Onehunga Branch

Onehunga Branch
ADL 810 diesel unit at Onehunga Railway Station, with electrification infrastructure partially installed
Overview
Type	Urban rail
Status	Open
Termini	Penrose Onehunga
Stations	3
Daily ridership	1200/day
Operation
Opened	December 1873 Reopened September 2010
Closed	1973 (for passenger trains) 2006 (for freight trains)
Owner	KiwiRail Network
Operator(s)	Transdev Auckland
Character	Urban
Rolling stock	AM class
Technical
Line length	3.6 km (2.2 mi)
Number of tracks	Single
Track gauge	1,067 mm (3 ft 6 in)
Electrification	25 kV AC
Operating speed	60 km/h (37 mph) maximum
Route map North Auckland Line 00 km Penrose North Auckland Line O'Rorke Rd Maurice Rd Mays Rd 1.95 km Te Papapa Captain Springs Road Church St 3.32 km Onehunga Neilson St 3.20 km State Highway 20 3.41 km Onehunga Wharf

The Onehunga Branch railway line is a section of the Onehunga Line in Auckland, New Zealand. It was constructed by the Auckland Provincial Government and opened from Penrose to Onehunga on 24 December 1873, and extended to Onehunga Wharf on 28 November 1878. It is 3.6 kilometres (2.2 mi) in length and is single-track only.

After being closed to passenger traffic on 19 January 1973 and mothballed in 2007, the line was reopened on 18 September 2010 with regular passenger services beginning on 19 September 2010.

The Onehunga Branch was one of the first government-funded railways in New Zealand. Along with a further 10 km north to Auckland (now part of the North Auckland Line and the Newmarket Line), the Onehunga Branch was the first operating section of the railways in the North Island. Construction had begun in 1865 under the auspices of Auckland's provincial government, to standard gauge, 1,435 mm (4 ft 8 ¹⁄₂ in), but due to a lack of funds and disputes between the government and the contractors building the line, construction stalled two years later. The line featured in Julius Vogel's 1870 Great Public Works programme and construction resumed in 1872, with to New Zealand's new narrow gauge of 1,067 mm (3 ft 6 in). With the dissolution of the provinces of New Zealand, the line was integrated into the state-run system on the creation of the New Zealand Railways Department.

Connecting the Port of Onehunga with Penrose and hence the port of Auckland, the line became a busy link between the two harbours of the rapidly expanding city. Onehunga was a busy port despite its treacherous harbour entrance, and was well served by coastal shipping, some of which plied to New Plymouth. With the completion of the Wellington and Manawatu Railway Company's railway line in 1886, passengers from Auckland to Wellington rode a "Boat Train" from Auckland to Onehunga, connected with a steamer to New Plymouth, then the New Plymouth Express to Wellington. The boat trains ran to the wharf and in 1878 a small station was sited there and remained in use until 1927. By 1897 there were 14 trains daily, both passenger and mixed trains. In 1903 electric trams were introduced between Auckland and Onehunga, running along Manukau Road, resulting in a significant drop in passenger patronage on the branch line. The boat trains finished in the 1920s and the through service from Auckland to Onehunga in 1950, but passenger services from Penrose ran until April 1973. The line then served local industries until it was mothballed. Freight shunts continued to operate as far as Mays Rd until late 2007 and an annual enthusiast excursion with ADL class DMU ran until 2006. Three visits by Silver Fern railcars occurred in 1996, 1999 and 2000. The last steam trains before closure was a series of excursions over Labour Weekend 1993 with a tank engine and carriages from Glenbrook Vintage Railway. J^A 1275 ran shuttle trains with DC 4536 on 18 September 2010 to celebrate the reopening of the line, before regular passenger services commenced the next day.