Videos: Seeing Double

in Trains by Jon C — June 9, 2010 at 5:16 pm | 2 comments

It’s great to see the doubletracking on the Western Line in action.

Here are two trains passing by at the new Avondale train station - which has been ‘officially opened’ but then fenced off until it comes into use next Monday, after the last signalling work has been completed on the line.

Commissioning of the final 3km section of track from the new Avondale Station to Tititrangi Rd in New Lynn began over the long weekend and trains are now using continuous double tracking from Britomart to Swanson.

Here is a train approaching Avondale’s St Georges Rd level crossing on the new track:

And New Lynn’s temporary station now has two tracks in operation including the Britomart-bound line making it look like a ‘real” train station.

Here is the west-bound track:

And here is a train heading for Britomart this afternoon:

The duplication of the Western Line began in 2004 with the addition of 2.2km of double track from Boston Rd station to Morningside in early 2005.

The 7.5km section of track from Titirangi to Henderson was completed in June 2007, and a further 5kms of double-tracking was commissioned between Henderson and Swanson in June 2008.

The technically challenging 1km stretch from Newmarket to Boston Rd was completed in April this year.

The Western Line Duplication project represented the bulk of what was known as Project DART, the $600m initial upgrade of the Auckland rail network. At a cost of about $420m, it directly employed more than 400 people.

Tags: Avondale Boston Rd double track double tracking New Lynn new New Lynn station Newmarket Project Dart