The Murupara Branch is a 57 kilometres (35 mi) long[1] branch railway line from the East Coast Main Trunk (ECMT) at Kawerau to Murupara, built to serve a new pulp and paper mill harvesting the radiata pine trees of the Kaingaroa Forest on the Kaingaroa Plateau in the Bay of Plenty, New Zealand.

The Kawerau to Murupara section required major earthworks to limit the ruling grade against loaded log trains to 1 in 60.

[3] The easy grades between Kawerau and the port of Mt Maunganui allow very long trains of over 2,000 tonnes.

From the 1980s to early 2000s the standard train was a trio of DC class locomotives hauling a gross load of 2,400 tonnes on 53 USL bogie log wagons.

After the opening of the Kaimai Tunnel in 1978 the section to Kawerau from Hawkens Junction was formally incorporated into the East Coast Main Trunk designation, with the line to Taneatua downgraded to branch status.