Murupara Branch

Murupara Branch Kawerau Branch
Overview
Status	Open
Owner	New Zealand Railways Corporation
Termini	Hawkens Junction Kawerau Murupara
Service
Operator(s)	KiwiRail
History
Opened	1955
Technical
Line length	14 km (8.7 mi) 57.65 km (35.82 mi)
Number of tracks	Single
Character	Rural
Track gauge	1,067 mm (3 ft 6 in)
Route map Legend East Coast Main Trunk to Hamilton Taneatua Branch (mothballed) Onepu Spring Road Kawerau SH34 Park Road Lambert Road Matahina Village Road Matahina Village Road Ngamotu Road This diagram: view talk edit

Map

The Murupara Branch is a 57 kilometres (35 mi) long^[1] branch railway line from the East Coast Main Trunk (ECMT) at Kawerau to Murupara, built to serve a new pulp and paper mill harvesting the radiata pine trees of the Kaingaroa Forest on the Kaingaroa Plateau in the Bay of Plenty, New Zealand. The line was the last major extension of the New Zealand Railways Department (NZR) network, of 14 kilometres (8.7 mi) from Hawkens Junction, west of Edgecumbe, to Kawerau and 57 km from Kawerau to Murupara. The portion from Hawkens Junction to Kawerau was known as the Kawerau Branch until 1978, when it became part of the ECMT, and the former ECMT from Hawkens Junction to Taneatua became the Taneatua Branch.^[2]