I haven’t seen it confirmed elsewhere yet, but the well informed Auckland Trains blog says that Parnell station – on the site of the Mainline Steam sheds – is to proceed.
Auckland Transport’s CEO David Warburton has confirmed the go-ahead for the planned new station. Construction will begin during the Christmas rail closedown and it should be operating by August next year…
…The niche station, at the foot of the Domain near the steam train depot aims to to service the major tourist destination of the Auckland War Memorial Museum and highlight and promote the historic Parnell village and the area around it.
The full station and necessary track work will cost $14m.
Key elements of the design include side platforms with the usual train furniture on the western platform but to add to the heritage aspect will be the use of the old original Newmarket heritage station, which was removed a few years back to make way for the new Newmarket station.
The old Newmarket station building will be relocated to the site to add to its heritage theme at a cost of $1.10m.
It would be refurbished and relocated on the eastern platform. The old Newmarket Station building and signal house which has been locked away for years need to be brought back to remind us of Auckland’s rail history. Mainline Steam has offered to use the old station building as offices or use it as some other feature.
In order to meet rail and platform gradient requirements the rail track will need to be re-graded over approximately a kilometre of track and crossover points critical for access to The Strand will need to be relocated. Modification of the access tracks to the Mainline Steam Depot is also required.
It’s certainly great to see another addition to Auckland’s rail network, while I am also very pleased to see the Newmarket train station being returned to the rail network – and hopefully put to good use.
I still have a couple of questions about the precise location of the proposed station though. I worry that it’s too far to the south – limiting its potential use as a university station, a potentially massive market. While it may work as a niche destination station, I do wonder whether if it were pushed a bit further to the north it could end up serving both the universities (via a pedestrian bridge over Stanley Street) and the growing employment node in northern Parnell (and around Carlaw Park). I wonder whether Auckland Transport ever modelled the potential patronage from different station locations. Nick R did a good post on this matter last year.
The second potential concern I have is what effect the station might have on the robustness of the rail network. We are already squeezing every drop out of our network’s capacity through the Britomart-Newmarket corridor (or at least we soon will be) and I worry that putting a station on an already fragile network may lead to service reliability problems.
Both these concerns aren’t impossible to overcome. Ensuring the robustness and reliability of the rail network is a technical issue that can probably be sorted out through extra signalling and points equipment, while if the station is long enough its northern end may link easily with Carlaw Park and potentially the university. So I will withhold final judgement until I see these details. If they can be worked out then it’s certainly great to see Auckland’s rail network further improved.
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I really hope that AT have re looked at the location as the one proposed by the ARC ignored their only analysis and picked the more southern site with the misguided thinking that people will walk up a steep, bush lined hill to get to the museum. I know some people don’t think a hundred metres makes a difference but Grafton is a perfect example of where it does. Shifting from Boston Rd only moved the station a few hundred metres but it increased patronage of the station by about 40% within a few months which is pretty impressive and it is now quite a busy station at some points in the day.
Here are some designs produced for ARTA last year that AKT posted at the time. http://www.aucklandtrains.co.nz/2010/09/30/13-5m-parnell-stop-moves-forward/
“The old Newmarket station building will be relocated to the site to add to its heritage theme at a cost of $1.10m.”
Noooooo! Rail needs to be seen as modern, efficient, and clean. This and the “heritage” trams might appeal to tourists and families with nothing to do at the weekend but are about as an attractive commuting prospect as a vintage car or a horse drawn wagon.
I detest the word “heritage”. It is an excuse for twee rubbish. Auckland has been building some excellent stations recently and that is what they should be building at Parnell. Auckland is a large modern multicultural city, not some small town in Victorian Britain.
Not that I really want to get in a giant heritage debate with you Obi, but I would make the point that it is our heritage that gives Auckland a distinctiveness and authenticity that makes it an interesting place to be. Our modern suburbs are generally identical to modern suburbs anywhere around the world – is it through protecting, preserving, upgrading, adapting and reinventing our built heritage that we make Auckland not just another random city that could be anywhere.
It might be worth having a debate about how many ‘heritage stations’ we need, Remuera is obviously a heritage station as is Penrose and Otahuhu. There are also heritage rail buildings incorporated into Glen Eden and Swanson stations. Personally I find it a bit weird that we are trying to manufacture heritage though initiatives like this and the trams. I do support keeping existing buildings working restoring them and there are a few great examples around the city (admittedly not enough) but building something new and calling it heritage doesn’t seem right.
Personally my preference would be to have the northern end of the station just past the end of Heather St where due to the height difference we could have a really nice overbridge at street level with stairs and escalators down to the platforms, basically something like what exists at Henderson.
Matt L I agree… Otahuhu a heritage station? More like an abandoned industrial site. Frankly I worry there may be a marketing fail if there is too much make-believe going on with the physical structures around the rail rebuild. What the people who might use the Otahuhu Station need is a physical representation of a revolution in service delivery. Seriously have you been there?, a more unusable and disregarded place would be hard to find. In fact I was last there because it is perfect as a location for shoots needing all the clichés of urban decay [check out the posters for Silo Theatre’s The Brothers Size]. There is almost no way to get to the station on foot without getting flattened by grinding traffic and having to negotiate unpleasant and unsheltered alleyways and overbridges. Cut off and disregarded.
What it needs is a gleaming new station building with clever and direct connections past all the highway obstacles, one that freights modernity, safety and convenience. Not twee little Edwardian do-ups housing the Fat Controller. There is an argument that this ye-olde aesthetic is just as patronising to the locals as the total disregard they have suffered up till now….?
“check out the posters for Silo Theatre’s The Brothers Size”
There is a guy balancing on a track on Silo’s home page. Is that your work? I’d always associated your photography with the building reviews in the architecture magazine and assumed you were a specialised architectural photographer.
But you and me agreeing on an issue? That must be a first.
Yes Obi, a refreshing change for us both ;>)… and perhaps I should resist saying that at last you’re right about something! sorry….. And yes my architectural work is probably the most visible and is my specialisation but I’ve always loved working with theatre as well, nice to have a directable subject…. kind of you to follow it up.
I do agree that design is really important both for the quality of the cityscape but also for the success of the network, if the stations are attractive and pleasant to be in [and cool too] that will help enormously, and, as I keep banging on about, with free WIFI, they will attract more punters.
I heard a rumour that Stevens Lawson Architects were involved with the Parnell Station, can anyone confirm? If so it’s very unlikely to be naff and twee….
I’m with you on that. This is one area that I diverge from Lee, it is certainly possible to repurpose old buildings into contemporary uses and when done well can keep a real connection with the narrative of place but to assemble a bunch of knick- knacks that were never on the site seems more like playing with train sets than building a successful transit system, and has no real connection with the past of the place. Bogus.
It also seems likely that the heritage component is what drove the location choice….?
All depends on the outcome, and recent additions to the network have been really good so let’s hope it transcends the twee. I’m not a supporter of rail in AK out of nostalgia, but if it works and a lot of people think it’s lovely well I guess it’ll probably go with the rest of Parnell which is also mostly faux.
Personally I thought the old Newmarket station building (and others like it) look nasty! But maybe that’s because I haven’t seen what they looked like in their prime as working functional stations. I really like Glen Eden station with its nice cafe inside. I wonder what their plans are for this one. If it’s done well, I guess it could work.
I figure a great way to add value would be to build a forest canopy walk from the new station to Domain Drive. That way you could use a lift tower similar to Kingsland’s with a series of boardwalks to connect the museum and provide a much more pleasent gradient for people walking to the museum.
yes through the ‘heritage’ privet trees….. no you’re right got to bring the Museum closer to the station too with clever, direct, and appealing ped. infrastructure….
I have mixed feelings about this, based on what we have heard. Hopefully these fears will be assuaged once the detailed plans are released.
On the one hand, I work in Parnell and this will reduce my travel time significantly, as I will no longer have to travel in to Britomart, then walk/bus back out to Parnell.
However, the way in which ‘heritage’ is talked about has me worried. I am not personally famililar with the old Newmarket station building, but from the photos I have seen, it has little architectural merit. Relocating it to a new site does not seem to speak of heritage to me. The old building seems closed, dark, and inward looking, which is complete contrast to the new station architecture we see around Auckland. It seems typical of the Auckland approach – make a grand gesture to save and reuse an non-descript building and say to ourseleves: “Look, we respect our heritage!”, when so much has already been lost. We need new buildings to create new heritage. Rant over.
Another issue I have pondered is how many platforms and tracks would be required. With this station carrying throughput from both southern and western lines, and at peak times services being perhaps only one or two signal block apart, wouldn’t four rails and three platfroms be required? Especially if in the future express or Waikato services travel through here and need to overtake local all-stop services? Anybody technical able to shed any light on this?
Raffe, I agree entirely. Save what’s important, demolish the rest – what’s important is that people can live their lives in ways that are comfortable and efficient in the present, not a religious worship of things that simply happen to be more than a few decades old. A high quality city respects both and balances them on their merits.
“In order to meet rail and platform gradient requirements the rail track will need to be re-graded over approximately a kilometre of track and crossover points critical for access to The Strand will need to be relocated. Modification of the access tracks to the Mainline Steam Depot is also required.”
Spending money we don’t have on something totally unnecessary – typical Auckland!
We have Mike Lee to thank for New Zealand’s first ornamental train station!
Why is the crappy old wooden Newmarket staion building considered such an historical gem? It’s like the sheds on Queens Wharf. Especially while the St James is allowed to continue to rot. Bizaare.
Might it be worth stopping the Waikato train here too?
It would provide some extra city links and options to help compensate for the lack of Britomart, and enable journeys to the university (and touristy days out) from Hamilton.
Ok so the master plan is certainly by Stevens Lawson Architects, link to it here: http://www.parnell.net.nz/images/Stevens_Lawson-Parnell_Train_Station_Proposal.pdf
And the site selection does make much more a Parnell and Museum station than a University one…