Newmarket station has been under construction for a long time now, and quite excitingly we’re getting very close to the final result – with opening day only a couple of months away in earlyish January. I have glimpsed the station from the train as it has been under construction over the past year or two, and I have also seen a lot of photos that other people have taken, but until last weekend I hadn’t actually seen it ‘up close’ in person before. It was certainly worth going to have a look, as now I really do feel like I have a pretty good idea about how it’s going to be once it opens, and how the station is going to integrate with the surrounding parts of Newmarket.
The first photo looks at the station from where Remuera Road crosses over the train tracks. What we are mainly looking at is the elevated pedestrian walkway that will link Remuera Road with the main station (visible in the left background part of the photo). This is the most visible entrance to the station from the surrounding street network, although I don’t really think of it as the ‘main entrance’.
The next photo below shows the station name at the Remuera Road entrance. It should be a fairly high profile station, and will hopefully attract quite a lot of additional train riders.
The next photo is taken from within “station square”, a fairly nice (but unfortunately quite well hidden) public space behind the main shopping strip off Broadway. It looks towards what is probably the station’s main entrance. I do have concerns about how this area isn’t particularly visible from the street, but hopefully over time that will be fixed (somehow).
The next photo is another one of station square. As I said before, I think they’ve done this public plaza quite well (although it’s very quiet and rather soulless at the moment, hopefully that’ll change once the station opens) – it just really needs better and more obvious linkages with the surrounding street network.
The next photo looks down into the station, from station square. We begin to get an idea about how ‘grand’ this station is going to be. It’s pretty fantastic for a piece of public transport infrastructure in Auckland actually – hopefully another step in getting rid of the neglected feeling that our rail network used to have (and still has to some extent).
The next photo is from the same spot, but looks back to the right of the previous one. Those escalators are pretty long by New Zealand standards I think.
And finally, we get an idea about what the real problem is for station square – the narrow and very easy to miss link between it and Broadway. This photo is taken from within station square looking towards Broadway. Council really needs to find a way to improve the linkage – otherwise I am worried that the area might not be perceived as very safe, and that’s the last thing we want after spending a pretty significant amount of money on this impressive station.
All in all, I must say I am quite impressed by the Newmarket station and I very much look forward to it opening in a couple of months’ time. I do hope that the station brings a vibrancy to the station square area, and that something is done to improve its connectivity with Broadway. There’s a lot of potential here.
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Very impressive, roll n the completion of New Lynn and Avondale.
That alleyway needs lighting and signage, and possibly more space – ideally they should requisition the walls of the buildings on either side, or even the buildings themselves for partial demolition (I’m not sure how possible this is, obviously).
Hopefully they build something similar at Mt Albert in future…
I don’t think we can really ever hope for anything quite so flash at Mt Albert – as it’s not the kind of “CBD minor” that Newmarket is.
However, I agree that Mt Albert has good potential for a complete revamp – which I think should involve a concourse level above the platforms and a row of shops running behind the current row, opening out onto some kind of lane linking up the station with the new shops.
Why don’t they just cover up the walkway on the sides so you cant see the adjacent buildings? I guess that would make it look more like a corridor. Would look much better.
Sadly though, our council has the imagination of a 2 year old.. 🙁
A gray Auckland day. At the very least the alley way from Broadway needs to be covered. Nice pics thanks.
Yeah, I was thinking something similar in Mt Albert but smaller… Maybe a prominent concourse to the shops, escalators down from the over bridge and it already has a subterrain crossing…
How easy and obvious will the transfer to the Central Connector be? A seamless and legible transfer would encourage commuters travelling to the Hospital and University to take rail. For major future growth of rail patronage these connections need to be made as simple as possible. I would hope that soon with integrated, smart card ticketing (not snapper), a new zoning system and the implementation of PTMA powers these short transfers should be at no extra cost.
There was a Mt Albert station study done about 4/5 years ago which had some interesting ideas about the redevelopment possibilties of the station area, especially that row of shops on the northern side.
It improved the connections to the station, got rid of the awful pedestrian tunnel and provided some structure planning for future intensification.
The picture of the alleyway is interesting, I’d agree that it needs to be covered and should ideally appear than some more than “an alleyway” from the street. I see some potential for a retailer/landlord to gain by opening the building onto the alleyway and square and also allowing more throughspace to capture sales from the passing pedestrians. Perhaps a business like a takeout coffee bar or magazine stall that wouldn’t need all of the groundfloor retail space to operate. What is the grey hi-rise on the right hand side of the photo of the entrance and square? Maybe that could open onto the square too? The square itself seems a bit bare at the moment too, it desperately needs some greenery.
In Taipei, Taiwan I heard an interesting story (which may be apocryphal) about the value of transit/subway stations to neighbouring businesses: apparently when there was a huge typhoon there in 2001 which flooded the subway system, one of the ways the water got in was through an entrance from a department store basement…one that was not in the original plans, and for which the Transit company had not received any payment for.
In Tokyo a number of the private subway/rail lines are run by conglomerates that also operate huge shoppng malls and department stores at the major stations they own; Tokyu being one of them I can name off-hand.
Certainly I think there is potential for greater co-ordination between KiwiRail/Ontrack and property development. We are starting to see that with the proposed Orakei Point development, and I know there are some plans to develop the air-space above the Newmarket triangle.
I think that Hong Kong’s metro system manages to be one of the few in the world that operates without any form of subsidy – largely because they make a tonne of money from developing huge buildings above their stations. Maybe in the future we could see that happen in Auckland?
Admin what is being proposed for Orakei? Something good I hope.
It does look pretty cool: http://www.orakeipoint.co.nz/
(note the train line on the right hand side of the screen).
It will involve a few hundred people basically living next to a train station – so has the big thumbs up from me.
I’m not happy about space for only three tracks being left, I think that’s really dumb by Kiwirail when considering the carbon and oil situation going forward…
That’s true Jeremy. Space for 4 tracks makes more sense. Furthermore, I think that’s the kind of change that could be argued for in a submission on the proposal’s future plan change.
I’ll keep CBT informed about that process.
Also on Newmarket station, I drove down Broadway today and couldn’t even see the entrance… Weak…
Had to smile when I saw the artists impression. Funny how they always leave out the mud when dealing with tidal mud flats. Yes it looks OK.
Auckland City Council has bought the two buildings to the left of the entrance when facing it from Broadway (to the right in the picture above) and plan to demolish them to open up the entrance. This is still under planning, so can’t give a date as to when they plan to do it.
“L&Y, developers of the apartment block adjacent to the station, have completed their work on the new Station Square and apart from some materials and finishing issues that are being remedied, are ready to hand it over to Council. The two shops required for the enhanced access through to Broadway have been purchased and designs for this access are being worked on at present.”
http://www.aucklandcity.govt.nz/council/members/committeemeetings/city/20090709_0930/CDC-09072009-OPN-AGD-%2317.pdf
Perhaps someone with contacts at the ACC could find out what the plan in more detail.