It has been over a month since I last visited New Lynn station – to attend the rail-trench opening. In that time a significant amount of progress seems to have been made on constructing the above ground part of the station. Even approaching the station from quite a distance you can see what a landmark structure it will be:
By pure coincidence, just as I arrived to take some photos, a westbound train was just leaving the station (quite a coincidence indeed as train only run hourly on the Western Line on Sundays for some bizarre reason). It’s great having the train now down in the trench and not having the tracks cut New Lynn in two:
Once you get a bit closer to the new station area it starts to become clear that what is being created here is going to be simply fantastic. This is not just another typical suburban station, but a station fitting of New Lynn’s status as a major development node. There is so much potential for New Lynn to become a truly fantastic area over the next 10-20 years.
Down at platform level, it is easy to see what has been completed and what remains to be completed. The second track will be layed around Queens Birthday Weekend apparently, and after that the Western Line will have been double-tracked in its entirety. The next two photos give an idea of what is done and what needs to be done:
Looking back the other way, once the station is completed the platform will be extended to take fairly long trains (potentially up to eight carriages I think). 
Overall I find this project one of the most exciting out of all parts of Project DART. While in some respects it is just an upgraded station in a trench, in other ways it is putting rail at the core of a whole revitalisation and redevelopment of New Lynn. It is likely that New Lynn will become our first true transit-oriented development. Finally some good integration between land-use planning and transportation planning!
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totally agree with the above in terms of infrastructure and future potential
but getting people to and out of train stations will not be enough
for example there needs to be good feeder buses or connection to areas around it
else no point, one thing might happen, parking companies will be interested
Its certainly going to be one of the best stations on the network, it will look really impressive when its all done. For me I’m really looking forward to the double tracking being finished and the service improvements that will bring. Since the trench was opened I think most of the work has focused on the above ground stuff.
Pradeep – have a look at Google maps, there is a large bus interchange station right next to the train station so there are definitely good links for feeder buses(although I believe this will be moved to surround the train station when the development is completed) also next to the train and bus station is Lynnmall and number of other shops are close by. In all reality New Lynn is probably the 3rd best area in Auckland for transport following the CBD and Newmarket, in some ways it is even better as the station is right in the middle of the town with plenty places that have the potential for great development
http://maps.google.co.nz/maps?f=q&source=s_q&hl=en&geocode=&q=new+lynn&sll=-36.908785,174.685278&sspn=0.003341,0.008256&ie=UTF8&hq=&hnear=New+Lynn,+Auckland&ll=-36.909122,174.684253&spn=0.001724,0.004128&t=h&z=19
Yes Matt, the old bus centre is to be retired and ripped out, and the rail station will also be the bus terminal with bus stops encircling it. Waitakare City has begun a complete urban regeneration of New Lynn centred on this TOD. Check out their web site – http://www.waitakere.govt.nz/Abtcit/cp/newlynn.asp#future – and the awesome video at the bottom.
That video show some almighty massive intersections around the station. Why is NZ so obsessed with over-engineering these intersections, smaller narrow intersections would make people more likely to travel at safe speeds and be more aware of their surroundings, the planned ones here are just going to result in a de fact motorway through ‘downtown’ New Lynn.
The more pedestrian friendly memorial drive looks set to become a lot busier as well with what appears to be a new 4 lane connection from Clark street. Is this sort of new road infrastructure really necessary? Why not use this space for more pedestrian areas?
It’s great that this development is going on but it still feels to me like it’s being counterbalanced by a massive amount of new and expanded roading.
RTC – I think that is one of the only ways we will get these sorts of projects in the future, this was sold on how much it would benefit cars rather than the trains.
Hm. That video, while impressive on a CGI level, has now lowered my expectations as to what New Lynn will be like when done.
The station is a small island surrounded by a sea of asphalt.
“else no point, one thing might happen, parking companies will be interested”
Not sure about the parking situation around New Lynn, but if people drive and then take the train, it is still better than if they just drive to Auckland City…
“The station is a small island surrounded by a sea of asphalt.”
You are echoing my words from half a year back pretty much exactly. While the footpaths are likely to be wide enough to work in practice, the FEEL of the area around the station will not necessarily be very pleasant for pedestrians. At least roads can be narrowed (i.e. public spaces clawed back from the traffic lanes) relatively easily in teh future once people come to their senses.
In the main the WCC has done a great plan for New Lynn in the future… The “quarters” look to be well planned and intensified on what is current within easy walking distance of the station…
I’ve been walking around New Lynn for the past year or so, watching the development grow. As seems usual for Auckland, there has been little public information provided as to what is proposed although WCC did install a model of the development in the local library (along with a copy of the development proposal) so it has been possible to see what is intended in a very general sort of way; there has been, however, absolutely no readily available information from ARTA; the design of the station and the nature of the bus connections remain occluded. However what is telling is that detail that Andrew has picked up on: ‘the station is a small island surrounded by a sea of asphalt’. The whole design basically marginalises pedestrians: to catch a bus or a train you’re going to have to wait your turn with the car; the design suggests that the station will be surrounded by a maelstrom of vehicles (cars, buses, etc) because the planners have decided to try and decongestionise Clark Street (filled with the spill-off from the SH20) by, you guessed it, expanding the roading system with a Clark Street flyover and more connections into the Lynmall parking lots. I remain to be convinced about the effectiveness of the New Lynn plan; it seems to me that it’s failing to address the fundamental issue which is, I’d contend, all about getting people out of their cars.
I thought the idea of the Clark Street flyover was to make traffic generally avoid the New Lynn town centre. Certainly New Lynn feels like a sea of asphalt at the moment around the current bus depot – and it would be good for that to be lessened, not greatened.
What’s going to be done on the site currently used by the bus depot? Who owns the land?
It might not be as bad as it looks, the video was obviously done a while ago as for one thing the panels on the trench walls are completely different. I also think if the bus station part of Totara Ave was made bus only that would make quite a difference. We will just have to wait and see.
Jeremy I agree with you, in general WCC have done a great job with the planning. Lets hope that under the super city the plans aren’t thrown out and are actually followed through.
Also Jarb’s for the second photo you state that trains only run every hour on Sundays, that train is heading west which they don’t do on Sundays yet.
If you look closely at the last few seconds of the video they show two large apartment buildings being built on the site of the current bus depot and almost on top of the bus shelter/train station and that ain’t no bad thing…
New Lynn doesn’t provide park and ride and neither should it if it is to become part of the town centre, so these huge roads are doing nothing but encouraging traffic to pass through the area on the way to/from the city. Seems pretty silly IMO.
Although the panels are different in the station are different in the video, this is a pretty minor feature they weren’t sure about, the roading plans would have been finalised and signed off by the time this video was made so I don’t think we’ll see any differences there.
I’m not sure if that really is the latest road layout. My understanding was that Clark Street would travel through the area where the old Lollipops playland was located, before hooking over the railway line to connect up at the Great North Road/Totara Ave intersection. This will mean that Totara Ave should be pretty quiet, as the traffic will bypass it rather than running through it.
Still concerning about the amount of roadspace there seems to be.
Responding to Matt L;
I’m not from New Lynn so please excuse my ignorance, but how can you say the train station is in the heart of the town center, when the link to google maps shows it is in the middle of a car parking and warehouse district?
http://maps.google.co.nz/maps?f=q&source=s_q&hl=en&geocode=&q=new+lynn&sll=-36.908785,174.685278&sspn=0.003341,0.008256&ie=UTF8&hq=&hnear=New+Lynn,+Auckland&t=h&ll=-36.909532,174.684355&spn=0.005044,0.009087&z=17
HI
i pass by new lynn every day to work on the bus
there are suburbs like glendene, kelston, titirangi not serviced by train and the bus time tables are not in line with trains.
for e.g. in the morning between 8 and 8.20 there are about 5 services to downtown coming from different suburbs
i also see on the bus majority take the bus till city, also i have seen numbers from earlier posts. these people are good potential customers for trains. electrification and double tracking are good steps but we will need feeder services. buses are competing with trains at the moment they should play a supporting role
DC – While it was a fairly generalised statement, part of the problem is that New Lynn doesn’t really have a town centre, which is what the WCC are using the train station as a focal point that gets developed around. In terms of the business areas the station sits in the middle and slightly to the side of them. All major things in New Lynn are only about a 5 minute walk away.
Pradeep – Hopefully they line up the timetables once the construction has been completed.
I spent a lot of time in New Lynn as a kid and it is one of the few places in Auckland where I remember PT being a common part of everyday life…
Great pics. I’m looking forward to visiting Auckland sometime soon to sample all these smart new stations.
Nice looking station. The yellow “W” reinforcing on the front draws the eye.
Questions: Is the station manned during the day? And is is secure during the night? It’d be nice if the station and the trench weren’t covered in ugly tags, but I don’t see how you could stop taggers getting in since the track must descend from street level some how.
Ian – the station won’t be open till September but part of the platforms are open now.
Obi – I’m pretty sure it will be manned as there will also be the bus station there. As for access on the western side it is easy to fence off all the way to the Titirangi overbridge, on the eastern side the trench reaches ground level right at the level crossing of Portage Rd so it is pretty easy to get in from that side. It would surely be pretty easy to put some sensors on some of the concrete cross beams to detect people in the trench. Also the platform itself is in the middle of the trench and those walls are covered in graffiti guard.
dc – now, at the moment, it sits to the south of the town centre. But there are plans to have lots of medium and potentially high-density growth (with less parking requirements per units than usual), occuring to the south of the rail line, in the warehousing area you pointed out.
Yes that southern side of the tracks at New Lynn is likely to have massive intensification over the next 10-20 years. There are already a couple of fairly large apartment blocks there. The former quarry site is a huge redevelopment site.
Just saw the video. With all that PT development, I hope they make the area more cyclist friendly. Allow people from the surrounding houses (5-10 minutes away by bike) to cycle to the train station. That way it’s not just the 200 people living in the apartments above the train station using the train. They have a big bike rack shown, but it looks like a difficult area to navigate by push bike. Public transport and bicycles. The two go hand in hand. I imagine a lot of people living in this area maybe can’t be bothered to cycle, but if you want this area to grow and thrive, attracting the people who do will be very important. To me that’s just naturally a part of being a “world class” town centre.