There have been plans for quite some time to add a station between Newmarket and Britomart, to serve the Parnell area and also potentially the university. It hasn’t been a simple process though, with debate between Ontrack, ARTA, Auckland City Council and various local groups over its location. I’m going to wade deeply into that debate!
Effectively, there is disagreement over where the station should go, and whether it should primarily be a local station for the suburb of Parnell or a station that would potentially be useful for university students. The local residents are most keen on it being a local station, and therefore being located near the existing Mainline Steam workshop buildings. In fact, in a presentation to Auckland City Council, a quite elaborate plan was detailed – and I include it below:
Now I agree that this plan potentially has some merit. It would be great for the valley that the train line runs through to be more than just a place for weeds and the storage of rusty old train wagons. The proposal could open up that area and encourage redevelopment. Hopefully it could also do something useful with the sheds that are currently used by Mainline Steam – they could be redeveloped quite nicely in fact.
However, what this proposal would not achieve, is a good form of rail access to the university. At the moment rail access to the university is quite poor, with the hike up from Britomart discouraging many people from using the train. If the station was located further down the hill towards university, then there is plenty of potential for it to act as a university station. Something like the following:
A covered pedestrian brige linking the station with Alten Road, and the university, would be critical to ensure the success of such a station. Considering that university students are high-users of public transport, such a station could become enormously popular. It could also take some pressure off currently overcrowded bus routes (like New North Road) as well as Britomart station.
There is some mention of this in the Universities Travel Plan, so it’ll be interesting if it does happen:
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I like the detailed plan for the Parnell Suburb area. This will provide better access to the Auckland Musuem and Domain, and better access to Parnell shopping and Cafe area. Although being closer to the uni will incourage students who are high PT users anyways to use the station we should be focusing on incouraging new PT users rather than getting current users to swich between the different transport modes. I believe the Suburb option provides a better link for potential PT users and also for current Senior Gold Card users. It would also tidy-up the area as you have mentioned.
The extra walk to the university is only 100m so no massive deal. An overbridge/underpass across Stanley St would be a good idea, regardless of where the station is.
Why not both..? Would the increased costs and travel times be that much..?
Apparently another problem with the station further up the hill is that it’s on quite a slope. So getting the trains started when fully loaded on a hill might be a challenge.
The area down by Parnell Rise is flatter.
To me, the difference is between a station that will have probably just a few hundred users each day (there is a link bus service going down Parnell Road already that provides excellent linkages between Parnell & the CBD) and one that could rival Newmarket as the second busiest on the network due to all the uni students using it. It’s a no-brainer decision in my opinion.
Site the station to give the students the best access possible to the Uni. A fully covered walkway between the station and the uni would be necessary to make it attractive.
First, comments about the pictured location.
The walk to the War Memorial Museum might have issues. It’s quite a steep hike through the bush, and doesn’t currently feel “safe” for many. They’d have to do something to change that (it might be possible)
The university walk is similar. Few university students used the old station – the hill was a bit off an offputter, and distance/isolation was also enough to lessen it’s use. These arelikely to be issues here, but can be minimised. As a large number of students are leaving campus after dark, there will be a good percentage who will not feel safe walking along behind Carlaw Park. This should be addressed, I think that it’s a priority.
I think that putting a large, well lit, attractive walkway, with good line of sight (so you’re not in an isolated tree covered corner) and strong ‘flows’ that lead pedestrians to their destination will be crucial. Cut down a few trees if we have to.
Looking at Google Maps, selecting for ‘terrain’, I think that there’s a much better case for putting a pedestrian bridge to the Museum, as one of the city’s major tourist attractions (currently only available with a tourist bus or a hike from the city/Newmarket/Parnell).
Whatever the case, there will be issues that can’t be resolved, but the benefits firmly outweigh the negative.
There is already OK access to the Museum from the Grafton station that is currently under construction. I suspect that would be the main way of accessing the Domain and Museum. Leave the Parnell station to serve the university I reckon.
Do you have a link to the plans for the Grafton Station..?
Now you have pointed out Grafton, it make sense for it to be lower. It would also serve the new development at Carlaw Park really well and wouldn’t need to serve the domain and museum. However I can’t see any major issues with the slope, just a little extra cash to spend on earthworks and it should be ok. It would be good to see the plans for Grafton if you have a link.
Grafton station information here: http://www.projectdart.org.nz/upimg/newmarket/traffic%20management/kpprstages.pdf
And here: http://www.projectdart.org.nz/?s1=Contractor&s2=Newmarket%20Traffic%20Management
Which one is it..? One has it under SH1 and the other under Park Rd..? I wondered why they were building the gully so wide through there… It’ll have to have great ped access and good lighting to be successful methinks…
Sorry the one under the motorway is the old Boston Road station. The one under Park Road is the new Grafton station. It hasn’t shifted by very much – but it will be closer to the Domain, Hospital and Museum.
I always thought tourists must have found it hilarious that we a train station right outside a prison…
“Hey look, not only do they have a prison a few minutes from the CBD but it looks like they are trying to make it real easy to escape..!”