$75m upgrade but trains will go backwards

Newmarket's 96-year-old, graffiti-covered station.

Redevelopment spending of up to $75 million at Auckland's crucial Newmarket railway junction is unlikely to stop trains having to turn off to western suburbs in reverse.

Although the Auckland Regional Transport Authority is confident of cutting delays of almost four minutes to about one minute after making Newmarket a two-platform station by 2008, it doesn't believe a seamless turn is possible.

Most Waitakere-bound trains arriving at Newmarket from Britomart now have to back up a siding north of the station and parallel to The Warehouse, before heading west, a clumsy three-point manoeuvre which takes an average of 3 minutes 50 seconds.

Trains with driving cabs at each end can simply reverse up the western line from the existing one-platform station, but that depends on an absence of northbound rail traffic rolling through Newmarket to Britomart.

The transport authority is considering rebuilding the station for between $30 million and $65 million, depending on what facilities are to be developed around it. Reconfiguring the tracks will cost Government rail corridor owner Ontrack $10 million on top of that.

This is to cater for more than double the current number of rail movements through Newmarket, and an almost fourfold increase in passengers leaving or changing trains there, by 2016.

Possible associated facilities being discussed with community leaders include a concourse of shops above the railway tracks, incorporating Newmarket's 96-year-old station building, now disused and covered in graffiti but considered of heritage importance.

The planners believe it most likely the station will be rebuilt on or near its existing site, south of the turnoff to the western line, meaning the best they can offer passengers will be a one-minute delay while engine drivers walk from one end of a train to controls at the other.

Westbound trains will at least have their own platform at Newmarket when the development is complete, reducing any potential conflict with other traffic on the main trunk line.

But Auckland Regional Council chairman Mike Lee was dismayed to discover that the hefty investment planned for Newmarket would not stop trains having to reverse there.

He fears this will contradict the region's drive to a truly rapid-transit rail system with a 10-minute service frequency, and hamper those heading for Rugby World Cup matches at Eden Park in 2011.

"Newmarket is a vital station," he said. "It is very important now we are hosting the World Cup that people shouldn't have to watch the driver walk past with his kit bag.

"Auckland has had cases of bad decision-making in the past, for example Britomart, a wonderful station but with only two rail tracks going through its tunnel."

Mr Lee voted for a council transport policy committee resolution to ask the transport authority, a council subsidiary, to ensure the location of the upgraded station caters for long-term operational flexibility and improved travel times to all points past Newmarket.

The resolution was otherwise non-prescriptive, apart from urging the authority to retain the existing station building and vintage signal box as part of the upgrade.

But Mr Lee said after the meeting that the authority should look hard at re-building the station north of the junction, even if it meant buying property outside the narrow rail corridor left after a sell-off of railways land.

The authority has confirmed investigating building a station north of the junction, off Sarawia St, but officials yesterday pointed to what they saw as considerable technical difficulties.

Rail network development manager Simon Wood said it was on a steep grade, and although the ground could be levelled, departing trains would face a difficult climb.

Officials have also considered building a station on land owned by Ontrack within a triangle of tracks right on the Newmarket junction, but neighbouring commercial properties would have to be bought to fit 140m platforms.

Project manager Roger Mace said that would not only be costly, and prompt the re-development of a large chunk of central Newmarket, but would mean delaying the completion date past 2008.

Mr Lee urged planners to "get Newmarket right" given its importance to rapid transit. He asked them to think about integrating the heritage building into a working station rather than isolating it in a concourse above the tracks.