The Taieri Gorge railway offered free seats to Palmerston people for the return journey after the train brought a coach tour group one way from Dunedin to Palmerston.
Mr Anderson was stationmaster at Palmerston from 1981 until 1989.
His position ended when stationmasters and other New Zealand Railways staff at stations between Dunedin and Christchurch were laid off.
Mr Anderson, who still lives in Palmerston, said he was pleased to be travelling on the Seasider on Wednesday, as he was an advocate for passenger trains.
He and his wife, Isobel, managed to get the Southerner stop reinstated at Palmerston as a trial in 1982, after six years with no stops.
Up to 1976, Palmerston had a return commuter railcar service to Dunedin, Monday to Friday, as well as a daily evening railcar to Christchurch and Dunedin.
Mrs Anderson started a petition in 1982 to get the Southerner train to stop in Palmerston.
Several hundred Palmerston and East Otago people signed.
The trial Southerner train stops at Palmerston were scheduled in the New Zealand Railways timetable for three months, Mr Anderson said recently.
The support from Palmerston, East Otago and Central Otago people and from classes at East Otago High School was so good that the Palmerston stop for the express train, which travelled between Christchurch, Dunedin and Invercargill, became permanent.
