On the weekend I finally got around to visiting the newly opened Avondale train station. The station is fairly simple, but I suppose that’s all that could be really expected as it’s not a major interchange station like New Lynn or Newmarket. The main gain from the new station is its location – far far closer to Avondale town centre than the previous station.
Here’s what it looks like from Crayford Street East:
I took my Dad along with me for a bit of a “tiki-tour” of upgraded Auckland train stations and his first response was “where’s the shelter?” I would agree with that, and it seems very odd that the shelter are so, well, tiny.
The next photo looks at the tracks as they head towards the city. A new automatic pedestrian gate is located there, which is good for safety although an overbridge would have been better:
The platforms are pretty damn long, which is good – definitely long enough for 6 car trains – potentially long enough for 8 car trains?
Quite amazingly (considering the western line’s shocking hourly frequencies on weekends) we even managed to see a train arrive and depart whilst at the station – which only seemed to reinforce the huge length of the platforms and the tiny shelters:
Overall, the station is certainly a vast improvement on what we used to have and its location is much much better in terms of its proximity to the Avondale town centre. I just wouldn’t really look forward to standing in the rain on a cold winter’s morning waiting for my train.
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The station is fairly simple as you say but the shelters aren’t any different from most of the network (well the parts that have been upgraded anyway). The pedestrian gates should work fairly well, they certainly do at Sturges Rd. One of the things I do like about the upgraded stations is the light poles that also act to make the station more visible and can have flags attached to them (like in these pics), I’m just surprised that ARTA don’t use them more often. As for the length, it seems about similar to most new stations so it is probably 140m or 150m long, still only a fraction of what New Lynn will be when it is fully opened at probably close to 250m.
The shelters themselves are I thought reasonably large, certainly they are tiney when compared to the entire platform! but now that we have this basis it’ll be easy for them to be expanded and hopefully a pedestrian bridge added when more money comes onstream.
Yeah surely it wouldn’t cost too much to simply extend them further and further along the platforms.
Hopefully the ridership will justify the council investing in a couple more shelters soon…
I met an Australian train mechanic recently who told me that OnTrack had simply lifted Melbourne train platform plans for the new stations. They didn’t bother to adapt the design to NZ weather (much rain here compared to Melbourne) and lenghten the shelters. They literaly just copied and pasted the designs. I don’t know if that’s true, but it certainly wouldn’t surprise me.
I was under the impresion that they were designed locally by Warren and Mahoney or someone similar. Melbourne is a lot colder than Auckland in winter so it mustn’t be a plesent experience waiting for a train there either.
Like most things this comes back to budgets. I remember processing the outline plan for Ellerslie Station and brought up the issue of limited shelters. I was basically told its wasn’t any of my business i.e. we should put all out faith in ARTA to design the best stations. Yeah right!
Correction it was Jasmax that designed the generic designs for the train station shelters.
rtc, Melbourne stations tend to have quite a lot of shelter and often they have a completely enclosed waiting room. As a rule you are sheltered from the station entrance to the platform edge. My main gripe with Melbourne stations is they don’t provide much respite from the heat. Sure airconditioned waiting rooms are a big ask, but when it’s 40 degrees outside you start to think it’s essential.
Kinda silly how Auckland designs have far less platform coverage and no cover around the entrances and stairs, considering it rains far more often in Auckland.
I’m only 2 years behind the times! Finally went through this “new” station today thanks to my Day Rover card.