page_title: Morrinsville
section_title: Railway
hierarchical_section_title: Morrinsville / Transportation / Railway
caption_attribution_description: English: tickets sales 1885-1950 - derived from annual returns to Parliament of "Statement of Revenue for each Station for the Year ended"
context_page_description: Morrinsville is a provincial town in the Waikato region of New Zealand's North Island, with a population of approximately 7,000 in the 2013 Census. The town is located at the northern base of the Pakaroa Range, and on the south-western fringe of the Hauraki Plains. Morrinsville is around 33 kilometres east of Hamilton and 22 kilometres west of Te Aroha. The town is bordered by the Piako River to the east and the Waitakaruru Stream to the south.
context_section_description: Historically, Morrinsville was the railway junction of the Auckland–Thames and Auckland–Rotorua lines, which subsequently became the Thames Branch and the East Coast Main Trunk Railway (Tauranga) lines.  Morrinsville Railway Station was opened on 1 October 1884, to the east off Studholme Street, at the junction of the two lines. A footbridge over the track was opened in 1913, connecting the station with the town from the end of Canada Street. The station was described as consisting of "two asphalt passenger platforms, and the station buildings contain a ladies' waiting room, a large general waiting room, a post office lobby with post and telegraph offices, a ticket office, and offices for the Inspector of Permanent Way. There are also large goods and engine sheds, and cattle loading yards. Five workmen's cottages adjoin the station, and the Bank of New Zealand Estates Company has a large building connected with the siding for seed-cleaning and storage purposes." The station was moved about ¹⁄₄ mile (0.40 km) towards Hamilton in 1923. The original station building was demolished in 1984 and a smaller building was erected approximately 300 metres to the west off Marshall Street, which is still used by KiwiRail for freight services.
  Passenger services are no longer provided to or from Morrinsville Railway Station.  The Thames Branch closed on 28 June 1991 and the track subsequently lifted, although in 2004 a short shunt line – the Waitoa Industrial Line – reopened to facilitate freight trains for the Waitoa Dairy Factory. The East Coast Main Trunk Railway provided passenger services between Auckland and Rotorua – the Geyserland Express – and Auckland and Tauranga - the Kaimai Express; however, in 2001 it was announced that these services were too uneconomic to continue, and the last trains ran on 7 October 2001.
  Passenger traffic reached a peak in 1944, as shown in this table and the graph -
caption: tickets sales 1885-1950 - derived from annual returns to Parliament of "Statement of Revenue for each Station for the Year ended"
exif: {"Image PhotometricInterpretation": "2", "Image Orientation": "Horizontal (normal)", "Image ResolutionUnit": "Pixels/Inch", "Image ExifOffset": "62", "EXIF ColorSpace": "sRGB", "EXIF ExifImageWidth": "693", "EXIF ExifImageLength": "390"}