Subscribe to RSSAvondale Station Ready
Avondale’s new $1.5m train station opens for commuters on Monday morning.
It’s a good moment to reflect on how much progress has been made.
This makes it the 23rd station that is revamped or new in the last 5 years.
Plus it also marks the completion of the double tracking.
Avondale's new train station
Avondale’s business community and residents have been pressing for decades for the station to be closer to the town centre. They finally have their wish.
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20 Comments
Yeez, for a second I read this as “Avondale motorway”. Thought Joyce had been to the drawing board again and added a new one!
I like the new station location myself, though that is pretty selfish, making my walk to visit friends easier
Just a shame that more money wasn’t available to have a proper go at this station. i.e. the use of wooden retaining in places, ashphalt interchanging with concrete, cattle yard style fencing and a lack of planting and cohesive access points. But the station in the good location that it is is better than nothing.
And more of a shame that the overbridge was cut out (as a consequence of a tightening of the PT budget as funds were reallocated to the National party’s roads of electoral significance). This decision has led to the creation of a bizarre maze-like pedestrian rail crossing which inevitably will result in fatalities notwithstanding the spin ARTA demonstrated in the NZ Herald’s article on the ‘official’ opening. Other notable absences in the station’s design include real time passenger information displays, weather-proof shelters and any proximate feeder bus/train interchange. I think we can award a straight C grade for this little station building exercise.
I think this station is in a better location for the vast majority of the area which is really good.
As for some of the comments on here
“ashphalt interchanging with concrete” - All stations bar some of the feature ones have ashphalt platforms.
“This decision has led to the creation of a bizarre maze-like pedestrian rail crossing which inevitably will result in fatalities ”
We have the same kind of gated crossing at Sturges Rd and I think it works pretty well and is far from confusing. I haven’t heard of any incidents since it opened and it is used by many school kids each day.
The one thing I really want to know is what is going to happen to the empty site next to the station that has been used to store construction materials. A park and ride could be good.
I understand the ducting has been installed for this station to allow real time to be installed at a later date. But a shame that so much was cut so that more motorways could be built instead.
agree totally with commuter here,
clearly $1.5m buys you FA these days, id hardly call it a station, it looks more like a bus stop. Can not understand for the life of me why there is next to no undercover sections… what is the point of building all these shitty little shelters that my hold 10-15 people at the max? train stations should be grand and inviting, with toilets, ticket buying options and maybe an area to sit and relax..
another 1/2 arse crack at something that will have to be sorted out again in 10 years time I bet.
I don’t know why we have this have this idea of “oh at least we got it” there should be no “at least” it should be bloody standard practice that there is plenty of undercover sheltering. this isn’t the middle east where it never rains, this is Auckland New Zealand.
sorry guys but this is really really average.
Carl - With the exception of Britomart, Newmarket and New Lynn this station is pretty much identical to every other upgraded station out there. The shelters are actually bigger than they look so it might pay to take a trip out there to have a look at them first, even better try using it. At Sturges Rd the shelter is smaller than here yet I have seen 30 - 40 people fit under the canopy.
Also to make every station grand and inviting with toilets and ticket booths would cost a hell of a lot more for probably little gain in patronage. Of course you then add to the running costs by having staff and more maintenance. The fact of the matter is there just isn’t the money for it so we get what we can.
Over time as patronage grows we’ll be seeing many of these stations upgraded once again to perhaps include ticketing booths etc. I think the changes in the last 5 years are amazing and show the system is on the up and up. We shouldn’t forget that 10 years ago it was being considered to pull the whole system up and replace it with buses…Avondale is a suburban station and with so much money being siphoned off the PT budget for road building by National and Act there is literally no money to pay for someone to sell tickets. I do agree however, that we need to start seeing ticket machines installed at more stations around Auckland, but until the integrated ticketing is worked out it’s probably best to hold off on that.
grand? What would be the point? with higher frequencies coming up we’ll be waiting on stations for as short an amount of time as possible. They’re not exactly destinations in themselves. We don’t live in Soviet Moscow where stations were built adorned with art. We have to pay for them. Interchange stations like newmarket and Britomart, sure they need size and style with potentially large numbers of passengers needing to move through them and wait for connections. But Avondale…come on
The shelters are fine. As a fairly frequent footpath user in our city I struggle to leave the house without an umbrella 8-9 months of the year.
And speaking of style, the new upgraded stations we have in Auckland are miles better than almost any I’ve seen in Wellington, Melbourne and other train-stacked cities overseas.
I agree with the comments - this is a “standard” station maybe slightly above-average (certainly for old Auckland levels), and at this stage does not NEED to be more. Sure, it would be nice to have lots of other things, but with the exception of the lack of a Crayford Street overbridge, I think it’s OK.
As has been said - we need to get good functionality first, with a tight budget. It does that just fine, I’d say.
I must agree with the point made: that these shelters are too small. Simply for the fact that it encourages commuters to all wait at one spot, and when the train pulls in, the majority of people boarding try to cram in the one door, while the others take a leisurely stroll down the platform to another carriage. This really increases dwell time and has an impact on network performance.
Take a look at stations like New Lynn, Grafton and Newmarket (South-bound only) and you’ll see much shorter dwell times, especially on wetter days, simply because passengers are spread along the length of the train already.
I don’t think more platform amenities are necessary (although toilets would be nice), but more shelter is definately needed.
Great another station all sorted and done with spending cuts too! I can see in the future my shelters being installed and some form of furniture, maybe a copy of the Avondale spider as in ? http://www.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://www.fotonewzealand.co.nz/photo/2002-09-25.jpg&imgrefurl=http://www.fotonewzealand.co.nz/daily/178/&usg=__PoKYvpmj6V81ZJqr4MW2N69Gy5c=&h=600&w=450&sz=50&hl=en&start=5&um=1&itbs=1&tbnid=zGiohZazVoKl3M:&tbnh=135&tbnw=101&prev=/images%3Fq%3Davondale%2Bnz%26um%3D1%26hl%3Den%26sa%3DN%26tbs%3Disch:1
You could encourage passengers to spread out across the platform by placing seats along the platform. I wouldnt too much about building any more shelter yet, but seats would surely work.
@Joust well said.
The completion of double tracking the Western line is a dramatic improvement. The location of the new Avondale station will be infinitely easier for residents and visitors.
What Jimmy is mainly what Im getting at. If its pissing down with rain, all these people are going to cram under small sheltars and then push to get into that certain car.
perhaps my using of the word “grand” was a bit over the top. I understand that these stations aren’t destination stations like Britomart or anything in Newmarket, but on that point who said they aren’t? that is only matter of opinion.
my point is like it always is, a 1/2 arse crack at something that is going to need to be amended again in 5 years time.
why doesn’t someone use the head and try and make a station upgrade proof for at least 10 years.
Toilets should be a must at any decent sized station and what Im really getting at with the shetars is that it does rain a lot in Auckland… that was all.
Art work and murals and all that rubbish, yep sure for places like briotmart and what have you…
but a station should always have something that invites people in to it…
Hello Jon
Thankyou I’ve been looking for a “Train Theme” for my wallpaper on my laptop, awesome photography, Thankyou.
@Steved You are very welcome. Glad it was helpful.
@Carl Toilets should be essential at every station. It’s an appalling omission.
The modern town planning approach to “shelters and seating” is bizarre. In Queen St’s revamp, seating was placed on footpaths as close to the street as possible - eg opposite the Civic outside JB HiFi- meaning if you sit there you get drenched in the rain because it’s away from the shop awnings and you are so close to the road, you soak in the car and bus fumes. I complained to the council but never got an answer. And bus shelters still leak.
Jon, I strongly assume placing the benches on Queen Street was intentional - though I agree with you on the weather shelter.
The issue is that with our obsession with on-street parking, Queen Street had to retain recessed parking bays. Then of course you have to have a main “thoroughfare” on the footpath which needs to remain free of street furniture - like those benches. So the only real place to put the benches was off-line, where kerb extensions in line with the recessed parking bays where. Of course this then moved them out from under the awnings. Not sure what you could do, beyond extending the awnings with significant costs. Since Queen Street was already running way above budget, of course it wasn’t done, even if they thought of it.
I wish Wellington has some new stations being built as well. some of them are getting really dodgy.