In recognition of HOP rolling out to the rail network on the 28th of October and the ferries a month later we thought it might be fun to celebrate this long awaited event. We approached Auckland Transport who agreed and so we have managed to get our hands on TWO AT HOP cards to give away, each loaded with $50 worth of travel on them.
Now we could just give them away randomly but where’s the fun in that so we have devised a little competition and to win one of these amazing HOP cards you are going to have to be creative. We want you to tell us what is your favourite station or ferry wharf and why. Of course we do have a few rules:
- It can be any station/wharf but it has to be in the Auckland region
- You have to post your answer in the comments and you can only enter once
- You can use any medium you like i.e. you could write a story/comment, post a picture or video. You can use HTML tags for the image to show in the picture in the comment, just type <img src=”your link”>. For Youtube videos just paste the youtube link straight into the comment.
- We reserve the right to use any answers you provide in future posts and AT are also able to use any material if they wish
- We will leave the competition open for a week and will announce the winner on Tuesday 23rd October.
- We will decide the winner based on whatever criteria we like and our decisions are final.
So perhaps you like a certain station because its your local, perhaps you like its architecture or how it integrates with its local environment and other transport modes, perhaps you like it for the impact it had on PT. It doesn’t really matter which station/wharf you choose just tell us why.
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a link to athopsignup.co.nz was on facebook this morning, smart(er than usual) move!
I love the Papatoetoe train station. I have been catching the train from Papatoetoe to the city since third form, and although the improvements to the physical appearance of the station is to be commended, the reason I love the Papatoetoe train station, is because it is very much part of the Papatoetoe identity.
Papatoetoe celebrates 150 years this year. Included in its rich history is the opening of the railway station in 1875. The old train station has been relocated and refurbished to a spot on the corner of the mainstreet of Old Papatoetoe. A locomotive is prominent in the Old Papatoetoe icon. And although Papatoetoe has been affected by urban sprawl and Aucklands love affair with the car, it has also taken to the renaissance in improved public transport through trains.
Papatoetoe now services a much more diverse population, with people from Asia, the Pacific islands, Africa, the Middle East, Maori and Pakeha. This is reflected everytime I step off the train on to the modern train platform at Papatoetoe. And everytime I go catch the train, its a new opportunity for me to meet a new person, who also shares the same love for the Papatoetoe train station.
The Birkenhead ferry wharf is my favourite wharf to visit after riding my bike from Ponsonby up the north western cycle way and then over the upper harbour bridge. The journey under the harbour bridge at sunset is a beautiful way to end a long training ride. But the best bit is having a chat with the American security guard who regularly works there with his stenson hat, strong accent and classic stories.
Manurewa – home station and I like arriving there in the mornings as I know I will soon be at home and asleep
The Onehunga Train Station. Nice pictures on boundary fences showing the history of rail in Onehunga. Good park & ride facility. Only 25 minutes to get to Britomart. Has added to the Onehunga region by having good bus & rail connections, except a link to the airport.
Grafton station
I work at the hospital
Which is very close
The answer, quite simply, has to be Britomart. Now that it’s almost ten years since Britomart opened and therefore well over a decade since its construction was given the go-ahead, I think it’s perhaps too easy to forget what courage it took to get that project over the line (thanks Christine Fletcher!) Back in the late 1990s we were lucky to get a thousand rail trips into town in the AM peak, we were running incredibly scungy, crapped out second-hand trains (hey they’re still running…), there were no trains at all on Sundays, a system falling apart through neglect and so forth. Britomart turned this all around, and more.
Without Britomart there would have been no push for rail electrification, probably not even the Project DART upgrades (so no New Lynn, Newmarket, Grafton, Manukau station, no double-tracked western line). Certainly we wouldn’t even be considering anything like the CRL project. There would have been far less revitalisation of the waterfront area, perhaps much less general revitalisation of the CBD as a whole.
And that’s not even mentioning its design. The careful treatment of one of Auckland’s best heritage buildings, turning it from a building with no future to now being one of Auckland’s best used and most prominent early 20th century buildings. The careful mix of new and old, the careful design elements and clever engineering to ensure we don’t all choke to death on diesel fumes. The future-proofing for the CRL in the location of the outer tracks…
There are many other stations that I like around Auckland, Grafton – because it’s just really cleverly done, Newmarket’s design and feeling of spaciousness, New Lynn’s reflection of the area’s ceramic history and smaller stations like Swanson with its great café. However, in terms of its impact on Auckland’s rail system as a whole, its real transformational effect, you just can’t go past Britomart. Without Britomart, we just wouldn’t be having about half the conversations on this blog.
Britomart Station. It really is quite spectacular, certainly better than any of the modern city stations in Australia, every time I go there I hear some person remarking how cool it actually is. But I don’t like it just for the architecture, it’s what it stands for that makes it my favourite. It is a physical representation of Auckland’s confidence in better public transport , good urban design and quality architecture. It was the thing that really cemented the beginning of Auckland’s public transport renaissance.
I can say in all honesty that if it weren’t for Britomart, and the step change it represents in public transport and re-urbanisation, that I wouldn’t be living in Auckland today.
EDIT: Damn you Josh, you pipped in and posted exactly what I was thinking while I was still writing it!
Kingsland station, not my home or regular stop but really convenient when going to & from Kingslands restaurants & bars, Eden Park or visiting friends in nearby apartments or houses. It has been upgraded twice in recent years, most recently for the rugby world cup. It is relatively spacious, tidy, safe, well lit and has good access to both New North & Sandringham Rds. For those who are claustrophobic, it’s not buried in a hole or below ground.
Excellent comment from Bloggers past and present above, very true. I love Britomart. Not sure we’re allowed to enter the comp., so I’ll say Aotea because it’s going to be massive, millions and millions of people each year will use it, especially when the line from the North Shore joins the City Rail Link there in the 2020s, so it’s just going to have to be a spectacular piece of subterranean architecture. Bring it on!
Just want to expand on this as I’m pretty sure that very few really understand just how much demand on these stations is going to grow. By the time the new trains are all running and the buses and fares integrated it is not unreasonable to expect ridership to double. And then double again once the CRL is up and running. So annual boardings:
2012 11-12 million
2016 20-25 million
2020 40-50 million
And Aotea Station will be the hottest destination on the system so it is going to have to be a very exciting and ingenious design to accommodate all those people in that space.
Then when you consider that the obvious next requirements are lines to the Airport and the North Shore, in the 2020s. And that the best options for these additions also centre on that station, although on completely new platforms at right angles to the CRL ones, you can really see why the current designation takes more than the whole block under Albert St from Victoria to Wellesley.
So with both those lines on the network how many riders a year will Auckland Stations see….?
Morningside. As much because it’s my local as anything else, but being my local means I’m more familiar with its little quirks…
The evidence of past uses, as many stations reveal – sidings that vanish into the carpark of a gym that used to be a warehouse, and other lines that get redder and deeper beneath the ballast as you go out to the edges, only frequented by the occasional broken-down ADL (yup, we hate them now, but for all their faults they’ll be missed by more than a few railwatchers when they finally retire, mark my words…). There’s the blank stub of the old station building, with the old ticket office amputated… I remember kicking casually through the rubble when they finally tore down the boarded up doors and took hammers to the brick, and digging out a handful of yellowed NZR luggage tags from God knows when.
So there’s old stuff that casually tickles your imagination about the past, and also other things that fire your imagination about the future… proper modern shelters, no more burnt out rubbish bins and partly scorched, frequently peed on wooden benches ridged in slapdash coats of paint. Signs of rejuvenation where you mightn’t expect: what was once a spectacular set of leaky apartments faces the station; after being covered in tarpaulins and scaffolding for most of the last decade, which bottomed out at $40,000 freehold fire sale prices, they’re now refurbished and up in more reasonable six-figure territory. I used to look down at the rail beds and see dates from the 1950s and 1960s stamped onto the steel; now you look up and see overhead catenaries – they’re a bit odd in their galvanised newness right now, but they’ll become part of the atmosphere over time.
Then there’s the main attraction for me at Morningside, the riot of graffiti art on the fences facing the lines and on the huge white wall behind the Morningside dairies – not just slapped up bombs but giant multicoloured murals from what are now known artists. Official neglect let graffiti flourish on the rail corridors, and like scrub giving way to a forest canopy, over time it’s grown into something quite spectacular in a few places, and nowhere on the Western Line is it quite as dramatic as at Morningside – at least not anymore, as the best of what was at Mount Eden and Kingsland is long gone now. Probably it’s all coloured for me by nostalgia, looking back to when I caught trains as a kid in the mid 90s, and didn’t know it was supposed to be better than clapped out silver railcars clanking along fifty year old rails stopping at beat-down steel shelters that got set on fire, repainted, set on fire again and so on… really the best of it was the entertaining graffiti, and at Morningside it’s still as spectacular as it used to be, but now adorning a station that’s reaping the benefits of the last decade’s rail renewal.
So here’s to Morningside, but equally to all the other stations, big and small, that have seen so much change. If you’ve got time and a curious mind there’s probably nice little slices of social history embedded even at the quietest little suburban stop – and it’s really now that we’re seeing such a revolution in rail that it’s all coming into relief. At least for a guy who finds anything interesting if he’s had the chance to look at it out the window long enough…
Onehunga once more has a railway line
Still the last train from town heads here at half past nine
From beginning at Penrose it branches off west
Come to Dress-smart and more Onehunga’s the best
I love the Pukekohe station. Apart from it having the highest patronage increase percentage from 2003 to 2010 as noted in this blog post (http://greaterakl.wpengine.com/2011/10/08/analysing-station-boarding-data/), you never know what will happen there like the attached youtube clip. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kDCHCnOIOcQ
Happy watching.
Walking from Tamaki Campus to Glen Innes train station, I can sometimes get a whiff of KFC coming over the train tracks when there’s a light easterly on 😛
Onehunga:
I used to be anti-trains – as they seemed so much slower, noisy and not to mention not close to my house in Onehunga, then four years ago I left for the UK. Living in Hertfordshire, a good 30 miles from the centre of London where I worked I got to love trains – 30 minutes to Moorgate in the centre of the City of London. And on my line as least the trains were fast, reliable, quiet and I always got a seat.
In July this year I returned to Auckland and expected to fall back into my old habits of driving into Auckland when I needed to get into the City, but low and behold the rusty old train tracks from my childhood now hold an unbelievable secret – the trains are BACK !!!
A 10 minute walk from my house there are trains from a brand new station, and what a station. The old timber-yard that I remember from before I left has become a train station which not only has trains but is located right at the bottom of Onehunga Mall, and not 150 meters away like another station I won’t mention. Also I love how the Onehunga station not only has trains but tells a story as well; they have incorporated the history of Onehunga onto boards out the front – I never knew that the waka at the Museum was left on the Onehunga beach to rot for example, just fascinating stuff.
The final great aspect of the Onehunga train station?? It’s future, that’s what – in years to come it will led out across the Manukau to help share the simple joys of catching a train to whole new areas like Mangere and Mangere Bridge – let alone easy access to those who want to catch a plane.
Three times last week I needed to get into the city, and each time I took a train, four years ago when I left – I never thought that would happen, and it took Onehunga Train Station to do it, to show me that catching a training from the centre of an old historic old suburb like Onehunga into the centre of Auckland is not only possible but simple, relaxing and a delight.
My favorite is defiantly Britomart.
When coming in from the eastern line, inbound, the trains are traveling at a fairly decent speed (IMO much better than when coming in from Newmarket) and I love watching the Quay St and the hustle and bustle of the waterfront give way to the ever rising, but somewhat monotonous concrete wall. It reminds me of traveling south bound on the Hankyu railways Senri line in Osaka as it heads underground (http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/7/77/Osaka-hankyu-senrisen.JPG) and onto the some major underground interchanges (like Nipponbashi where I would change to the Senichimai subway line when on exchange there.)
I was young and impressionable, and had, what seemed like an irrational love of trains and all things transport, that was until I discovered this blog and found out that this love wasnt so irrational. (I have followed this blog for my last few years at high school down in Napier and even till to today nearing the end of my second year at uni.)
I loved the speed and power of the electric trains, the mid boggling maze of underground stations and even bought a ticket so I could just sit on the platforms and marvel at that trains coming and going every 2/3 minutes in the middle of the day. In fact, I made it a personal mission of mine to go out of my way in every Japanese city I visited to get on the subways, even if I didnt need to. I dream of living cities like this for their transport systems alone. I like Auckland, but its severely lacking in trains (comparatively) but descending down into Britomart and heading along the tunnel gives me that warm, tingly feeling of nostalgia of my time in Japan, but more recently, it has also given me an even better feeling. A feeling of hope. Because I know whats coming in Auckland, Britomart will be a through station, it will have fare gates and I can buy my ticket from a ticket machine (which to me, are pretty much the best things this city could be getting since sliced bread. And as a bonus they’re in English and I dont have to hurt my head reading all the unfamiliar Japanese that comes with the ones in Japan) and there will be electric trains rocketing me under the central city in a few years to come. As a biomedical science student, New Zealand doesn’t offer me much job in opportunities but, every time I come into Britomart I have hope that if we can progress our rail system so far in such a short time, perhaps NZ can shift its R&D polices as well in such a short amount of time.
Disembarking the train brings about an entirely different feel. I marvel at how modern and futuristic the station itself is. I love seeing the platform full of people and ‘riding’ the wave of fellow passengers toward the exit, pretending Im tagging off as I go through the gate, and as I ascend the stairs, on the flat bits if I could turn around and just stare at the trains and platforms I would, if I werent too self conscious haha. I also love that I can walk out the main doors and if Im feeling lazy, there is a bus right there to take me to uni. Another beacon of hope as its also reminiscent of times past in Japan where all central city ( ie stations that bear the cities name) have major bus interchanges (my favorite being the tram interchange in Hiroshima). It gives me hope that the new town planners are getting things right, that the plans for the integrated bus network will actually work, that our city will have a fully functional PT system.
For me, Britomart is all about hope for the future. Hope that all the current plans in the pipeline will overcome the everything the govt.s (and the Cameron Brewers of this city) throws at our progressive planners and one that one day, someone visiting Auckland will fall in love with PT that way I did in Japan.
Hope is a powerful emotion, and I can see how it worked so well for Obama on 2008, because when things are bad, (like the state of our current PT system) hope can be all you need to carry you through.
Well I would like to see a short future for the Southern Line approach to Britomart… it’s horrible and anything other than Rapid.
Take the line out of Parnell and send it on a viaduct above Stanley St across to Constitution Hill then a tunnel to a station connected at right angles to Aotea and then further under Wellesley St a new Station at Wynyard Quarter then across the harbour to the Shore and up the busway.
Sorted. After the CRL and extending the line through Mangere to the airport. A one seat ride from Albany to the Airport, via Aotea. And visa-versa of course. The A-Line. Huge numbers shifted at great speed and green efficiency, very attractive option for anyone crossing the harbour, more leave their cars at home. No need then for further car lanes across the harbour, takes almost all the buses off the bridge so more room there for the remaining cars and trucks. Buses on both shores feed the Train Stations at high frequency.
Eastern Line and Intercity trains can then really fly in and out of the Britomart eastern portal at very high frequency without any conflicts from the connection to Parnell.
Birds; lots, stones; one.
Admittedly a rather big stone.
How about some Haiku? An ode to Mt Albert, my local. Obviously, its a bit crap it in current state, particularly its shelters (or lack of them).
“Within this shelter
Stolen from another age
I find no respite”
But the station highlights to me progress made (and how far we have still to go).
“Dilapidated
A seed ready to flourish
How far we have come”
Really looking forward to seeing how the redeveloped station pans out!
I wrote a poem/verse to explain why the Britomart Station is my favourite station :
Britomart Station
Is definitely the best in the nation
From when the first train arrived on 23 June 2003 at 5.40am on Platform number five
It has literally changed lives!
Can’t believe nearly ten years have past
Since such a station came at last!
She’s got a lot of history and a little bit of mystery
Located right in Auckland’s hub
A nice place for a weekend stroll with the bub
or for single ones to mingle in the clubs 🙂
Or stop and have a drink at Racket bar, 1885 Britomart or the Brewery Britomart pub
Added to that, the Britomart station is surrounded near umpteen stores
Ranging from Westfield Mall, Ted Baker, Nike or Kiwi labels Zambesi, Kate Sylvester, now off you go!
Browse or shop till you literally drop!
Once you “hop off” the amazing train, there’s also tons of good wining & fine “district ” dining
Metro favourites Ebisu, Cafe Hanoi or go try Northern Steamship, Agents and Merchants, and much much more!
For when you get off at Britomart station, there are opportunities galore!
Indeed a perfect place to take your date
Don’t worry about parking, just “hop on” the train and come have coffee with a mate
And just a few minutes wander from the station, you can enjoy the farmers markets or cool art at Britomart Project Space
Or bring a book to read at the station and get away from the rat race
Alternatively, you can just people watch at Britomart Station while waiting for your train
Here you will not spend your time in vain!
Chomp on some sushi, a sub at the subway, buy mum some flowers or have a cuppa
There is plenty to do before the train takes you home – definitely an upper!
What immense style, what stunning architecture, what a great heritage
Ain’t the station growing more beautiful and statuesque with age
It’s no wonder that every weekday 25,000* rail passengers go through Britomart Station
For me she’s definitely number one in the nation!
*25,000 rail passengers figure was from (http://www.aktnz.co.nz/2011/04/01/britomart-figures-impressive/)
Two votes for me:
1) Devonport ferry terminal: The pier is well facilitated, with nice indoor viewing areas to gaze at the sea. The bus and the ferry are pulsed properly so that you come off the Kea and straight onto the 813 bus. The Kea is slow but really cycle friendly, with parking spaces and level boarding, as well as wide doors. The gangways are wide and not too steep, ideal for bikes.
2) Grafton station. Simple but elegant. Very efficient and well set up for the future. Excellent design makes it feel really modern. A million times better than the horrible old Boston Road station. A bus stop with frequent buses right outside the door. Only a short walk from two school and a hospital, and a bus to take you to another hospital.
My favorite station is Britomart Station because it’s the most modern and the largest station in Auckland. Also because it’s underground, there are not many underground stations in New Zealand as they’re expensive to build. I like how they’re installing ticket barriers there which make it just like big city metro stations I saw overseas. Westfield Downtown, Daikoku Ramen store, Queen Street, food stores and supermarkets are all in walking distance. The architecture is also amazing with the tall glass box and little holes which let light into the platform area. It has multiple exits and a underground passage to the other side of the road just like overseas metro stations which can’t be found in any other railway stations in New Zealand. Also it’s the only railway station where all lines can be accessed. It’s fully covered so rain can’t get on you.
I love the Orakei station. My home station is Meadowbank, but my husband and I often walk the basin. If I am early for the train I just keep walking down the lovely boardwalk and into Orakei station. It’s a great view of town and Hobson Bay. It is a treat to my day to see the weather and water while on the train.
Bit late in the piece here, but posting my two cents’ worth in the hope the prize hasn’t been decided yet (though some of the other entries have been stellar, and poetic no less…)
I want to show the love for my home station, Ellerslie. Nine years living in Japan showed me that the true heart of a neighbourhood, especially a commuter-focused one, is the train station. Everything else is dispersive, and despite politicians talking about community-building and bringing people together (sound familiar?), it is ultimately PT-centric movement that brings people together in the same space. Furthermore it is such channeling on a human scale (sorry Britomart, sorry Josh!) that brings people together as a community, and a quality station helps to achieve this. Ellerslie does.
Walking through Ellerslie village on a weekday morning up to the station is an exercise for the senses. The sound of the shopkeepers getting set up, the kids babbling to each other as they walk to school and businessmen slurping coffee, the smells of the three bakeries and many coffee outlets (even one of the pubs is getting in on the act), the taste of the award-winning (IIRC) pies and yummy coffee when you just can’t resist any more (did I mention coffee?), the feel of the volcanic stone footpath edging and tree surrounds (though preferably underfoot on not on banged knees!) and the sight of a town centre on a human scale, with people going about their business sociably.
Furthermore the station (entrance) itself is at the corner of the L-shaped village, the very focal point, with people’s attention channeled there by the layout and grabbed by the beautiful big tree (and the vaguely Northern Hemisphere Christmas-esque lighting in it). PT is part of the village, a normal part of life, making people aware of PT and encouraging them to make it part of their routine.
Oh, and need I mention that the station entrance is an overbridge over the motorway, where you can watch the victims of the auto-industrial complex crawling along? Apart from being a great station and town centre in and of itself, Ellerslie is also a shop window for PT to the rest of Auckland. It’s at the leading edge of changing attitudes to PT. The impact of the EMUs on the motorway crowd, as seen at the clean-attractive Ellerslie station, will be massive.
Finally, Ellerslie is not just for now, but for the future as well. There is a large strategic land bank for development on the Great North Road side of Ellerslie Station (a car yard two minutes’ walk from the station!) Anyone know a developer into TODs? I vote for Ellerslie… but hope for good train stations for all 🙂
It’s not an important piece of urban design or a crucial part of the public transport system, but I like the gimmicky water-vapour volcano in the fountain in the square above Britomart. When I’m on the way to the office kitchen I can look out the window and see if it’s “erupting”. I like that no-one seems to be embarrassed about taking the vulcanism theme too far.
…Do we know who won yet? hah, sorry for the impatience