The railway network between Kawerau and Tauranga is almost back up and running.

Work has been progressing to repair the track near Te Puke following a train derailment in January.

The KiwiRail freight train that carries logs and wood pulp, among other goods, from Murupara and Kawerau to the international port, was derailed on Sunday, January 29, when it tried to cross a flooded section of track near Te Puke.

At the time of the derailment, Kajavala Forestry managing director Jacob Kajavala said 'For this region there will be a slowdown until that rail is back up. How much of a slowdown, we're not quite sure, but it's already slowed down. Everyone is trying to establish timelines as to when it might get going again but it's uncertain right now. It's a very big repair job.” Read more here.

In a statement to SunLive this week, KiwiRail chief operations officer Siva Sivapakkiam says they have made good progress repairing a section of track near Te Puke.

'The derailed wagon have been moved clear of the track, and most of them taken away.

'Our track teams are close to finishing rebuilding more than 500 metres of track, some of which was washed away in the earlier floods.

'We expect to reopen the section of line on Friday evening and log and pulp freight services can resume.”

Siva says further track inspections have also been completed around other rail networks in the North Island following Cyclone Gabrielle.

'We have been able to open most of the North Island rail network.

'On Wednesday, we opened the North Island Main Trunk Line rail line between Palmerston North and Waikanae, allowing freight services to now run between Auckland and Wellington and the Capital Connection (Palmerston North – Wellington passenger train) to resume today.

'The rail line between New Plymouth and Marton is now open and the line between Picton and Christchurch will reopen in the morning.”

Given weather conditions around the top of the South Island, Siva says they will do one final track inspection this morning before our Coastal Pacific scenic train and freight services run.

'An initial look at the Napier – Palmerston North rail line has revealed significant damage between Napier and Clive, due to the massive floods over the last few days.

'This includes substantial damage to a rail bridge, which appears to have lost some of its spans and piers.

'We need water levels in the area to recede more before we can do a detailed inspection, to understand the scale of the damage and time it will take to repair.

'We will do what we can today but expect to really begin the detailed inspection on Friday.”