KEY POINTS:
Auckland City and the regional council have lined up with business associations to press government agency Ontrack for a railway station near Parnell's main street.
They also want the historic Newmarket station building resurrected next to the tracks in the gully between Parnell and the Domain, rather than
at a site which Ontrack is investigating beside the rail bridge over the busy road junction of The Strand and Stanley St.
But Ontrack, which has a budget of up to $5 million to relocate the century-old building now in storage at an undisclosed location, says the gully site presents "considerable technical challenges" for constructing a working station.
That could mean having to restore the 50m heritage building at a separate site to the working station, given scarce space next to the railway bridge, an idea which regional and city council leaders regard as unacceptable.
Regional council chairman Mike Lee said last night that it would be unthinkable to split the two facilities, and he accused Ontrack of looking for excuses not to follow the wishes of Aucklanders.
"It would be ridiculous to have some sort of antique trophy station sitting there doing nothing," he said of the heritage building.
He said Newmarket's old signal box building should also ideally go to Parnell "to form a heritage station precinct - a museum stop perhaps".
"This would help trigger a renewal and beautification programme for the historic but now weed-infested Waipapa Valley."
Auckland City transport committee chairman Ken Baguley questioned the location of even a working station above the Strand and the former Carlaw Park, as being investigated by Ontrack.
"It wouldn't relate to Parnell sticking it there at the bottom of the rise," he said.
He believed the heritage building should become part of a working station, at a more accessible location for the Parnell community and others such as museum visitors, about 75m north of the Mainline Stream Trust's depot in the Waipapa Valley below the Domain.
"It would be great to open a little restaurant there, which people could get off the train and use," he said.
Business associations of both Parnell and Newmarket are also keen on the proposal, which gathered momentum from an announcement last year by Finance Minister Michael Cullen of a budget of up to $5 million for relocating the heritage station building.
But Ontrack spokeswoman Jenni Austin said yesterday that the steep one-in-40 grade of the Waipapa Valley site could push the cost of developing a station there well above that amount, possibility into "tens of millions of dollars".
She said the only other Auckland station on that sort of grade was at Avondale, and Ontrack already had plans to move it to a flatter site.
