Subway proposal for Auckland's CBD

By CATHY ARONSON

The Auckland City Council is investigating building a $400 million rail tunnel through the central city.

The 3km tunnel would run from Britomart, the new downtown underground train station due to open in July, to the western line near Mt Eden.

The inner loop would travel under the downtown area and Albert, Vincent and Pitt Sts, under the central motorway junction and emerge to connect with the western rail line between Dominion Rd and the Mt Eden station.

It would have stations along the way, reached from the street near Sky City, the Town Hall and Karangahape Rd.

Train lines from south, east and west Auckland at present end at the train station in Beach Rd.

The trains will travel a further 1km into the CBD for the first time in July when the $211 million Britomart train station opens near QEII Square at the bottom of Queen St.

But the five train tracks will come to a dead end at Britomart, requiring push-pull trains to back out of the station. As well, only two tracks lead into Britomart, making trains wait to move in and out.

Auckland transport committee chairman Greg McKeown said Britomart, which is 11m underground, was designed to eventually take trains out the other side to link the network.

"What's the point of a train that doesn't take you where you want to go? We have invested this much in rail so far, so we need to plan for how we will improve it in the future."

The underground trains would not be affected by traffic, pedestrians or bad weather and would provide fast, seamless inner-city travel.

Early investigations of the proposal by consultants Tonkin & Taylor say the tunnel would be technically feasible. It would have to be dug 20m to 30m underground to avoid the Vector power cable, the Orakei sewer line, foundations and other underground services.

It would run mostly under the roads to avoid negotiations with land-owners and could have two separate tunnels to safely separate the tracks.

The council is preparing a detailed report for its transport committee meeting next month.

Mr McKeown said the project would need a combination of national and regional funding from Transit, regional council rates and regional bankers Infrastructure Auckland.

Most of Infrastructure Auckland's transport funding is already spent or earmarked for other projects.

Infrastructure Auckland's transport project manager, Geoff Goodwin, said the proposal would have to be part of the region's rail business plan to seek funding from the $270 million available between 2006 and 2012.

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