Shortly after the nationalisation of the WMR line the Napier Express was diverted from the Wairarapa Line to run through the Manawatu Gorge and down the Manawatu line to Wellington. Thereafter, the main passenger service to stop at Eketahuna was its replacement, the Wairarapa Mail. A new passenger-only service was provided from 1936 with the introduction of the RM class Wairarapa-type railcars, which supplemented and later replaced the Wairarapa Mail in 1948. The Wairarapa railcars were in turn replaced after the opening of the Rimutaka Tunnel in 1955 by the twinset railcars, which provided the main passenger service for Eketahuna for the next 22 years. The railcar timetable of 1959 shows two northbound and two southbound railcar services stopping at Eketahuna each day of the week with a third service on Fridays. During the period in which railcar services were provided through Eketahuna, locomotive-hauled carriage trains were occasionally provided when demand exceeded the capacity of the railcars, but finally replaced railcar services altogether in 1977. The NZR stopped accepting consignments of general freight at or for Ekehahuna on 13 October 1986.