colours of what is left.
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Line geometry comes from OpenStreetMap, including thousands of metres of abandoned formation that volunteers have traced from old maps and aerial photographs. Where a closed line has vanished from the map entirely, the route is drawn through the sites of its former stations. Opening and closing dates come from the published history of each line and were checked one by one. The kilometre counter is the sum of the drawn lines open in each year, so it will differ a little from the Railways Department's own figures, which are shown in the small chart for comparison.