On the weekend I went out to take some photos of New Lynn train station, to see what progress is being made on its redevelopment. One half of the rail trench opened back in March, and since then there has been a lot of additional work on building the other half of the trench, as well as constructing the station building that will sit on top of the trench.
Here are some images from ARTA, which give us some idea of what we’re heading towards with the project:
While I overall really like the proposal, I am a bit concerned that the train station looks a bit like an island surrounded by a sea of large roads. I think some further effort will need to go into ensuring that the station integrates well with the surrounding area. The redevelopment of the current bus terminal land is probably quite a crucial part of that process.
As you can see in the photo below, work on the second half of the trench is progressing well. I think that it’s meant to open to trains in early June:
I’m guessing the tracks will be laid pretty soon!
Outside the trench, the station building itself is really starting to take shape. This is a view of it from the Memorial Ave side, a vaguely similar perspective to the middle picture from the ARTA website:
Wandering around New Lynn is actually a bit of a nightmare at the moment, there are so many roadworks going on. But at the same time it really feels like everything’s starting to come together, and that in the not too distant future the place will be a revolutionised space. Below is another photo of the new station, but this time from the opposite angle – Clark Street.
One thing that I found quite interesting in New Lynn, was that despite the roadworks, Clark Street and that side of the town centre felt much more integrated and connected to the Lynn Mall side. I guess that process will only continue further once the station is completed and all the roadworks are finished off, and is one of the biggest benefits of the New Lynn trench project.
It will be interesting watching the project shift towards completion (September/October for the station & trench) over the next few months. This is a pretty exciting project for Auckland.
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Got to love those chopped up public spaces surrounded on all sides by roads. I was under the impression that the through traffic would be by-passing Totara Av. Do you know what is going on there? If you remember Bob Harvey’s Chinatown- the giant arch was going to go over Totara. Wonder what the plans are for the shops in Totara?
TopCat, yes you are right that there will be bypass that takes through-traffic away from Totara Ave. Not sure exactly when it will be constructed – Waitakere City Council only got the designation in the last few months. The idea is to turn Totara Ave into a pedestrian-oriented main street, which should be good.
I believe that the plan is to continue Clark St through to the childcare (lollipops?) and come out in front of Cambridge Clothing.
Not sure if this will mean the moving of the New Lynn Kindergarten as well.
One side of the station is in need of a shared street, square or similar…
That’s a nice looking station! I like the wide stairway and all the light, including the glass canopy. It’s in a trench but doesn’t feel (from looking at the photos) like it is underground.
Is there wheelchair access? I recall a long debate in a Tube forum many years ago concerning wheelchair access to LU. On one hand, it was going to cost an absolute fortune to provide disabled access to every station because you just can’t bore multiple vertical shafts from platform level to the surface. But on the other hand, disabled people don’t lose their human rights. But on the other other hand, you could provide every disabled person a free taxi for life and it still wouldn’t cost even a fraction of what it would to be configure every station for lifts. But I’d like to think Auckland was providing proper access to new stations.
I think I’ve seen renders of the station with a lift shaft… Maybe I’m confused with Newmarket…
There will be a lift on the western end of the plaform.
“The interchange will accommodate facilities including a waiting area, bike racks, public toilets, cleaner and staff facilities. Access from the interchange to the platform will be possible via stairs, lift or escalators. A second stairway located at the eastern end of the platform connects to Hetana Street.”
http://www.arta.co.nz/home/new_lynn_interchange.html
The must have elevator (or ramp) access to meet accessibility requirements, and reasonable access from any of entrance to the elevator if they don’t all have one.
This means there must be an ‘accessible’ and legible path from Hentana St to the main entrance at street level also (presumably via a pedestrian crossing and footpath)
‘Accessible’ design standards are useful for everyone of course, and they tend to make moving large crowds easier. This sort of thing is particularly handy for anyone with a pram, shopping cart, luggage, bike, small children etc. Of course we must remember everybody starts to become mobility impaired as a natural consequence of aging. Thats a significant issue particularly with the elderly projected to comprise over a quarter of the population by the end of the decade. We can’t give free taxis to a quarter of the population of course.
It might be cheaper to provide (severly) mobility impaired people with free taxis, from a functional perspective at least, but that is the very definition of discrimination. It is hard to retrofit existing infrastructure, but it really isn’t much harder to design new infrastructure so that anyone can use it.
Pretty rough to tell someone they are basically forbidden from every using public transport or whatever because they have difficulty climbing stairs.
I think the taxi comment is referring to refitting existing stations, especially ones that are deep underground. As for New Lynn there are definitely lifts there that will be used once the station is completed (there is a temporary one at the moment but that needs someone to operate it).
Yeah I realise that, I was mostly trying to point out that accessible design (and accessible refits) are of value to a lot more people than just the small bunch of visibly disabled people in wheelchairs.
And of course it’s no good doing just part of the system, all of it really needs to be the same standard. In Melbourne they have about a third of the tram stops built with accessible platforms, while about a half of the tram fleet are new low floor accessible vehicles… but the odds of going from an accessible stop to an accessible stop using an accessible tram are so low the whole system is still inaccessible.
Thanks for the update and pics. I haven’t lived in Auckland for thirty years now, and according to folklore, I should have some sort of irrational dislike of the place but damn it, it is still a great little town and will be all the better for having a decent railway.
I got the assumption that the building was going to be build over top of the station to create an indoor station. But looking at the first diagram, the building and the station platform are seperate. Is this correct and why have they done it this way?
I was trying to figure that out myself Brent. It seems that the above ground part of the station is further west than the main platform – which is really strange.
They may not be able to cover as much as they would like – remember that at the design time, electrification was not a reality, and not even really certain. Plus, of course, the diesel freight trains. So covering too much could have caused an issue, especially with the road overbridge also so close.
I do wonder in the future whether more of the trench will be “cappped”, with KiwiRail selling the air rights perhaps, and we might see buildings developed over the top of the trench. Would help knit together New Lynn even further I reckon.
Totara Ave outside the station building is now permanently closed to private motorists. When it reopens it will be buses and pedestrians only. Totara Ave traffic will now run across the trench over the Memorial Ave extension.
I don’t think there’s any plans to close any other section of Totara Ave. All of the road changes currently in progress are permanent.
I’d like to think they have constructed this in a way that will enable electrification to be installed easily. That was always going to be the end goal.
On this issue, are there any structures at the station that enable electrification to go through while enhancing the design of the station? I have noticed they have done this a Newmarket Station
Admin: “It seems that the above ground part of the station is further west than the main platform – which is really strange.”
The above ground bit is the 4 linked square roofs seen in the top image? If so, it looks more like a bus station with all those red buses around it. Maybe it is primarily for bus passengers but with a stairway leading down to the rail platform?
“I’d like to think they have constructed this in a way that will enable electrification to be installed easily. That was always going to be the end goal.”
I”d be 99% sure. Electrification was very much in the cards at the time the station was designed. Just not CERTAIN.
Yes, New Lynn was designed with electrification in mind.