Eskdale railway station
Eskdale railway station | |||||||||||
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Eskdale station in 1924 | |||||||||||
| General information | |||||||||||
| Coordinates | 39°23′20″S 176°49′35″E / 39.388813°S 176.82641°E | ||||||||||
| Elevation | 17 m (56 ft) | ||||||||||
| Owned by | KiwiRail | ||||||||||
| Distance | Palmerston North 197.35 km (122.63 mi) | ||||||||||
| History | |||||||||||
| Opened | 20 July 1923 | ||||||||||
| Closed | 20 June 1988 | ||||||||||
| Services | |||||||||||
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Eskdale railway station served the settlement of Eskdale, New Zealand, on the Napier-Gisborne section of the Palmerston North-Gisborne line, from 1923 to 1988.
After 1988 the line continued to be used by freight trains and excursions, but beyond Wairoa, the section to Gisborne was closed by slips in 2012 and mothballed. The Napier-Wairoa section reopened in 2019 following a $6.2 million investment from the Provincial Growth Fund, though log trains were soon suspended, due to COVID-19, until November 2020. The line was again closed when Cyclone Gabrielle damaged more than 400 sites in February 2023. A decision has not yet (2025) been made on whether to restore or mothball it. The line north of the 191 km post is designated a construction site, requiring permission for access. Kiwirail is protecting the line so that it can be reopened. Almost 7 km (4.3 mi) of track had been removed by 2024, between Mangakopikopiko bridge 219, near the 199 km post, and between SH2 bridge 218A and the 192 km post.