A joint press release from KiwiRail and ARTA announces that Newmarket station will have its formal opening tomorrow:
Transport Minister opens 21st Century Newmarket Train Station
The Minister of Transport, Steven Joyce, will join an array of Auckland dignitaries including Local Government Minister Rodney Hide and the Mayor of Auckland, John Banks, to officially open a state of the art new Newmarket train station at a special celebration hosted by the Auckland Regional Transport Authority (ARTA) and KiwiRail on Thursday. Customers will begin using the new station from Monday 18th January when train services resume in Auckland after a three week period to enable redevelopment work to occur around the rail network.
ARTA’s Chief Executive, Fergus Gammie said “After Britomart, Newmarket is Auckland’s second busiest rail station. Around 3,500 people catch the train to or from Newmarket on a daily basis; by 2016 it is thought that 17,000 people a day will do so.”
In addition to the new station, KiwiRail has completed a complex new track layout at Newmarket Junction, where the key Southern and Western lines intersect.
The $65 million project included direct connections between Newmarket, the Western Line and Britomart, providing flexibility of services in every direction.
Brand new, insulated rail signals have been installed which are fully enabled for electrification and provide a greater level of reliability at this key junction on Auckland’s rail network.
“This station designed by Opus and constructed by Hawkins Construction and Coffey Group provides a contemporary, safe and aesthetically pleasing environment for customers to enjoy train travel with ease and style,” said Mr Gammie. “The new station is a stark contrast to the facilities the thousands of people visiting Newmarket had to previously endure.
“Customers will now be able to transfer between the Southern and Western lines, and connect to a number of bus services in the local area.
“The station itself is a self-ventilating, light and airy environment. A floating canopy extends over the concourse and lower level canopies create shelter over the platforms. A ticket office where customers can benefit from purchasing multiple-tickets or monthly passes is housed on the concourse and CCTV cameras and help points are situated throughout to ensure the safety of our customers.
“This is truly a station for the twenty-first century.” Mr Gammie said.
“Auckland’s rail renaissance continues to be stimulated by ongoing improvements around the network. Patronage has increased 97% in the last 5 years and over 7.7 million trips were made in the last year alone.
“This year new stations will be delivered at Grafton, New Lynn and Avondale, the upgrade to Kingsland Station will be completed, the Onehungha branch line will be reopened, preparations for electric trains will be undertaken and further timetable improvements will build upon those made in recent years”.
It’s a bit of a pity that the good news of this station opening has been somewhat clouded by the controversy surrounding the missing link between platform 4 and the Western Line. However, overall the Newmarket station is going to be a fantastic addition to Auckland’s rail service, and along with the Newmarket structure plan should hopefully lead to this part of Auckland really booming in the future.
Trains start running next Monday through the station. I will hopefully get there next week to take a look.
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How is the reversing business for the Western Line trains going to work? Will passengers have to wait while the driver closes down his or her cab, walks the length of the train, and opens up the cab at the other end? Or will they have a replacement driver waiting at the right end of the platform, ready to jump in and go after a short delay?
I talked to the manager of Veolia today about that very issue. She said that the trains will have a “pilot” to ensure that the drivers do NOT have to change ends at Bewmarket. Yay!
Thats great news Jarbs
What is a “pilot” in this context?
In this case it will be a driver that operates the train between Britomart and Newmarket from the ‘wrong end’ before hopping out, while the main driver stays in the cab at the ‘right end’ to drive it from the front on the rest of the line.
Presumably the are going to have pilots who shuttle back and forth between Britomart and Newmarket all shift long.
Yup you’re right I think Nick. There definitely won’t be the delays of the old “Newmarket shunt”.
@Nick R – sounds like a system that if one train gets delayed with the pilot on board it could have ramifications for all subsequent Western line trains.
Why did they never think to design and build a station over the triangle?