OK I have to say that I do love doing this, pontificating about what Auckland’s railway system might look like in the future. A few posts back I wrote in quite detail why I thought Auckland’s railway system has a bright future, and how that would absolutely result in a need for future expansion of the system, particularly through building the CBD Rail Loop. I’ve put together a few images to more clearly show how I think Auckland’s rail system could/should develop over the next 15 years. This post will be part 1 of that process, which details the current system and also improvements to it that are already under construction, or are due to have construction begin in the near future. There is probably about 10 billion worth of work to be done in order to complete the whole system, but it’s easy to think that if we don’t embark upon at least some of the extensions I propose, we’re really going to be up shit creek without a paddle in a few years time when high oil prices REALLY start to bite.
OK for a start, let’s have a look at the current system:
The Green Line is the Western Line, which has been around in some form or another since the 1880s, but has been pretty rubbish for most of that time. Only in the last few years has the line actually been double-tracked. This project is ongoing, with the last couple of bits (between Newmarket and Boston Road, and between Avondale and New Lynn) due for completion some time in the next couple of years. Once it’s been fully double-tracked, the Western Line will be able to run a train every 10 minutes each way at peak hour.
The Red Line is the Southern Line. Between Westfield and Newmarket it runs on its own, otherwise it doubles up with either the Western Line or the Eastern Line. I haven’t really used this line particularly much, but apparently there’s pretty strong demand from its more southern parts (Ellerslie and then stations south of Papatoetoe). The line is double-tracked throughout, while the current Newmarket station upgrade is going to ease congestion through that junction on the network. The Onehunga branch (which will be talked about reasonably soon) will link in with this line.
The Yellow Line is the Eastern Line. I think this was built significantly more recently than the Southern and Western Lines, at least originally. It is a bit of a higher standard than those, with most crossings grade-separated. Whilst some stations such as Orakei and Meadowbank aren’t particularly well located, others such as Glen Innes, Panmure and the new station at Sylvia Park are very busy apparently. South of Westfield it shares with the Southern Line. I think the main development proposed with regards to this line is the Manukau spur, which would possibly form a future terminus for this line (meaning that all trains that continue south of Manukau City would come through Newmarket, which has debatable merits). Manukau City Council hate public transport with a passion, and are doing everything they can to make the Manukau spur a failure. It might be complete around 2011.
OK, the next imagine is a “near future” snapshot of Auckland’s rail system. By near future I probably do mean 2011, as nothing ever particularly happens quickly here.
There are only really two main changes here. The Onehunga Branch is supposed to be opening some time next year I think, which should be a pretty big boost to that suburb. The railway line had been sitting there abandoned for a heck of a long time, until a good amount of pressure was put on various politicians to open this line up again. I can’t imagine it’s going to be serviced particularly much, due to rolling stock shortages, but perhaps a few peak hour services and hourly off-peak services is realistic?
The other change is the Manukau Spur. This is a pretty important link in my opinion, as Manukau City is the centre of one of the largest “cities” in New Zealand, and certainly one of the fastest growing. Whilst the ‘city centre’ remains basically a mall and a carpark at the moment, there have been a few apartment buildings constructed here in recent years, and it’s certainly a pretty major centre in terms of offices as well. Current plans for the Manukau spur (which may or may not be under construction in conjunction with the motorway development going on down there, it’s hard to find out any information about it) unfortunately only show it linking with the main line in a northwards direction, meaning it’s utterly useless for people living south of Manukau wanting to catch a train there. Once again, a pretty stupid decision as I imagine there are a lot of people who live in Papakura, Manurewa & Homai who may want to catch a train to Manukau when they do their shopping (or if they work there). When one considers that Manukau is a predominantly business area, and therefore is likely to be more of an endpoint for journeys than a start-point, it does seem stupid that it can only be an endpoint for journeys starting to the north of it. The other annoying thing about the Manukau spur is that the City Council (who seriously hate anything but cars, I’m not joking here) has refused to spend any money on the line to bring it closer into the actual shopping area. Instead, the proposed railway station is now a reasonable walk from anywhere particularly useful, and is located in a park. Not quite the safest location in a part of Auckland not exactly known for its lack of crime.
Well anyway, I have heard plans that the Eastern Line would start at Manukau, while all other stations south of Manukau would be served by the Southern Line. This does seem a little strange, but once again seems to result from not having a south-facing link. Stations south of Manukau (Homai, Manurewa, Te Mahia, Takanini, Papakura & Pukekohe) represent a pretty significant chunk of users of the railway system – particularly from Manurewa and Papakura, where good transport interchanges with park n ride facilities now exist. These station are current served by both the Southern and the Eastern Lines, which provides pretty good frequencies at peak hour. For those frequencies to be at least maintained (they will need to be improved over time actually), you’re going to need a heck of a lot of trains running on the southern line alone. I think the real solution is to have Manukau City operate as the spur it’s supposed to be, with links to both the north and south. Apart for express trains, every train would make a slight detour into Manukau City, whether it came from the north or the south. This would provide a much improved situation I think.
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