Roger’s Loop Proposal

 

Reader Roger Kirk is proposing this as the CBD loop:

“This is the loop I would like to see. As long as the ability to feed into the eventual north line is provided, the only extra tunneling needed is the sections under Parnell , Albert Park & Grafton.

This proposal initially joins the Southern and Western Lines by converting Britomart to a through station where the new Western Line follows under the Hobson St ridge through Sky Tower, Town Hall and Khyber Pass stations before joining the established line prior to Mt Eden Station.

The city loop concept is extended in the other direction to include a Parnell Station under Parnell Rd, a University Station under Albert Park and a new Grafton Station serving Auckland Hospital and the School of Medicine. South-bound services would follow this route before arriving at Newmarket via a short section of the existing Western Line.

Provision needs to be made south of Town Hall Station for a future Northen Line. This line has underground stations at K Rd, Ponsonby and Three Lamps before crossing the harbour.

South of Newmarket a future Eastern Line could be established below Remuera Rd and St Johns Rd before joining the established line prior to Glen Innes, then heading further east after Sylvia park.

Once four lines are available then it would be logical for services to run North/South and East/West.

This proposal has every service passing through every central loop station from Town Hall to Newmarket reducing the need to transfer trains.

If I was King this is how I would build it!”

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14 Comments

 
  1. Scott says:

    wow, looks expensive :) . would trip times work out a little slower than today?

  2. Roger says:

    Probably, but I can’t think of a way to get extra city station choices for the existing travel times.

  3. Andrew says:

    I gotta say, the more we keep changing our minds about where the CBD loop goes, the longer it will take to be built.

    ARTA have a final route plan and I believe we should support it - putting forward lots of alternative proposals (and I’m thinking about Colin Craig and Stephen Greenfield’s hair-brained idea here) then we lessen the chances of the thing being built at all.

  4. Miggle says:

    I think your loop is trying to do far too much for one route, making it terribly winding and slow…

    Why not split it into the current CBD loop as stage 1, and stage 2 being a route going from Newmarket to Parnell, then heading under Albert Park in a new tunnel with a stop at the University, an interchange with the CBD loop at Midtown, and finally heading out to the North Shore via either a station at Gaunt St (as per the current third harbour crossing plan), or your plan with stations in Ponsonby?

  5. rtc says:

    Let’s just stick to the current route this one looks like a complete poorly thought through mess.

  6. sj says:

    This tunnel configuration is a very stupid idea for many reasons. One reason that people may not be aware of is that you can’t build rail tunnels under the university unless they are built extraordinarily deep underground. This is because the large chunks of metal hurtling through the tunnels at high speeds will interfere with the magnetic fields used in experiments, which are usually located in basement laboratories.

  7. DanC says:

    I think the tunnel as being investigated at present is best and we all need to keep pushing that. One key area (and I don’t know how much this has been discussed) is that the current investigation has a future proof of a north shore line connecting to it.

  8. GJA says:

    DanC, I agree that we should future proof the north shore line and we should also have route protection in place for a number of lines that have been discussed on this and other blogs, but as per the following post http://transportblog.co.nz/2010/10/05/airport-rail-where-to-next/#comment-15812

    The system is completely backwards. If you protect the route then developers and council know what to develop and when it should be in place. Not like the Botany line that will have to fit into the existing infrastructure.

  9. Matt L says:

    This seems like it is trying to do everything for everyone by trying to offer an almost door to door service. We really need to have a discussion if this is the best way forward or if it would be better to have more direct routes and make transfers easy by making them free and having high frequencies so people aren’t waiting around for everything. The latter seems like a far more efficient way to run out system.

  10. James B says:

    The Skytower stop and Town Hall stop are ridiculously close together. I imagine that the proposed Aotea station will most likely stretch from Victoria Street through Wellesley Street to the Aotea Centre. The K Road stop is also at the least used part of the street. The best way to handle a possible Ponsonby stop would be to have another tunnel crossing the city at the CBD and then heading along College Hill or up Franklin Road and out from there. Although I really think a light rail system from Wynyard quarter to Motat would provide more benefit for less money. With a northern line having only a single stop at Wynyard Quarter before making the crossing.

  11. Steve W says:

    The route proposed seems to be more about carrying people around in the inner Auckland Area

    As others point out let’s get on with the main game which is the “current” CBD Loop proposal which I recall correctly(Jon?), by now will have been designated already and has taken years of painstaking research and even negotiation with at least one CBD building owner.

    Trains for the North Shore, need to head virtually directly West for the 2nd harbour crossing - to go the North Shore by K’ Road - all I can say is Wow.

    Nice try Roger but sorry.

  12. Chris R says:

    Stick to aviation, Roger!

  13. Shaun says:

    This plan looks horrendously expensive and complicated. It would need some very deep tunneling and some very deep stations which would push up the cost dramatically. Can’t see it being done for the same amount as the currently proposed route. The route proposed is more direct and less complicated than this one. This one would be slow as there are a lot of tight corners and too many stations too close together.

  14. Roger says:

    Fair comment Chris! I’ll stick to being a rail passenger.

    I accept there is a huge cost of building something breathtaking that will lift Auckland’s public transit to where it needs to be. Having been lucky enough to use other systems around the world all I’m trying to do is get people thinking further ahead than most do.

    If we think small then that’s all we’ll get (in another ten years!)

 

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