| Palmerston North | |||||||||||||||||||||
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| Station statistics | |||||||||||||||||||||
| Address | Tremaine Avenue, Palmerston North | ||||||||||||||||||||
| Lines | North Island Main Trunk | ||||||||||||||||||||
| Parking | Yes | ||||||||||||||||||||
| Baggage check | No | ||||||||||||||||||||
| Other information | |||||||||||||||||||||
| Opened | 1876 | ||||||||||||||||||||
| Rebuilt | 1891, 1963 | ||||||||||||||||||||
| Owned by | KiwiRail | ||||||||||||||||||||
| Services | |||||||||||||||||||||
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Palmerston North Railway Station is a station on the North Island Main Trunk serving the city of Palmerston North in the Manawatu-Wanganui region of New Zealand. It is served by the Capital Connection long distance commuter train between Wellington and Palmerston North and the Overlander long distance train between Wellington and Auckland.
The station was opened on 20 October 1876. Traffic increased with the opening of the line to Napier via Woodville in 1891, and the station was moved 30 chains (603m) south in March 1891. But it was still a bottleneck, and remained the longest-persisting bottleneck on the Main Trunk until the 1960s. Changes were recommended by Hiley in 1914, a commission in 1916 and the Fay-Raven commission in 1924-25. Construction of the Milson Deviation to shift the line and station northwest and away from the centre of Palmerston North started in May 1926, but was delayed by the depression and World War II, and objections from the local business quarter. Work by the Public Works Department (PWD) was stopped in 1929 by Minister of Works Ethelbert Ransom and restarted in 1938 by Bob Semple but halted by the war. Finally resumed in 1957 under John McAlpine, the deviation was opened to through goods trains in July 1959. On 21 October 1963 the new station and yards were opened, and all rail traffic removed from the main street and square of Palmerston North. The Awapuni station south of the main station on the old route was also closed..