Muri railway station is a former railway station was on the

North Island Main Trunk Railway The North Island Main Trunk (NIMT) is the main railway line in the North Island of New Zealand, connecting the capital city Wellington with the country's largest city, Auckland. The line is long, built to the New Zealand rail gauge of and ser ...

(NIMT) in

Pukerua Bay Pukerua Bay is a small seaside suburb at the southern end of the Kapiti Coast, New Zealand. In local government terms it is the northernmost suburb of Porirua City, in the Wellington Region. It is 12 km north of the Porirua City Centre on ...

New Zealand New Zealand ( mi, Aotearoa ) is an island country in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. It consists of two main landmasses—the North Island () and the South Island ()—and over 700 smaller islands. It is the sixth-largest island count ...

; part of the

Kapiti Line Metlink's Kapiti Line is the electrified southern portion of the North Island Main Trunk railway between New Zealand's capital city, Wellington, and Waikanae on the Kapiti Coast, operated by Transdev Wellington on behalf of Greater Wellington Re ...

section of the suburban rail network of

Wellington Wellington ( mi, Te Whanganui-a-Tara or ) is the capital city of New Zealand. It is located at the south-western tip of the North Island, between Cook Strait and the Remutaka Range. Wellington is the second-largest city in New Zealand by me ...

. The station was

double track A double-track railway usually involves running one track in each direction, compared to a single-track railway where trains in both directions share the same track. Overview In the earliest days of railways in the United Kingdom, most lin ...

ed with

side platform A side platform (also known as a marginal platform or a single-face platform) is a platform positioned to the side of one or more railway tracks or guideways at a railway station, tram stop, or transitway. A station having dual side platforms ...

s on a straight section between two curves, 31.2 km from

Wellington railway station Wellington railway station, or Wellington Central station, is the main railway station serving Wellington, New Zealand, and is the southern terminus of the North Island Main Trunk, Wairarapa Line and Johnsonville Line. The station opened in ...

, the southern terminus of the NIMT. It was closed in 2011, but Pukerua Bay station remains open.

Services

Muri was served by

commuter trains operated by

Tranz Metro Tranz Metro (formerly Cityrail and before that Cityline) was a Public transport in New Zealand, New Zealand public transport operator. Beginning as the New Zealand Railways Corporation's Cityline division as a result of restructuring in the 198 ...

under the Metlink brand until 2011. Trains running every 30 minutes off-peak, and more frequently during peak periods used to stop in Muri until its closure. The platform and buildings remain in their original state. Commuter trains were operated by

electric multiple unit An electric multiple unit or EMU is a multiple-unit train consisting of self-propelled carriages using electricity as the motive power. An EMU requires no separate locomotive, as electric traction motors are incorporated within one or a numbe ...

s. These were originally DM/D class units, but from the 1980s EM/ET class. Two diesel-hauled carriage trains, the

Capital Connection The Capital Connection is a long-distance commuter train operated by KiwiRail between Palmerston North and the capital city of Wellington on the North Island Main Trunk. In 2018 the service faced funding issues, but the Government ensured that ...

and the

Northern Explorer The ''Northern Explorer'' is a long-distance passenger train operated by The Great Journeys of New Zealand division of KiwiRail between Auckland and Wellington in the North Island of New Zealand, along the North Island Main Trunk (NIMT). Three ...

(previously Overlander), pass through the station but did not stop even when the station was still open. Muri and

Kenepuru Kenepuru is a primarily industrial suburb of the city of Porirua in New Zealand. It lies immediately southwest of the Porirua city centre. Kenepuru Hospital, the main hospital complex for Porirua, is located here. Education Wellington Seventh-d ...

stations had been considered for closure by the

Greater Wellington Regional Council Wellington Regional Council, branded as Greater Wellington Regional Council, is the regional council overseeing the Wellington Region of New Zealand's lower North Island. It is responsible for public transport under the brand Metlink, environ ...

, claiming that both had low usage and would require considerable expenditure to upgrade for the new Matangi units and for safety considerations ($600,000 estimated for Muri).The Dominion Post 28 July 2009 page A5 & Kapi-Mana News 21 July 2009 page 1 Following a sub-committee meeting of the Greater Wellington Regional Council, Muri station was closed on 30 April 2011.

History

The line through Muri was built by the

Wellington and Manawatu Railway Company The Wellington and Manawatu Railway Company (WMR or W&MR) was a private railway company that built, owned and operated the Wellington-Manawatu railway line between Thorndon in Wellington, the capital of New Zealand, and Longburn, near Palmers ...

(WMR), completed to

Longburn Longburn (or Karere) is a rural settlement just outside Palmerston North in the Manawatū-Whanganui area of New Zealand. Made up of large dairy processing plants Longburn is often mistaken to be a small township and not seen as a large satellite t ...

in 1886. During the last stage of finishing the tunnels on the coastal escarpment towards Paekakariki, the last stop coming from Wellington was called Pukerua, near where Muri Station was. There were no roads into the area yet and passengers had to leave the train, climb down to the beach and continue by rail on temporary tracks to Paekakariki. Material for the construction of the railway north of Muri (the North_South Junction) was offloaded from ships anchored off Pukerua Bay into small boats and brought to the beach. From there, a tramway took the rails, sleepers and bricks up to the railway track at Muri. Muri opened on 28 July 1952, 45 chains (905 m) north of

, and was closer to the centre of the population of Pukerua Bay at the time.

References

{{reflist Defunct railway stations in New Zealand Rail transport in Wellington Buildings and structures in Porirua Railway stations opened in 1952 Railway stations closed in 2011

Services

History

See also

References