#5636
New Zealand AK class carriage
🇳🇿 New Zealand ·built by Hillside Engineering· from 2011· class of train used by KiwiRail
_(cropped).jpg)
2 photos from Wikimedia Commons · credits & licences
- 1. Coastal Pacific 01: Matthew25187 ( talk )· CC BY-SA 3.0
- 2. TransAlpine 2 (31558429492) (cropped): Tony Hisgett from Birmingham, UK· CC BY 2.0
what is it?
The New Zealand AK class carriage is a class of 17 cars built by Dunedin's Hillside Workshops for KiwiRail's long-distance passenger operation The Great Journeys of New Zealand. The class consists of 11 AK saloon carriages, three AKP Scenic Plus carriages and four AKC café carriages, supplemented by three AKL luggage vans and four AKV open-air viewing/generator vans converted from AG vans, similar to those previously used on the Coastal Pacific and the TranzAlpine. The AK class are the first new carriages to be built in New Zealand since 1943.
who runs it
base stats
Bars compare against all trains: 600 km/h (maglev), 1,700 seats; power, weight and number built on a log scale up to 20 MW, 1,000 t and 20,000 built.
fun facts
- First built 15 years ago, in 2011.
- Weighs about as much as 6 African elephants (~6 t each).
- 20.4 m long: about 5 cars parked nose to tail.
carriage / wagon: Unpowered passenger coaches or freight wagons, pulled by a locomotive.
spec sheet
- built
- 2011
- in service from
- 2011
- number built
- 17
- kind
- carriage / wagon
- origin
- 🇳🇿 New Zealand
- builders
- Hillside Engineering
- operators
- The Great Journeys of New Zealand, KiwiRail Scenic Journeys
- top speed
- —
- power
- —
- gauge
- 1,067 mm Cape gauge
- length
- 20.4 m
- weight
- 37.4 t
- capacity
- 63 passengers
From the Wikipedia infobox and Wikidata. Blank means the sources don't say.
Sources: Wikidata Q7015181, Wikipedia: New Zealand AK class carriage (CC BY-SA 4.0).Updated 2026-10-25.