Mt Albert – a big opportunity?
Last night I went to an interesting workshop, run by Auckland City Council, to help discuss important matters that should be included in a future District Plan for the Mt Albert area. This is all part of the Future Planning Framework that was supposed to inform the next generation District Plan for the isthmus area of Auckland City – until the whole Super City thing killed off that idea.…
17 Comments What’s happening at Onehunga?
I have asked various people from ARTA this question over recent times – “what’s happening at Onehunga, when’s the railway line opening?” I have received assurances on a number of occasions that the line will be opening in mid 2010. I must say I’ve been a bit skeptical of this, as when you visit Onehunga and have a look at where the station should be, you see this: This was taken a while ago, but I was in Onehunga briefly today and it didn’t seem like anything had changed.…
What can ARTA do about our trains?
In a typically well thought out comment on my recent post that ARTA should focus on getting the train system sorted before getting stuck into all these bizarre promotions they have going on, Nick R pointed out that I was perhaps being a little bit harsh on ARTA and that the problems being experienced by our rail system at the moment are – just like they’ve been for years – the result of decades of neglect.…
Western Line problems
I got forwarded the following email (not by someone at ARTA), sent by a regular commuter on the Western Line:
Dear ARTA
Ongoing concerns about rail transport especially on the Western Line:
A. Cancelling of trains – Please check (as funder) with Veolia whether they intend to ad hoc cancel the 6.20am train from Swanson to Britomart (cancelled twice this week – no msg over the tannoy).…
Opening of the New Lynn trench
Well I did manage to get myself out of bed at a rather ungodly hour this morning and make my way to the opening of the New Lynn rail trench. My car also managed to survive a whole day parked in Henderson, which is an added bonus!…
Newmarket Station visit
After writing a fair few blog posts on Newmarket station over the past week (and not all of them particularly complementary) I thought I should go check it out for myself. Arriving from Broadway, I do think something needs to be done to improve the connectivity of “station square” with the main street.…
Avoiding the end-change at Newmarket
One the biggest hassles about the old Newmarket Station (the old old one, not the Newmarket West or South stations) was the “shunt” movement that has to be used to get trains from Britomart out to the west. In 2006 I used the train service between Britomart and Avondale for a couple of weeks after writing off my car, so experienced the “Newmarket shunt” first hand.…
Newmarket timetable mismatches
The Newmarket train station is an important hub for the rail network – being the point where the Southern Line connects to the Western Line. In recent times, the split of Newmarket into two stations (Newmarket West and Newmarket South) which was necessary while the new station was being constructed, rather killed off any chance for people wanting to transfer between the services, but now that we have one single station again it should be fairly easy to transfer from one train to the next (especially if the ticketing system is improved to ensure you don’t have to buy a second train ticket).…
Breaking News: rail stuff-up
Just when we were looking forward to the rail system being fully operational tomorrow for the first time this year, it seems like something’s thrown a spanner in the works. This is the latest update from ARTA:
As at 10:15pm Sunday 17 January 2010: As a result of unexpected technical difficulties at Newmarket, train services across the region will be operating to a revised timetable on Monday 18 January 2010.…
Newmarket Station officially opens
I popped over to Newmarket to see the official opening of Newmarket station today, and also to take a few photos of the place. It ended up being quite an interesting opening, as I had the opportunity to speak to quite a few people – a fair few councillors, KiwiRail Chairman Jim Bolger and even Steven Joyce himself (briefly).…
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