$5m hub to woo Manurewa cars

Manurewa has been set up as South Auckland's primary transport hub around a $5 million road-rail interchange opened yesterday by Prime Minister Helen Clark.

A bright new railway station has been built south of the town's dilapidated old one, in a more central location and with a wide pedestrian overbridge linking its two 140m platforms to covered bus-stops and commuter parking for 200 cars.

Strong lighting, closed-circuit television and security patrols are aimed at keeping it in pristine condition and giving more people confidence to use it.

That is in contrast to the old station, on which a neighbour used to splash his own paint to mask graffiti, and a young couple were busy puffing cannabis yesterday afternoon - out of sight of the security cameras surveying the new platforms up the line.

The new station's pedestrian bridge will eventually be matched by a walkway through to Manurewa's main street, although the Southmall shopping mall is likely to be a busy thoroughfare for passengers until the town centre is revamped.

The interchange, for which bus timetables have been adjusted and extended to offer more and better connections with trains, is the first for the Auckland region since Britomart Transport Centre opened three years ago.

But community leaders emphasised yesterday that there was still much to do to woo enough Aucklanders on to public transport to take pressure off the region's congested roads.

A third road-rail interchange is due to open at Henderson within two months, to be followed by others at Papakura and Newmarket.

Manukau Mayor Sir Barry Curtis set the tone of yesterday's event by saying that although public transport users in his city had been badly served in the past, the new facility was exactly what was needed to persuade people to leave their cars at home.

"As the saying goes, build it and they will come," said Sir Barry, whose city shared a $1.5 million contribution with the Government, to supplement a $3.5 million grant from Auckland Regional Council's asset-holding subsidiary.

"I am certain more and more people will be using public transport because it is the sensible and better alternative to cars in many instances. Manurewa now has probably the best bus and train station in the region after Britomart."

Auckland Regional Transport Authority deputy chair Rabin Rabindran warned that unless an "unsustainable" growth in car ownership was curbed, Auckland's hope of becoming a world-class centre would remain in doubt.

Helen Clark said the Government shared that hope and noted its involvement with the region in a high-level exercise by officials to reach agreement on strategic transport development over the next 20 to 30 years.

She noted that the Government had committed $8 billion for the first 10 years to Auckland's overall transport needs, which include major motorway projects, but stopped short of mentioning a potential shortfall of up to $4.4 billion which triggered the officials' exercise.

She said she was delighted by a 32.5 per cent growth in Auckland's annual rail patronage for the year to June 30, to more than 5 million passenger trips.

Manukau City Council staff report that the new interchange's park-and-ride area has been full since it began operating this week.

Manukau City Council staff report that the new interchange's park-and-ride area has been full since it began operating this week and plan to create more "overflow" spaces near the abandoned old station.

"There is a huge latent demand out there - we can't keep up with it," said senior transport official Steve Dudley.

The council is also urging commuters to park at the remodelled Homai railway station 2km further north, where there is room for 300 cars.

Auckland Regional Council chairman Mike Lee, who arrived with transport authority officials on a "nearly full" train, said Manurewa was an example of interconnecting hubs needed to foster strong economic growth around town centres and to reduce urban sprawl.

But he said that although his council had quadrupled its public transport spending in four years, to a committed $145 million this year, better cost controls and purchasing procedures were needed as well as closer integration between bus and rail.