On the morning of 1 October 1884 the line was inspected and passed ready for traffic. On 6 October a special train brought the new station master and his family along with other members of the staff to Cambridge and two days later the line was open for traffic.

During the 1920s, motor vehicles started to take over the passenger traffic and the last time-tabled passenger train left Cambridge without ceremony on 9 September 1946. The station building was sold and broken up in 1973 and an overhead crane was erected in its place to handle container traffic from Weddel Crown Aotearoa freezing works in Leamington.

A major user of the branch was the New Zealand Dairy Company factory at Hautapu and in 1999 the line stopped at the factory and the section to Cambridge was ripped up.