Subscribe to RSSEllerslie Train Station Revamp Details
Ellerslie’s revamped train station – first revealed by AKT – will involve reducing the station’s platform by 2 metres in width and extending it by another 20 metres.
The project will cost $8m but NZTA says all up the cost is up to $20m.
Driving the change is that the Southern Line tracks need to be relocated to create space for an additional northbound lane to be constructed on the adjacent SH1 at a later date.
The station will look similar to those at Kingsland and Sylvia Park, with a new lift for pedestrian access connecting to bridges over the motorway and train lines.
The existing stone ramp will be replaced by a set of stairs, and a second lift will provide better access to Kalmia Street from the rail overbridge.
ELLERSLIE: How the new station will look |NZTA
Two new shelters will be added to help protect passengers from the weather.
Construction is getting underway and will be in full swing during the Christmas rail closedown. It is scheduled to be finished in March.
ELLERSLIE TRAIN STATION TODAY: Platforms to change
As part of the upgrade, the pedestrian bridge from the town centre to the station will close temporarily. During the closure, the bridge will be lifted to a new height that gives improved clearance for traffic on the motorway beneath. The nearby underpass for pedestrians, cyclists and mobility users will remain open during the closure with security employed to monitor the site.
Because of the motorway component, NZTA is driving the project in association with the other key stakeholders KiwiRail and Auckland Transport.
Train services continue to run except for the network closures.
25 Comments
The lines are being relocated for a future motorway lane adjacent???? Shouldn’t that read relocated for a future express LINE !
I doubt there will be any space for a new rail line - as usual in Auckland rail is shunted to the side in order to create more space for the car. If the city was sane it wouldn’t be cutting 2m off the platform (what does that leave us with? A tiny 2-3m platform now?) to give cars what must be 8+ lanes now atrocious IMO.
This clearly far to engineer driven, they are obviously extending the platform to make up for the loss of width but while the total area might be the same the trains aren’t getting longer so it just means that more people will be standing further away from where the train will probably stop meaning further to walk and potentially slowing down dwell time slightly.
At first I thought they were moving the whole station but now that we learn that the platform is just being narrowed to allow the motorway widening it shows once again that PT is a second class citizen when compared to roads.
There are some more images of the works here
http://www.nzta.govt.nz/network/projects/ellerslie-train-station-improvements/docs/ellerslie-new-layout.pdf
Again I will point out that this stretch of motorway is, from my observation, the most consistently-congested part of the entire network. The congestion is constant through most of the day, unlike other parts of the network, and is also normal during the weekend, again unlike other parts of the network.
Slicing 2m off the platform width is somewhat on the nose, but I’ve never seen it even close to full, even in the morning peak. The passenger inconvenience from this is going to be minimal.
It’d be nice if the commenters actually had some clue about the local conditions before going off the handle. I use Ellerslie station regularly, and I’m just not seeing this as a big problem. In fact, the additional shelter will be very welcome. I just hope we’re not going to lose the artwork that’s on the outside of the ramp structure at the village end.
I agree with Matt. Although I’m normally agaist motorway projects this strech is very congested and needs work. I remember seeing somewhere that adding an extra lane to the motorway here has a BCR of over 8 (the highest of any roading project in the region). If they are also doing up the station at the same time it seems like a win to me.
This is an essential project and in the process people get a whole lot of improvements to the station.
I can’t believe it brings out the negative in people.
It’s actually quite a wide platform already, having originally had a station building from the very early days (ie: 100 years or so back) - so chopping 2m shouldn’t make a huge impact. If it can improve the adjacent motorway choke-point then I support it. While I agree Akl can’t keep pushing rail aside for roading, targetted road improvements that make sense need to continue. Besides - NZTA will surely be covering the bulk of the cost!?!
I agree that this section of motorway is constantly congested and needs improvement but it is being implemented by slicing off part of the platform which is probably because it is easier rather than shifting the station properly.
Matt - I used to use the station daily and did so for years so know it well and while it is wide enough now what about in 20 years time if we keep seeing the growth that we are at the moment? I think the station will look a lot better than it does now but it isn’t clear if its getting additional shelters or just its current ones replaced as they might need to be changed with the narrower platform
It is still short sighted…. every new metre of motorway lane simply condemns us to further impoverishing auto-dependency, it will induce more driving and be full immediately. The response to this by the traffic engineers will be to find the next section of motorway ‘urgently needing’ to be widened. This will not stop until or unless other structural forces intervene, such as further crippling rises in the cost of motoring. People will be priced off the roads, but will they have any real viable alternative? Other than not eating, that is.
Patrick, this section has needed widening for at least a decade, and probably longer. I cannot think of another section of the motorway that has had such a high level of congestion so consistently for so long, and I’ve done a lot of km’s on the motorways.
Seriously, y’all have to stop viewing Every. Single. Motorway. Project as a vicious, backwards-looking step that will consign us to automobile-dependence forever. Sometimes they’re really justified on any objective grounds considered by someone with an open mind, though admittedly not very often. This will be a lane constructed for ordinary traffic flows, not just the “solve the peak congestion” bollocks we normally see.
The kinds of knee-jerk reactions on display in here are not helpful with changing attitudes towards non-car transport promoters.
Matt L, the station’s patronage would have to increase by several hundred percent to even start to be a challenge with reduced platform width. It’s just not an issue. Right now, the busiest I’ve ever seen it still looks vast and empty.
The upgrade summary talks of three new shelters, right now there are only two so there’s at least one additional shelter.
…death by a thousand cuts
@Matt
I just hope we’re not going to lose the artwork that’s on the outside of the ramp structure at the village end.
Some idiot of late drove a stolen car into one of the mosaics and the council and local business community have rallied to have it all repaired. I am under the impression that the art works will be kept and incorporated in new works.
Matt the operative word there is ‘right now’. Look I’m not overly fussed with this instance but it’s the meme that it so elegantly betrays that is interesting. The total dominance of auto privilege even crowds out the possibility of future growth…. two tracks into Britomart anyone?
The platform width reduction is a non-issue, as even after it gets reduced, it will still be wider than most platforms on the network, including the Britomart and Newmarket platforms.
There will still be space for a third track if needed, as there’s a good ten metres to work with, and the extra road lane won’t need that much.
If NZTA want to build an extra lane then good on them go right ahead. but they should have to buy and use the land at teh other side instead as teh rail corridor is already intruded on enought by buildings and roads. Just look at Onehunga. They will have issues with the electrification of the line due to the appartments being allowed to be built too close and the overhead wire will be almost with in reach distance from the second floor windows. I can guarentee that Kiwirail will have to foot the cost for that not the building owner or the council for the poorly thought out building consent.
Best way to solve the congestion problem is to reduce the lanes from 3 to 2 forcing more people to reconsider driving 20km with only one person in the car to get to work.
Patrick, as I’ve said in here before, to get to the point where we need three lines through suburban stations we’ll have to grow our public transport use in absolute terms to be greater than Berlin, or Vienna, or Paris, all of which survive with two tracks through the majority of stations. It’s not an issue, and in the event that it does become one, the motorway corridor will likely be so empty that reclamation of the lane will have become possible.
Ryan, reducing the width has to be the stupidest idea I’ve yet heard. It’s a primary freight corridor, for one thing, and useful public transport options just don’t exist for a huge number of people passing through that area. You have to leave taking a big, steaming dump on the car drivers until after you’ve provided them with functional, useful, affordable alternatives.
That platform seems excessively wide anyway. I don’t think narrowing it will matter.
To all the people discussing 3rd lines. I doubt here will ever need a 3rd line. I think the NIMT might need one (better alinement for freight to the port, and medium speed intercity trains to the south).
I think if we ever have high volumes of freight going west/North we will need the avondale southdown line. It would be exceedingly expensive to get an extra line past Newmarket and Grafton etc.
Both removal of the bottleneck and a station upgrade are such positives. Great to see the continued upgrading of Auckland’s stations. I’d like to see the addition of noise barriers between the motorway and track as it’s a bit of a dismal / noisy place to stand currently. (Same see through barriers as St Mary’s Bay?)
Any plan to update Otahuhu train station? A bridge extending over to Station Road over Saleyards Road would be a great start.
DC I think Otahuhu needs a big rethink, and integration with passing bus routes should be at the top of this.
Wow, drove past on the motorway and works are already underway.
The wide platform at Ellerslie is a carry over from the when it had a station building on it. Unfortunately it was removed in the late 70′s I believe.
However, the sad thing is the historic ramp, built in the 1800′s will be removed. Little by little Auckland’s remaining rail hertiage is being wiped out. I guess that’s called progress.
Progress it is indeed.
Saw the starting works at Ellersile this morning and to be honest that 4th lane will be nice in getting that bottle neck sorted (probably need to extend it to the South Eastern Highway entrance as well
)
As for Otahuhu, for a major transfer station its a total dinge bucket and needs a serious upgrade. Even a nice big park and ride would be nice seems the Inner City Pass Monthly ticket terminates/starts there.
In the mean time, back to those pesky rail buses that every one loves
“y’all have to stop viewing Every. Single. Motorway. Project as a vicious, backwards-looking step”
When they (meaning Joyce and MoT mainly) stop viewing. every. single. public. transport. project as a waste of money to be stopped, slowed down or condescended to, I will start believing in “balanced” motorway expenditure.
Unclogging a motorway means releasing demand. Where is that going to go? Into the next bottleneck and into the local road network.
This is “finish the motorway network first” thinking, nothing else. A bit of greenwash by improving the station. Sure, the station WILL probably be better afterwards. But that’s not because they wanted to improve it, but because they wanted the land.