The first station, Expo, opened in 2001. It was extended to Changi Airport station the next year. From 1990 to 1996, the section of the North South line between Jurong East and Choa Chu Kang stations was operated as a separate line, known as the Branch line. It was merged into the North South line with the opening of the Woodlands Extension in 1996. The future Jurong Region line and Cross Island line will also have branch lines. Australasia New Zealand New Zealand once had a very extensive network of branch lines, especially in the South Island regions of Canterbury, Otago, and Southland. Many were built in the late 19th century to open up inland regions for farming and other economic activities. The branches in the South Island regions were often general-purpose lines that carried predominantly agricultural traffic, but lines elsewhere were often built to serve a specific resource: on the West Coast, an extensive network of branch lines was built in rugged terrain to serve coal mines, while in the central North Island and the Bay of Plenty Region, lines were built inland to provide rail access to large logging operations. Today, many of the branch lines have been closed, including almost all of the general-purpose country lines. Those that remain serve ports or industries far from main lines such as coal mines, logging operations, large dairying factories, and steelworks. In Auckland and Wellington, two branch lines in each city exist solely for commuter passenger trains. For more, see the list of New Zealand railway lines. References Railway line types