 The Wellington and Manawatu Railway Company opened a railway line through Johnsonville from Wellington to Porirua in 1885.The railway reached Longburn (south of Palmerston North) in 1886 to connect with the Government's lines to Taranaki and Napier.With the acquisition of the company by the government in 1908, the line to Porirua and northward to Longburn became part of the North Island Main Trunk railway.