At the old Auckland Railway Station near Britomart, there appear to be new electric pylons going up, and there are new paint markings on the platform as if this station is going to be used again. What are the plans for this site? Jonty Victor, Auckland.
This is all part
of the electrification of Auckland's railway lines in preparation for the introduction of new electric trains, which begins in April. A major part of the rail upgrade is in the section between Britomart and Quay Park, which includes the old railway station, now decommissioned.
At present the track is set up so that trains coming from around the waterfront can access three platforms, and trains coming from Newmarket (the majority of the traffic) can only access the other two. Once completed, the new track layout will allow trains from both main lines to access all platforms and run on either of the two tracks in and out of Britomart. This will provide greater flexibility in train movements by allowing for:
Faster recovery from operating incidents such as a train breakdown or signalling outages.
Fewer delays as trains will not have to wait to get into the station.
