Subscribe to RSSHow It’s Looking: Manukau
With all the debate is about a CBD rail link, it’s not all bad news. Have we forgotten that Auckland gets a new rail link to its network around late July when Manukau opens? That’s exciting!
With the rail trench developed, tracks are starting to get laid and attention is being paid to the new Manukau rail station fit-out and this includes lifts, stairs and all the station furniture but not the escalators.
This will allow the station to be fully operational for the RWC.
Stage 2 which includes the escalators and above ground fit out will proceed after that.
The Manukau Institute of Technology building which is part of the station will be open for students from the first term of 2013.
The 2km new Manukau rail line will link Manukau City Centre with the Southern Line at Puhinui. It will run alongside the new SH20 motorway extension and will be mostly double-tracked.
The six metre deep, 300m-long rail trench immediately west of Davies Avenue in Manukau City Centre will house two 180m-long platforms and the station.
Let’s hope this Manukau connection is just the start and it can get extended further in later years.
So the next stage of construction is underway although there’s not a lot new to see just yet:
The interchange will be the main hub for most of the bus services in the south of the Auckland region.
The bus interchange
When the campus arrive, this area will be buzzing
11 Comments
Good to see the rails appearing beside the motorway leading up to the Lambie drive offramp.
So they still have the situation where someone has laid asphalt on top of the concrete base where the tracks will go but there is nothing on the platforms. Most likely it is a result of a contractor stuffing up and now everyone arguing over who should pay to fix it (as yet no engineer has been able to explain why you would need asphalt when track ballast can be laid straight over the concrete like in Britomart or the tracks affixed to the concrete like in New Lynn.
Do we know yet how they intend to operate services to Manukau? Will it be services from Britomart, or will it just be a shuttle from Puhinui or Otahuhu?
And will passengers from south of Manukau be able to transfer to it at Puhinui on one ticket?
I recall reading somewhere that the plan was to divert all(?) Eastern Line services to start/end at Manukau instead of Papakura. Not sure if this is still the plan or if I read incorrectly.
I think the Manukau Tech campus opens in 2012. Construction of a five storey carpark on the corner of Davies & Ronwood starts in May or June.
Thanks. I had almost forgotten about the Manukau link. Shame the architecture is so conservative.
More background about it here http://www.aktnz.co.nz/2010/09/14/manukau-rail-opens-july/
hope they sort out the bus connections, need to link to goodwood heights, clover park, and down chapel road.
Otherwise will be empty at peak outbound if there is no park and ride. Should cancel the 457X, and turn this into a rail feeder. Will be at least 15mins faster.
Yes, Luke, let’s assume AT are going to be able to be seriously strategic with this new resource and plan the feeders from the eastern transit wasteland from the get go….. then we’ve got to get the line to bridge the motorway severance and over to connect with the coming AMETI buslanes at Botany…. Those two things could transform Botany into a functioning TOD! Liberate all that car space into valuable development land.
@Patrick R What an exciting prospect!
While I am excited about the site itself, why the hell does the safety fences always have to look like a prison yard from an American movie? PLEASE get a designer to make this look a little bit less like Alcatraz!
New Lynn used nice glass panels to fence of the trench - maybe hard to keep clean, but there are also very simple fences that look much less ugly.