Subscribe to RSSRe-Siting Pukekohe Station
The Franklin district council wants the new Auckland Transport to consider re-siting the Pukekohe train station.
Its Pukekohe concept plan calls for work towards the eventual re-location of the rail station to the trench at the east end of King St, where it will serve the growing population (both working and living) in the town centre.
It also wants considered the use of the airspace above the rail trench to provide an “anchor” activity and link King St across to Stadium Drive.
Its recently published plan says the optimal location for the rail station would be the end of King St, where it would be:
- a key transport anchor supporting the town centre structure
- provide better integration with the bus terminal
- provide improved accessibility for the increasing numbers of people living in and around the town centre
- stimulate the economy, being a catalyst for development
- enable people like local students and retired people to live in the town centre without needing to own a car.
The location of the rail station was considered by ARTA in 2008 in a review of four upgrade options for the station.
Built in 1913, the rail station currently provides shelter for patrons, houses manual signalling equipment and has heritage value, yet is falling into disrepair.
The ARTA report acknowledged that locating the station closer to the main street would be preferable for an improved connection with the town centre and as a potential catalyst for development, but doing so would require costly corridor widening and track realignment.
It consequently proposed a short-term remedy of upgrading the station in place, and in the long-term investigating the feasibility of the three options for establishing the station near to the Stadium Drive Bridge, should there be a catalyst for widening the rail corridor such as ‘electrification’.
The council endorsed the upgrade in place option in September 2008.
This year, ARTA began further investigations into a new option of relocating the station to the western side of the tracks, which would be closer to the town centre.
This would provide a welcome improvement to the functioning of the town centre as a public transport hub.
The report says that for the town centre to fulfil its potential as a transit oriented development, an ongoing commitment to the long-term option of locating the station at the end of King Street is warranted, and actions taken to preserve this option.
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14 Comments
It certainly needs to be redeveloped and or re-located to better serve what has become the town centre, as it is it’s kind of inaccessible. Simply moving it to the other side of the tracks woul be a huge improvmement but moving it up to King St as proposed would seem to be a great option.
Needs to be closer to the main street and bus stop. I think a building like New Lynn station should be built over the trench next to King Street.
Probably VEEERY expensive, Chris, even without such a building up top. The trench near King Street is pretty deep - and while it won’t be New Lynn kind of difficult to accommodate a station there, I’d not be surprised at a low dozen million relocation cost. Pukekohe (or Auckland Council now), would have to come to the table with quite a big part of that money, as KiwiRail doesn’t have it.
To have the station right at King St would allow for bus stops to be located on the overbridge. Transferring from the feeder to the train would be a simple as falling down the stairs.
I drew a plan like this when I was form 5 at high school some fricking 13 years ago, I got top marks in my class, but got laughed off by the local council at the time.
I don’t need to lie, because I still have the plan at home.
idiots! they are about 10 years behind the ball on this play.
and the idea of the feeder bus idea would be great, where I currently live it works a treat, they should also make a tunnel that feeds straight into the stadium for rapid train movement on game days.
I bloody hope they actually do something about it. but they will need to correct the road and the bridge over the tracks if they are going to build a feeder section, because at present that bridge is the main flow of traffic in out of town centre. Heavy traffic also uses it with farmers traveling back and forth to the local T & G depot on the other side of town.
also they do cover over the trench and put shops and parking on top. sell the spaces and make money from it?
hasen’t there been talk of selling “air space before”
thanks for the update !!!
So you’re a local, Carl? Do you know why the station is where it is in the first place? Curious.
Why do you feel Stadium Drive’s bridge would have to be reconstructed? I don’t quite understand that comment…
Not sure the land prices in Pukekohe for “air space” would be high enough to make constructing the trench foundations worth the cost, I am afraid. Even at New Lynn, they didn’t do it (the New Lynn trench can be STRADDLED by future building foundations, and it can be COVERED with something leight-weight like a linear park - but it isn’t actually designed for building loading).
While the proposed move of the station to the western side might help bringing it nearer to the main street it would not work for extending services further south. A quick and easy fix is to replace the footbridge that used to connect the station to Manakau road by the council buildings.
The station used to be at the bottom of King Street but was moved to where it is now when the track was lowered to remove the level crossing at the bottom of East street.
Am a lokal yes (all though overseas) My concern is, there are twin bridges on either side of the trench, both could actually be used for buses to pull in ect, for connecting services, but they are main transport routes with heavy traffic using them a lot. I think in gap that is down there the station would be awesome because its below the road and it would give it an underground feel. They could tunnel under the road to steelers stadium and also make it a special events stadium stop. The problem which will raise eyebrows is parking and the lack of it.
This where a foot traffic tunnel idea to the stadium comes into play. There is space there during the week to park cars and if the union and the council worked together, they could actually develop a muit level carpark for the train and the rugby, this killing two birds with one stone so to speak.
having it at the bottom of the street (King) is great. People could come down for the weekend, do a spot of shopping then get straight back on the train and go home. Within walking distance of the bottom of king street is actually quite a lot in Puke. Plenty of bars, cafes, small shops and the public services. if you had a direct bus like to waiuku, puni and Patamohe, that could also work.
plus if you were really keen, they could also have a weekend summer bus service to port waikato for surfers.
so many interesting ideas to be had!
thanks jon, this has got me really interested again!
Sounds like there’s indeed some opportunities there, Carl. Let’s hope some of them get taken up eventually.
Apologies for perhaps missing this information, but when talking about relocation - are they referring to position or actual building or both? Is consideration being given to a purpose built modern station, or has there already been a decision made to keep the original building?
@Paula Welcome. At the moment it is about the location of the existing building but hopefully with modern facilities.
Just picked up some friends at Pukekohe rail station who have arrived from England. They were disappointed as I was by the state of repair and the lack of personal service at the station, they commented that it would have heritage potential and could be brought back to life to it’s forma glory and made to look like a station than a run down wooden shack . what are the plans to date?.
Slight problem with the service at the moment is that it is so infrequent and no weekend service that they are severely lacking in service for the growing town and surrounds to provide a proper commuter service to give an alternative to driving in. I’m restricted to travelling by train as my wife needs the car. The amount of times there are cancellations or problems requiring a bus shuttle or totally cancelled gives the impression Pukekohe is not really a proper station although now in Auckland super city domain. Bring on a high speed commuter service from Hamilton stopping at Pukekohe! Please Kiwi rail/Veolia rethink Pukekohe as a viable stop and the passengers will come with a proper ‘city’ service’.