Palmerston North Central railway station was a station on the

North Island Main Trunk 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 ...

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 ...

and the

Palmerston North–Gisborne Line The Palmerston North–Gisborne Line (PNGL) is a secondary main line railway in the North Island of New Zealand. It branches from the North Island Main Trunk at Palmerston North and runs east through the Manawatū Gorge to Woodville, where i ...

. The station opened in 1876 and closed in 1963.

History

The original station was opened on 20 October 1876, when the Foxton Tramway was reopened as the

Foxton Branch The Foxton Branch was a railway line in New Zealand. It began life as a tramway, reopened as a railway on 27 April 1876, and operated until 18 July 1959. At Himatangi there was a junction with the Sanson Tramway, a line operated by the Manawa ...

, though from 25 July 1873 the Square had been the terminus for the tramway. In 1883 the

Wellington–Manawatu Line The Wellington and Manawatu Line is an unofficial name for the section of New Zealand's North Island Main Trunk Railway between Wellington and Palmerston North. Originally a government project, the line (initially known as the West Coast Railway) ...

south to Wellington opened, increasing traffic. The line was constructed from Wellington to Longburn by the private

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 ...

(W&MR), and initially trains terminated at Longburn, forcing passengers to change trains to NZR services to Palmerston North. Eventually, NZR and W&MR finalised an interchange agreement, allowing W&MR passenger and mail trains to terminate at Palmerston North Central station. A special dock platform at the south of the station was constructed for W&MR trains to Wellington. Traffic increased with the opening of the line to Napier via Woodville in 1891, and the station was moved south in March 1891. But it was still a bottleneck and remained the longest-persisting bottleneck on the Main Trunk until replaced by the new

Palmerston North railway station Palmerston North railway station is a main station on the North Island Main Trunk serving the city of Palmerston North in the Manawatū-Whanganui region of New Zealand. It is the northern terminus of the Capital Connection long distance comm ...

on the Milson Deviation on 21 October 1963. Following the completion of the

in 1908, the government acquired the Wellington and Manawatu Railway Company, and the first

Auckland Auckland (pronounced ) ( mi, Tāmaki Makaurau) is a large metropolitan city in the North Island of New Zealand. The List of New Zealand urban areas by population, most populous urban area in the country and the List of cities in Oceania by po ...

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 ...

through expresses ran on 14 February 1909, taking 19 hours 13 minutes, and stopping at Palmerston North.

References

Citations

Bibliography

* Defunct railway stations in New Zealand Buildings and structures in Palmerston North Railway stations opened in 1876 Railway stations closed in 1963 Rail transport in Manawatū-Whanganui {{NewZealand-railstation-stub