A presentation from Auckland Transport to the council gives us an update on the CRL glimpse inside the stations – along with more information on AT’s Light Rail plans which I’ll discuss tomorrow.
As a quick update it notes that nearly 50 out of 70 properties needed have been purchased and that AT will start subterranean purchases this year. The already purchased properties has meant about 30,000m² are now under active management. They are also in mediation to deal with the 6 appeals to the designation that was issued early last year. Below is a timeline for what we may see – although the main works are likely pushed out now due to the council decision late last year.
Aotea Station
I like lots of exits from the platform are shown, I just hope the same is seen with the station itself.
And this is an earlier image of the station we saw.
Karangahape Station
The first image comes from another document recently (can’t remember which one off the top of my head). It shows how people would access the station which will be a long way down.
The second image shows a cut away of the proposed entrance from Mercury Lane.
It would be great to see some more detailed images of just what’s planned for these stations.
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Why are the trains in a low-height section when the overhang above them is clearly artificial? Is that related to them adding platform doors?
I believe the design is meant to allow for platform doors but it’s not clear if they will be in operation from day one
The low height ceiling above the tracks (next to the future platform edge doors) will be for a exhaust hood, to vent away the smoke if a train catches on fire. You always hope it’s not necessary, but if it does happen, then the last thing you want is smoke filling the station. Large fans will kick into action, and vent the smoke directly up to the atmosphere, while the public calmly evacuate the station.
…plenty of systems I’ve seen don’t seem to need this bulkhead about the trains?
Also, OMG, they will have to remove on-street parking from Mercury Lane to widen the footpaths! 😉
Frak! Quick…plant some pohutukawa there to preserve the on-street parking…
Agreed. Plus seperated cycle? Active modes now Strategic Fit with Rapid Transit. Bring this baby on in fact we all need to help it, start loading torpedoes. 180 degree scenario model, Jolisa swinging from trees , public protests, the mayor and board joining forces the whole caboodle. Double rail capacity, massive reduced journey times especially for the western line. 20% growth and climbing doesn’t need a dead end!!
$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$
ValueValueValueValueValueValueValue….
But here’s a thought, re both cost and value. You can see sunlight pouring in to the Aotea centre platform in the render above, which must mean skylights in the middle of the street somehow, hopefully nothing like those interrupting ones poking up in the middle of Britomart. These must be expensive and not only in dollars; that’ll eat a whole lot of the road width which will surely compromise things like footpath, bikelane, buslane, and general traffic lane space.
Now I get that natural light is always lovely, and if you’ve ever lived in much bigger cities, especially in ones with darker winters you’ll know that you can go whole days moving from subterranean space to gloomy highrise and back again so daylight is a huge premium. But Auckland will never be like that, here we are building a little wee underground, just three stations below the surface, Britomart, Aotea, and K, getting access to a piece of sky is never really an issue here, nor will likely to ever be, even in winter.
In fact I reckon being down below is a bit of a novelty and doesn’t really warrant sacrificing too many other benefits, or budget, just to try to make it feel less of what it in fact is; underground.
A ‘nice to have’ as our Minister of Finance would say….
The first Aotea render seems to have forgone the sunlight and skylights looking at it (looks to have a solid concrete roof at “street level”.
The second one is the original one AT showed but looks to me to be more of a “serving suggestion” with a lot of artistic license involved than an actual design.
And also wonder where the connections to the next level down for the North Shore line will go, those escalators seem to me to be strategically placed to block all the escalators to the next lower level.
After all a lot of the people going from the one level to the other will be catching another train not leaving the station so allowance for good linkages between those levels is needed.
Also seems to me that Aotea staging would be very straight forward to achieve, if as it looks like CRL will be delivered a lot later than planned/needed.
So the through links may be needed sooner than the stations, so staging of stations may be necessary to cope with demand.
“A ‘nice to have’ as our Minister of Finance would say….”
So is a convention centre, but we seem to be stuck with it.
I’ve always liked Britomart’s volcano portholes; never seen them as an interruption. Children seem to love them, too.
They made a lot more sense before the long, straight pedestrian boulevard to Vector was wrecked.
They don’t appear to provide for retail space. Many of the Singapore stations provide heaps of shops. Even a 7-11 would be good
Retail space is a great way to help pay for the costs of running an underground station not to mention assisting with the acquisation costs of the land in the first place. It would be great to see an underground mall (tunnel) linking the station with other locations (stay dry when its raining etc, saves walking up/down hills as it can bisect them). Singapore does this a lot as does Hong Kong, Sydney etc.
Although the debacle that is Station Square in Newmarket may have poisoned the rail/retail well for a number of investors.
It’s more than time that something was done about the Newmarket Mess.
I reckon it’s well fixable…
Haven’t asked recently but let time I did was told no info can be released as commercially sensitive as involves negotiations with private owners.
One of the big issue of course is the developer built it in the cheap so the square isn’t able to hold that much weight so no giant tree possible.
It’s about time AT sorted out retail at the second Britomart entrance, but it seems that a newsstand is beyond them in that area….
The reason why the retail in new market, or new lynn station couldn’t survive is because:
1. There is only one train every 10-20 minutes. There is not enough customers.
2. People trying to catch train would rather wait in the platform, instead of going outside of the station to visit the shops.
Because there is a bit of walking distance between the shop and the platform, people would risk miss their train inside the shops.
3. The new market/new Lynn retail are just on a plain open plaza without a single tree nor any landscaping. The atmosphere is not that inviting for people to stay.
Therefore for the shops to survive we must have more trains, the shops should be as close as the platform as possible and the area should be inviting.
Retail in-station definitely. Look to Japan for best practise there.
Agree. Improves the feeling of security as an addition.
Good point about retail.
I’m a bit confused by these designs. The stations seem cramped and messy. Perhaps it’s just that I haven’t got my head around them – I’m sure AT will do full renders and videos at a later stage after design detail has been firmed.
Yes definitely need to vibe the station up with some retail in the platform
Something like:
A coffee shop
Sushi, cafe, bakery and juice bar
Magazine/book shop
Convenience shop
ATM
postal box
A large screen that plays continuous news and interesting stuff
Free wifi / usb chargers / rubbish bins
A number of the busier stations around Sydney have had video screens installed, which is pretty different from the standard billboard advertisements that dominate most stations on the network. I’m wondering if that’ll be rolled out on CRL when it’s opened.
I suggested constantly changing digital art for New Lynn’s track walls. Bit beyond the vision of those involved on that side of it at the time.
The Aotea station is huge (not a complaint!)
From memory the (now) two underground stations are expected to be the busiest on the network when they open.
Britomart patronage will probably fall by a reasonable amount, until growth builds it back up again over the following few years. .
Dislike the bulkhead, increases sense of enclosure….
Oh and Mercury Lane needs full traffic removal… daft oneway system ruins possibilities of the whole area. And yes I know emergency services currently use it, but there are work rounds for them.
Could someone kindly send me a plan view sketch of the proposed rail layout?
try here: https://at.govt.nz/projects-roadworks/city-rail-link/city-rail-link-route/
That’s a good link. Be good if they had the travel time reductions on the front page. I think the majority of people don’t understand how much a force this project is, they just think a cost meanwhile Waterview had same original cost. I think the scrutiny is actually on the wrong modes, car with a global network and flat line hardly apples with apples, maybe SH1 should be a culdesac. 20 % growth in a culdesac scenario and half rollout of electric trains and not the new bus network is fairly extraordinary.
How long are the platforms designed to be? Please say they’re future proofing them for 9 carriage trains. That’s one thing they didn’t do for the Melbourne city loop and it’s hindered them putting longer trains in service ever since. It’s prohibitively expensive to lengthen underground platforms once they’re built.
I think they’re just 6-car. Our whole network would need to be revamped otherwise, and the CRL is already such a financial flashpoint for the (still substantial) opponents that lengthening the stations for something like that wouldn’t fly. And in any case, I’d rather go for 5-minute or better frequencies once we need more capacity.
Better to up the frequency in my opinion.
9-car platforms aren’t possible for a few reasons. The primary one is that the extra length would then require the rest of the tunnel sections to be too steep and therefore not feasible. Also other key stations aren’t able to handle that length including Britomart or Newmarket and the costs to make them able to do so would likely be so prohibitive it simply isn’t worth it. The only station that might be able to do it would be New Lynn but even then probably not. Six car EMUs are going to be the maximum we see in service in Auckland.
Well let’s just hope the Auckland Council will do a good job of this….
Though I do think there are some certain members that need to leave their jobs.
http://i.imgur.com/6GaPkK2.jpg
Let’s hope that miraculously Jasmax actually takes one of these massive projects with a healthy budget and finally produces some better than average architecture. Or contracts some consultants for design
Very interesting, and the k road station is huge, but what is with the sub surface building right over the station, why so large? Wouldn’t it be cheaper to just have a couple big shafts with lifts stairs and vents. It looks like they building an underground mall with the k road station.
Also it looks like all the stations only have platforms on on side of the track, why not both sides?
And since they have a mall sized complex underground with the k rd station y don’t they make the station much larger. Maybe the size of a large hall with a rail line through the middle.
I’m beyond concerned looking at current rail growth rate and CRL opening date even if we had National Government Simon Bridges funding stamped today to go full guns blazing. It can’t wait and shouldn’t need too. Delay over what exactly? The smartest investment in 60 years. Meanwhile what projects with a strategic fit, fit for what a total waste of money and resources. Roads of No Significance or Rail of proven 150 years plus significance, not car dependent and emission free , full right of way and spatially superior. Then we have demand charts also 18,20 then what % in a dead end, and half EMUs rolled out, and two new bus lanes only. What happens with a full 180 degree scenario and full focus on rapid transit, bus network, walking and seperated cycling? This is really looking rotten, and smelling like fish left out for 60 years.
I’m really concerned that Institute of Professional Engineers has not called for a stop works on the government. How can these massive roading projects compare with EMUs that can do 180kmph, with no emissions, take on 10 lanes on motorway in a 3m width, and don’t need resurfacing every 7 years, and don’t force the public to buy cars. They don’t compare do they for resource allication current or future generations, environment, community well being, sustainability the whole caboodle!!!!!!!!!!!
Forget the government for now Institute of Professional Engineers needs to be fully onboard and FRANKLY they all should be if they have read their ethics!!!!!The government can’t do shit when the whole profession says no can’t do that ethically. It’s a bit like your surrounded and you want to spend all our money on what exactly? Not surrounded a full scale mutiny whether in control or not!! Shouldn’t the whole profession have a Strategic Fit of Rapid Transit and Active Modes not just Auckland Transport Board!!!
1c spent in the right direction ethically is better than $40b in 180 degree the wrong direction ethically. But imagine spending the full available in the right direction ethically isn’t that following how the Engineering Profession was setup originally.
I often wonder what this world could be like if it wasn’t so full of idiots with their own agendas. (Not me of course 🙂 !)
Follow the money, who stands to gain the most from these “strategic fit” flyovers & expressways to the beach?
I like the idea of getting natural light underground. Big thumbs up.
5 storey underground or 5 minute walk to next station. I’ll be walking.
How do you upload a jpg to conversation ?
go to http://imgur.com/ and hit upload – paste the resulting URL
Anyone know whether option of piggy backing rail on motorway infrastructure was ever explored. No land purchase No tunnel easy access got to be cheaper. Use the savings to put a green lid on spaghetti junction.
see diagram.
http://imgur.com/pXUYKbe