Subscribe to RSSVideo: Avondale’s 1st Day
Avondale’s new $1.6m train station got its first customers early this morning.
Western-line trains, for the first time, stopped at the new station around Layard St, replacing the temporary station off Blockhouse Bay Rd and finally moving the station closer to the town centre.
A safety feature of the station is new automatic gates at the level crossing which lock when a train is approaching.
One disappointment is that cyclists are having to lock their bikes around the fence as there are no cycle racks. I’ll be interested to see when authorities frown on that practice as more bikes end up along the new fences.
Easy solution: cycle racks, please.
13 Comments
It’s great that there’s a double track all the way from Swanson to Britomart and it’s good that there’s a new station at Avondale. It’s a distinct improvement on the situation prevailing before and a far better service (better frequencies and generally on time services, today, at least) than what we were getting a decade ago. ARTA is to be congratulated for that; politicians and bureaucrats alike. But there are a number of significant design deficiencies at Avondale. I, for one, can’t get terribly excited by an automatic gate substituting for an overbridge (aside from anything else it’s not accessible to wheelchair users) and I’m afraid that my Cassandra-like warnings about the efficacy of the shelter on the Waitakere platform (platform 2) were borne out during today’s (relatively mild) weather: there was hardly a dry patch to be found as the SW wind blew the rain to the back of the space.
For some reason on my way home on the express we had to stop outside the station, just like before the double tracking was finished, then we had to crawl through the station and the crossings. We still managed to get to my station on time but it could have been so much better.
@commuter - I don’t think ARTA or anyone else would disagree that the overbridge is needed, but complain to Joyce he’s the one who has cut PT funding to the extent that such things are being cut.
Went through Avondale today, great station, and it’s great to see almost all the stations on Auckland’s network have been upgraded now - huge improvment from only 5 years ago.
Commuter - the pedestrian crossing can be used by wheelchairs.
A gate will take less time as well (when its open) so it should reduce the number of people crossing illegally.
Kalelovil - that may be the case on normal ped overbridges. But in this case, many users will be coming from a level up on the hill that means they will only have to go either up OR down, rather than up AND down as on a normal ped bridge. Also, this crossing will be used heavily as a local link. Perfect place for a bridge, so the cost-cutting here is particularly sad, even though with the gate it probably is safe enough.
Now… Otahuhu/Greenlane and Baldwin Ave need serious attention. They look like bombsites - well Otahuhu does.
Otahuhu needs a lot more lighting on the platform and at the exit paths asap.
@jon r
Greenlane Station. 5 minutes from Novotel Ibis Hotel (Rugby World Cup) Nearest station to Ellerslie Racecourse, Ascot and Greenlane Hospitals, Auckland showgrounds, One Tree Hill domain etc.
Has to be the front runner for the last few stations to be upgraded ?
@mike ARC says there will be no more new actual railway station revamps started before the RWC
Jon C - Thats a shame, we use the RWC as an excuse to get everything else done.
Personally I would like to see Mt Albert and Baldwin get properly upgraded so that all stations on the western line are finished. Also Baldwin Ave should possibly be moved closer to St Lukes Rd to allow for integration with buses etc
“Perfect place for a bridge, so the cost-cutting here is particularly sad”
I’m under the impression the change from a bridge to a crossing at Avondale was intentional, not from cost-cutting.
If one follows the sign posted at the pedestrian crossing then wheelchairs cannot be used; I suspect it has something to do with the steep incline on the Crayford St East side.
I note that there are pre-cast components for the abandoned overbridge in the former Avondale Station goods yard and would stress the point that in the community consultation exercise an overbridge complete with lift was indicated as being the preferred solution.
And as an extremely frustrating aside, I had to stand at the closed pedestrian crossing for in excess of three minutes this morning, unable to catch my train. As a consequence of double tracking, Britomart bound trains tend to arrive at Avondale earlier than the time indicated on the timetable. They are required to leave no earlier than the indicative time and, depending on the TM, they do. Unfortunately the early arrival activates the gate so no crossing is possible, even if one is, as I was this morning, on time.
It’s a cheap and less than optimal solution, second best really, which seems to be the usual thing with PT in Auckland.
Commuter - There is an emergency gate that can be used to bypass the main gates. I have been known to use that from time to time at Sturges Rd if a train coming from the other direction has activated the gates but is stopped at the station.