Ellerslie Railway Station

Ellerslie Railway Station serves the Southern Line and Onehunga Line of the Auckland railway network in New Zealand. It has an island platform.

Access to the station at the northern end is by a ramp down from the footbridge crossing the SH1 Southern Motorway between Main Highway, Ellerslie and Kalmia Street. At the southern end of the station there is an underpass between Findlay Street and Sultan Street.

In December 1873 a railway line between Auckland and Onehunga via Newmarket, Ellerslie and Penrose was opened with great public celebration. The line through Ellerslie subsequently became part of the North Island Main Trunk and later the North Auckland Line, with the branch line from Penrose to Onehunga becoming the Onehunga Branch. The station at Ellerslie was initially between the railway bridges, with the main road running directly through the village and intersecting the line at a level crossing. By 1874 residents became concerned at a number of accidents that had occurred at the crossing and successfully lobbied for relocation of the station to the opposite side of the road, requiring realignment of the road to its present route. The railway encouraged suburban settlement and allowed a daily delivery of letters to the station until the opening of a post office in 1911 and also provided a telegraph office.

From its opening the station was extremely busy with passengers and goods travelling to the port of Onehunga, visitors to the racecourse and gardens, and racehorses travelling from around New Zealand to compete at Ellerslie racecourse. Four or five sidings were constructed specifically for horse boxes and hundreds of residents often gathered to witness their arrival and unloading. The station has had a variety of footbridges, one of which was involved in a 1943 derailment where the train's engine caused the bridge to collapse after striking the supports.