Subscribe to RSSKingsland Train Station Revamp Ready for July Rugby Test
The revamped Kingsland railway station will be ready in time for the All Blacks test with South Africa at Eden Park on July 10.
That’s the assurance this morning from Auckland’s RWC 2011 spokesperson, Auckland Chamber of Commerce’s Michael Barnett.
He says the $3m link lane between Walters Rd and Sandringham Rd will also be finished in time for it to be tried out during that match. The lane, the cost of which raised some eyebrows here recently, enables patrons to get a shortcut to the park.
In a report on how Auckland’s build-up is going, he says: “These upgrades, combined with the comprehensive traffic and transport planning around both Eden Park and North Harbour stadium will ensure fans will easily be able to travel to and from matches in Auckland.
“On the all important airport to CBD route, the new Manukau harbour crossing will be ready seven months earlier than planned. The $230 million project, which will cut up to 20 minutes from the journey between the airport and central Auckland, will now open in August.”
Kingsland will be ready but will the trains arrive on schedule?
Apart from the Kingsland station revamp (the underpass and extended platforms), the two-page report makes no other mention of public transport. This is is wise considering any promise the trains will arrive on time and there will be no signal failures, would be politically suicidal (remember the incident last year in which trains couldn’t leave Kingsland after a Blues game because of a signal failure.)
Work at Kingsland’s station was busy during the Christmas- January rail closure but then halted when rail services returned and the completion date put back.
Kingsland work during January
One assumes, the remaining work will be done over Easter.
Kingsland's underpass
RNZ 2011 CEO Martin Sneddon concludes: “We’re really pleased that Auckland is so well prepared this far out. It recognised early on after New Zealand won the bid to host the RWC, that it needed to get moving if we were to make the most of the tournament.
“However, these are not easy challenges for a major city and to see so much work on trackj for completion this year alone is both reassuring and a great example for other regions.”
4 Comments
That underpass does look like it will be woefully inadequate given that on match days the bridge is at capacity. They should have been a bridge across sandringham road to Walters Ave
I assume the size of the underpass is as much limited by the path going to it / the platform leading to it than anything. Makes little (a little but not much) sense to make it wider than the approach path.
And twice X is still twice X, even if x was narrow.
The footpath approaching is a non-matter as people will spill out onto the roadway and grass verge, it’s the platform width thats important, it would be stupid to make the underpass wider than the platform, it would be better to have the choke point outside rather than in the underpass.
I was talking about the platform. Capacity does not increase substantially, by having a wider underpass than the platform (which is the most obvious constraint, as you can’t simply widen it). There are some (amenity and safety) gains to be had however, if the underpass was slightly wider than the paths leading to and from it.