After my post the other day, complaining about the lack of progress on building the train station at Onehunga as well as some concerning signs on the ProjectDART website, it seems as though some of my concerns have been alleviated. The ProjectDART website says this:
Work is now well underway on the rehabilitation of the Onehunga Branch Line, which is scheduled to open for passenger rail services in 2010.
Furthermore, I was forwarded an email discussion between ARTA and a concerned local resident, which goes along the following lines:
Resident: will the the Onehunga line be operational by July 2010? I have seen no recent activity on this site for the new station.
ARTA: it is amazing how quickly a station can be built. You will see activity at the other end of the line which is where the project is starting.
Hopefully these are good signs that we will have an operational Onehunga Line by the end of July this year. As the line was originally meant to be open by the end of last year, it would be enormously frustrating if the opening date was pushed back even further.
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I would agree with the speed issue. If they put the required effort in it shouldn’t be a problem, especially seeing as there are no running trains to contend with like is experienced on the rest of the network (just look at how much they get done over the 3 week Christmas shutdown)
The work at the other end of the line (Penrose) is unrelated to the work required to construct Onehunga station. I note the Project DART website section about the branch has been re-written in the last day or so to change “first half of 2011” to “in 2010”. Maybe someone wrote the wrong info when they changed it last week? Still, July 2010 will be a struggle.
Geoff I agree that works at the Penrose end won’t effect the delivery date of this project much: it seems that will be entirely dependent on how quickly the Onehunga station can be built.
I will have much more faith once I see works starting on constructing the Onehunga station.
I agree though that once every planning matter is tied down, a station could be built in, say, 2-3 months.
Just remember how quick they put up the temporary stations at Kingdon Street or in Avondale (and as pointed out, next to a live track). Those were pretty solid works, and would certainly do for Onehunga to start out with.
You don’t want to start off with a placeholder though, you want to start with something thats solid and working, not something that’s “future proofed”
Jeremy, so you would prefer it to go on in planning for a year or two longer, for Joyce to then say “that costs too much” and can it?
I say “rubbish”. A simple station is much better than nothing. This is not the Britomart access tunnel, where decisions haunt us decades later. These are some lengths of platform in a wasteland, with some access paths and two weather shelters. Fancy stuff can come later.
I imagine that whatever we build it will it will need to be replaced in 10-20 years when a line to the airport is built
Interesting ARTA’s statement there. Sounds like Sharon Hunter?
I agree with Max, the reality is we all hope the Airport rail line and/or SAL will be built in the next 20 years, this line will need to be double tracked and the station at the end realigned/rebuilt, so in this instance I am in favour of building the station quickly and cheaply, the main issue is moving the bus depot adjacent and ensuring the line is a success via other measures, this is not happening…
To be honest all they need here is a standard format single platform with decent access to the street and some new bus stops out front.
A concrete platform, standard shelter, lighting, a couple of display boards and it will be as good as any other suburban station. If funding is an issue I would actually prefer they keep the station itself very basic but ensure the accessway to Onehunga Mall and Princes Street was high quality and ‘safe’ and the bus stops are likewise of a high standard.
Jeremy, I believe all buses from south of the harbour must pass in front of the station on their way to the existing bus interchange. This isn’t so bad. For the cross town and terminus routes, the bus interchange is only 250m away on foot, not ideal, but not terrible either.
I agree with Nick R – a humble side platform is all that is required, and be built fast and cheap (and will last the decade of its expected life easily). But the daft idea of building on the old curved ITM site should be dropped, and the platform built along Princes St, starting at Galway St (where the curve into the ITM site starts). This is a straight level section of track for hundreds of metres, and is closest to the DressSmart mall, and just 50-100m from the ITM site. The platform is adjacent to Princes St, which has good footpaths to the shops.
But Nick – the buses only pass the ITM site in 1 direction (northbound to the City). Southbound (to Mangere) buses go from the Bus Depot by the library to Selwyn St southbound SH20 onramp. Not a major though, as you say.