Goodbye Boston Rd, Hello World Class Newmarket Area Stations

 

This afternoon, I sat for a while at Boston Road train station and marvelled at how far we have come as a city with rail improvements in just a few years.

The Boston station, revamped with better shelters that the awful ones a few years back, is still locked into a decades-old look, let alone the bizarreness of arriving at an historic Auckland prison.

The "sordid little place" of Boston Rd train station

Grafton and Newmarket’s new station leapfrog Auckland into a modern rail transportation network and once we get electric trains in three years, New Lynn’s underground transport hub, Manukau’s new link and Onehunga, and then hopefully a CBD rail link, we will be zapping around the city, unable to believe what what we used to put up with.

I’m amused by Newmarket’s Mayor, Cameron Brewer’s expression of Boston Rd - and the comparison with his shiny new Newmarket station, which I just love gliding into on a train.

He calls the Boston Road platform “a sordid little place.”

And the Newmarket Business Association CEO has every right to feel proud today.

The Newmarket region with its trains and motorway improvements is the poster boy of change for Auckland we should all support and be equally excited about.

Newmarket’s new train station is already busy & everyone loves it

The Newmarket Business Association CEO says that moving the station across the road brings it out into the open and is closer for the likes of those who work at the hospital and on Carlton Gore Road.
“It’s great to now have two modern stations in the area. We’ve come a long way from the previous two facilities. Catching a train to and from the Newmarket area is really now a viable option. Grafton’s completion marks the end of a two-year $154m rail network upgrade for Newmarket, including two world-class stations.”

“This new station cements Newmarket as a first-class transport hub when you consider our new rail facilities, the dedicated bus corridor from the CBD, the Link Bus, and our SH1 motorway connections.

“The rebuilding of the Khyber Pass Road and Park Road rail bridges were lengthy and disruptive projects. We now want people to not only use our new railway stations, but try out our free-running roads. Finally after over two years of construction we’re back in business. It’s exciting.”

New Grafton train station, double tracking,new railbridges - exciting!

He says the new Grafton Station will be great for Newmarket, particularly when the huge neighbouring Lion Brewery site is redeveloped.

Keep on that Lion redevelopment case Cameron!

  • The last trains stop at Boston Road late tomorrow. Grafton Road station comes into use from Sunday morning, as do the re-routing of buses and a tweaked Western line timetable.
  • The first train into the new Grafton Station, on the corner of Khyber Pass and Park Roads, will pull in at 7.48am on Sunday morning . It will be heading city-bound on the Western Line. The first train from Britomart into the new Grafton Station will arrive at 8.07amwest-bound.

GRAFTON STATION OPENING COVERAGE CONTINUES

Videos- Steven Joyce opening Grafton says  good transport boosts Auckland’s economy

Videos and photos: First commuter train arrives at Grafton train station

Auckland’s big rail day in photos

Steven Joyce unveils plaque

Station looks stunning

Various speeches

Mike Lee’s speech

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15 Comments

 
  1. max says:

    What was so bizarre about the Boston Road stop? I think the Boston Road stop actually had a bit of character, tucked underneath the motorway above and the prison besides.

    Sordid? Meh. Not particularly fancy, it’s true, and I won’t deny that the new station is both a lot better and better situated. But really, that’s not the same as sordid.

  2. Geoff says:

    I agree Max, Boston Rd station, although simple, has always been clean, new-looking, well lit and graffiti-free. The prison was an asset, not a hindrance, as its presence, especially the guard tower, made people feel safe. It was much better than a lot of other stations I can think of, like Mt Albert, Baldwin Ave, Te Mahia etc.

  3. Kel says:

    This is a nice, positive article. Makes it look as if Auckland is really going in the right direction now - and fast! :)

  4. Jon C says:

    @Kel After months of reporting daily service delays, it’s such a relief to have some very positive concrete developments to report and something that will help ease those train delays!
    If you take a helicopter view of Auckland, the city’s train development work is looking good from Manukau to Grafton!

  5. Matt L says:

    Jon - as great as this new station is, for me its even better that at least for this week many of the delays have been eliminated, and that’s before we get a tweaked timetable.

  6. Andrew says:

    We’ve known for a while that 2010 would be the year that the benefits of all this work over the past few years would start to be seen.

    This year has seen the partial opening of the New Lynn Trench and part of the new station there, Newmarket, as well as more use of the Central Connector.
    Last week more double track and tomorrow Grafton.
    In June the double track through New Lynn and more of the station open and we get a new timetable.
    In September the above-ground part of New Lynn opens, with the new bus interchange.
    And towards the end of the year, I believe traction poles on the West line will start going up.

    Yet many remnants of the “old” system still remain. Look at Baldwin Ave and Mt Albert on the West line. Also Greenlane, Penrose, Westfield, Takanini, Te Mahia, and that terrible unsealed station they call a transfer point at Otahuhu with its tiny rickety old bus shelters. I have a feeling a few of these ugly bits will remain with us post electrification. I believe there are no more plans for stations to be upgraded. Hopefully I’m wrong!

  7. Jon C says:

    @Matt L The double tracking is the big story here.
    I look forward to your report on how your travels go this coming week

  8. Jon C says:

    @Andrew Sadly there’s not an infinite pile of money to do everything.
    Mt Albert is a shocker. Latest update on work ahead is here
    http://www.aktnz.co.nz/2010/03/19/update-on-train-station-improvements-before-the-rwc/

  9. Jeremy Harris says:

    @Andrew, one encouraging thing is (as I understand it) that AT will have responsibility for station upgrades so we can push for these upgrades against other rates uses rather than against other uses of the general tax take as Ontrack improvements require…

  10. Jeremy Harris says:

    I’m also interested to see if these new stations promote some intensification beyond the long flagged Lion redevelopment, I think the zoning allows heights of 7 stories..? I’d love Newmarket to become a genuine CBD 2 based on rail TOD…

  11. JX says:

    Really pleased that Auckland is now finally getting the Trains sorted!

  12. Tug says:

    @JX Absolutely!

  13. max says:

    I understand that the train stations are now Ontrack/Kiwirail property, after ARC had to “sell them” when the fuel tax was cancelled.

    So how can Auckland Transport be responsible?

  14. Matt L says:

    The track infrastructure improvements are the responsibility of Kiwirail and the above track infrastructure is the responsibility of ARTA. This means it is up to ARTA to identify and fund stations and Kiwirail will build them. When the new council comes in ARTA’s functions will become part of AT so that is how they will be responsible for this.

  15. Carl says:

    If ONLY there was an inner city loop!!!! Stations at Sky City, Karangahape Rd and Upper Symonds St!
    Western line trains city bound could stop at Grafton, Newmarket, Britomart, Sky City, K Rd, Upper Symonds St then rejoin the Western line near the prison to go west.
    Southern line trains city bound would go in the opposite direction!
    A city loop would solve so many problems. Let’s get on with it!

 

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