Marton – New Plymouth Line

The Marton–New Plymouth Line (MNPL) is a secondary main line railway in the North Island of New Zealand that links the Taranaki and Manawatu-Wanganui regions. It branches from the North Island Main Trunk Railway (NIMT) at Marton and runs near the South Taranaki Bight of the west coast before turning inland, meeting the Stratford–Okahukura Line (SOL) at Stratford and running to New Plymouth. Construction of the line was completed in 1885, and along with the SOL it provided an alternate route to the NIMT from the SOL's completion in 1933 until the latter was mothballed in 2010. In its early days it was plied by the North Island's first regional express, the New Plymouth Express, but it has been freight only since the cancellation of the last passenger services in 1977.

Construction of the line commenced in the mid-1870s from both the southern and northern ends. The line was completed when the two ends met between Hawera and Manutahi in 1885.

The southern portion of the line was conceived as part of the Foxton and Wanganui Railway, which was intended to link the two ports of Foxton and Wanganui with hinterland settlements such as Marton and New Plymouth, and form the first portion of a trunk route between Wellington and Taranaki. A tramway had originally been considered for the Rangitikei District, but this plan was abandoned in 1872 and surveys for a railway undertaken in 1873. Contracts were awarded the next year for construction, but mass sickness caused work to slow in 1875 and the collapse of a girder during the construction of a bridge over the Whanganui River in 1876 compounded the delays.

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