22 comments

  1. Too bad the nearest station to Ak uni and AUT will still be a 10 minute walk away. A saving of about 2 mins on the walk from Britomart. Considering about 40,000 staff/students access these institutionsduring semester, I’d say that’s a pretty big fail.

        1. Are you serious? Have you ever been a student at Auckland Uni, did you never see the thousands of students walking from the bus stop at the sky tower and along Albert St, or indeed already making the much longer walk from Britomart and the ferry terminal?

          Aotea will have exits basically to Queen st, very handy to both universities.

      1. They won’t have to cope. The New Network had about a bus a minute running from Aotea direct and non stop to the university (and also the other way to Wynyard Quarter I might add).

        It’s almost as if they’re designing an integrated transit system, and not thinking about trains in isolation.

        1. That’s great, except bus capacity along Symonds St is (at certain times of the day) already at or very near capacity, with buses often unable to get into stops, blocking traffic etc.

    1. With the best will in the world it simply isn’t possible to accommodate all potentially useful alignments and all possible catchments. One of the most important functions of the CRL is to create a new link under the city to the west.

      Nice though it might be to have a station beside the university, at this stage it has to take second place to more important considerations.

      I don’t think it’s entirely fair to characterise the planned alignment as a pretty big fail.

      1. I agree, and with Aotea and the University so close you couldn’t have the two on the same line. Choosing between the two you’d have to pick Aotea.

      2. No complaints from me. my trip into town look like it may reduce from 40+ mins to approx 20 mins door to door. However, given that students are typically among the highest users of PT, and considering that two of the most substantial institutions in terms potential punters in Auckland lie right next to each other, its a shame that this huge potential for PT users was not tapped.

        1. Yes two universities right next to each other, and right next to Aotea station. Perfect.
          From the UofA quad it will be faster to walk to Aotea station than to the Law school.

          To put that into perspective, university to Aotea is the same distance as Vulcan lane is from the ferry terminal. Are you claiming that nobody catching a ferry in to town walks as far as Vulcan lane?

          I think you’re really overplaying this ‘disaster’.

        2. If the objective is to increase the number of PT users the location of Aotea is correct. Surely the need is capture new users instead of chasing the existing users

    2. They can either walk that 10 minutes which is acceptable or take a bus up the hill from Britomart which is easy now with AT-HOP.

      I believe the Universities could be covered with the North Shore Line is built and the line extended to join the current Britomart-Newmarket Branch Line at Parnell if the heavy rail option is chosen

    3. The University is more than a 10 minute walk from one end to the other!
      The people at the north end can keep their 10 minute walk from Britomart. Those in the middle will have a 5 minute walk from Parnell Station. The south end of the Uni is an 8 minute walk from Aotea station. AUT also a 5 minute walk.
      I think the Universities are more than adequately served.
      Of course also with integrated ticketing people will be able to take the bus a couple of minutes along Symonds or Welleslley from Britomart, Grafton or Aotea, which will be free.

  2. A photograph of one of the nastiest mirror glass buildings in Auckland; constructed over the obliterated remnants of Auckland’s built history: the first court, its gaol, Fuller’s Opera House and the earliest George Court’s building, which was still there until the mid 1980s. Bisecting the site was the most evocative lane way in Auckland, Theatre Lane. All destroyed by the usual combination of bankers, property speculators and council stooges. Sometimes you wish the Japanese had bombed Auckland during the second world war so that we’d have a plausible excuse for our absolutely complacent attitude toward the loss of our built heritage.

    1. To be fair, its one of the better looking commercial developments in the CBD.

      Not exactly a world class field, but up there nonetheless….

    1. It’s a fairly easy 5-10 minute walk already, especially for someone of an undergraduate sort of age. If you’re in your twenties (or even older, really), you don’t have health or disability issues, and you find that walk difficult, you have a problem. A problem that, incidentally, can be cured with… more walking.

      If you want a real hill, try going to Victoria in Wellington. Yet even there, students happily walk up to avoid wasting eighty-six and two-thirds cents on the cable car.

      I’d rather our precious PT funds went to A. attracting new users, and B. serving trips that can’t also be achieved with a short walk.

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