Brian Rudman: Terminal sees end to all the dithering - we hope

When the first train left Fort Britomart station at the foot of Anzac Avenue at 8am, on Christmas Eve 1873, bound for Onehunga via Penrose, it carried only 15 passengers. "Owing to the procrastination that has occurred in finishing the line," wrote a reporter, "very little interest appeared to be taken by the public."

One hundred and thirty years on and the new Britomart station due - weather permitting - to open for business today, I can sympathise with our forebears' lack of excitement when their red letter day finally dawned. You can only sustain enthusiasm for anything for so long.

And as it was in the 1870s, procrastination remains the ruling principle in designing an Auckland commuter transport system.

Still, then as now, Aucklanders can't resist a novelty for long and the very next day - Christmas Day - a "large" crowd clambered aboard the two-carriage 8am service to Onehunga, many hopping off to visit the famous Ellerslie Gardens (now the racecourse) on the way.

It will be interesting to know whether train speeds have changed much in 130 years. The original Auckland-Onehunga service was run by Messrs Brogden and Son and timetabled at 24km/h. But the driver was an "enthusiast" who "sometimes succeeded in getting 25 miles [40 kilometres]" out of his little engine, for which he was nicknamed "Hell-fire Jack".

"Jack" might have achieved that speed downhill, but on one occasion at least, bringing a large load of sightseers back from watching sham "military manoeuvres" at the gardens, his little engine was unable to make it up the Remuera hill.

"It was a case of all hands to the pumps," said a subsequent newspaper report. "The Naval Brigade was called upon to give the puny engine a helping hand. With much good will and singing sea shanties the train was pushed to the top of the grade ... "

Hopefully the assembled dignitaries who were out of bed before dawn today, to ride the first train into the new station, were not called upon to give the same sort of helping hand.

Given the present friction, if that had happened, chances are they'd still be out there, with Gwen Bull and her Auckland Regional Council gang heaving in one direction, while John Banks and the other mayors were busy up the other end of the train pushing against them. Meanwhile, neither group would have noticed the real problem was that the Infrastructure Auckland spoilsports had sneaked in hours before and repossessed the tracks.

In November 1930, when the Queen St station (which replaced the Fort Britomart station in 1885) was abandoned in favour of the grand new Beach Rd palace, the New Zealand Herald supplement writer found it hard to control his ideological excitement.

"The terminal facilities of this city had been inadequate for 20 years ... Only under state ownership of the railways would the inadequacies ... . have been endured so long."

The move was great for freight purposes, but not, as another supplement writer pointed out, so good for commuters. As part of the planning for the Beach Road project there was a Government-backed plan to build a tunnel from the main station underground to Morningside to link with the line North and West.

It involved an underground station at the town hall. The idea had been put forward as early as 1912 by the Northern Railway League. Adopted by the Railway Department in 1924 it got the backing of Parliament and a start date was set for 1928.

There was talk of a further station adjacent to Newton School and endorsement for the electrification of both this line and all the Auckland suburban network. Minister of Railways Gordon Coates said that considering the bottleneck nature of the road approaches to the city, the prospect of added business to the electrified trains was alluring.

In 1930 and the Depression biting, the undergrounding plans were dropped. But the Herald writer remained confident that "the day must come when Auckland has an underground, in view of the change in traffic flow that the new station has brought about."

"Nothing," he said, "is more certain than that underground transport will eventually be necessary in Auckland. The traffic problem will compel it."

At the risk of being quoted for laughs in 50 years' time, I have to agree the underground solution is still the obvious solution to Auckland's traffic woes. But just as in 1873 and 1930, finding the money and the political will remains the stumbling block.