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Finally the Strand railway station is getting some attention although it’s too late to turn the clock back.
Just two representative sections of the canopy on one of the five existing platforms remain.
As you pass west-bound alongside what served Auckland as its Parnell-based railway station for 70 years, the place has been looking increasingly dismal and sad.
The platforms became leased for short-term parking, some rail connections are gone, pieces of concrete have fallen off the station canopies.
The station itself still looks on the outside a grand old heritage building, despite its recent history of extensive leaky building repairs after a failed conversion into student flats leading the Maori owners to reportedly be taking it over.
Unkempt, decaying and neglected and no nod to its historic significance.
During the Rugby World Cup, the old Strand railway station will be used as an emergency stop - in case something goes wrong at Britomart or in the CBD.
And longer-term it may become the final stop for a Waikato-Auckland service as Britomart can not accommodate them.
So how is it looking this morning as construction nears an end?
Sadly it will never be the same as its golden era.
A 1927 Railways magazine article called the station..” virtually the gateway to New Zealand, connecting as it does our railway system with the Imperial mail route that links us with our great sister dominions of Canada and Australia.”
But as mentioned above, two representative sections of the canopy on one of the five existing platforms have been kept and are in the process of being repaired.
The Historic Places Trust lists the platforms and T-shaped overhead shelters as “notable features” in Category 1 registration of Auckland Railway Station – built between 1928 and 1930.
There will be some sort of “heritage corner” - a history lesson- under the canopies.
How it looked earlier
How it looked exactly a year ago
The railway station was moved from its original downtown location in 1930 to the Strand in Parnell.
Built by the Public Works Department in 1928-1930, the ornate Beaux Arts-style building was intended to stand as a gateway to the city, and its construction involved the largest independent contract issued in New Zealand at £320,000.
In its heyday, politicians and other important people would arrive at the three-storey building by driving up a sweeping ramp on either side of the building, enclosing a landscaped garden immediately to the front.
Auckland's old railway station at the Strand
11 Comments
It occurs to me that this could be used as an emergency station in the event of a major issue in Britomart (or any of the future Link stations). At least in the medium term, if the upkeep costs are low and the land isn’t needed for other essential uses.
Unlike others, I don’t think there’s much merit in keeping old bits of concrete and mortar where they impose demands or constraints on actual present-day use, so have no real opinion about these platforms themselves. Still, I was outside the old railway station recently and was disappointed to see how much of its charm it had lost.
It looks like a lot of money for a temporary station.
Are they still going to stable the trains there?
The old station and its network of platforms was a really impressive piece of railway architecture, designed to a scale and level of sophistication we don’t see in New Zealand; far more impressive than the later Wellington station. Unfortunately, it was half-built thanks to the first National party administration (the underground link was abandoned and it remained essentially disconnected from Auckland’s rather unimpressive PT network) so never really took off although, up to the mid 1970s, it had a real sense of atmosphere. Its sale and conversion in 1999 (thanks to the fourth National party administration) was short-sighted and typically greed-driven. I’m distressed that the NZHPT didn’t think more was worth preserving, but expect nothing less from KiwiRail, pity. Next to go will probably be the 1870s basalt viaduct, but who cares? Pity.
Do any historic pictures of these platforms exist? And also how did you get from these platforms to the old station? Tunnel? (If so does it still exist?). I can see in the background here the platforms but not a close up http://deniswilford.com/photo/grp19/img/ac0048.jpg
is the station building as such still opened?
If anyone can take some pictures of the front of it, that would be great.
I hope the spend a bit more money on this. Two proper functional train station in the auckland cdb is a must.
@Carl Have added in a photo of the station at the bottom of the post. It was taken over for student accommodation but abandoned after leaky building issues.
@AKT - It doesn’t seem abandoned - I live next door and there are always tons of students heading in and out and sitting in the garden.
@David Interesting, thanks fir that. This is the last I saw about it
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/business/news/article.cfm?c_id=3&objectid=10735332
@ AKT, thanks.
Yeah in my youf! haha, I stayed there a few times, My friend had a room overlooking Parnell (as such).
so good times to be had in that building. its a pity they can’t fix it from the inside out and make it a really good functional train station again and also a place to stay.
you could also get a bar a in there too.
such an awesome grand out building.
although all the cars parked out the front should be scraped and go back to the gardens that it use to be.
is the car parking space under the building still in use?
@Carl Yes you can still park around there
It is clear that there is platform development going on, plus a new flight of stairs to the Strand. Yes, I can see this will be a railway station that could be used as an alternative to Britomart and good for commuters who want to travel between stations on the two lines. For example it would be good if I wanted to go from Remuera to Parnell, or to Orakei as I sometimes do.