It’s good to see the NZ Herald doing a “good news” article on rail, on the progress of the New Lynn Rail Trench specifically. It seems as though digging the trench is coming along at a surprisingly fast pace – and we can actually see some of the progress for the first time now, as shown in the (small) image below:
The New Lynn Rail Trench is a critical project, and will be the last little bit of the Western Line to be double-tracked. The trench will allow for a higher frequency of trains to operate on the Western Line, and will also ensure that the train line doesn’t cut New Lynn in half as much as it does at the moment. I am pretty sure that funding has been secured to complete the New Lynn railway station – which will sit in the trench – and will quite probably end up being one of Auckland’s busiest suburban stations. I shall try to get out to New Lynn some time in the next week or so and take some photos of the progress that has been made – it just seems recently every Sunday the weather is total rubbish.
The article provides a couple of quite good quotes from contractors currently working on the rail trench about how things are progressing, which apparently is “faster than expected”. I doubt that we’ll see the project actually completed before it is meant to – but it is always good news to be ahead of schedule rather than behind.
Ontrack project director Ted Calvert said yesterday that about 40m of the trench had taken shape between long, pre-sunk retaining walls, at the site of a new railway station to be built between road bridges at the Clark St roundabout and Hetana Ave.
A concrete slab 800m thick has been laid along about 12m of the trench, enabling steel workers to start building a 200m platform, which will be large enough for trains of at least eight carriages once the project is completed next winter.
Next year does look like it will be quite an exciting year for Auckland’s train system, with this opening along with the Onehunga Line. Hopefully we might get integrated ticketing too!
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I’m originally from that area, and the effect of having the railroad cut through the middle of New Lynn was never good, and it’s only been getting worse as traffic and rail volumes have increased.
I would *love* it if you could take some decent pictures of the progress!
Cheers
I will really try to get out there this weekend and take some photos.
I wonder if the rail trench is wide enough for more than two tracks? It certainly looks damn wide in the photo above!
The interesting thing about the Herald article was its comment about the skills Fletcher has acquired through its participation in the project. OK, the Herald says this will benefit the Victoria Park tunnel project but, surely, this same skills transfer could be used as a further argument for the CBD tunnel, ie build it while the skills and experience (not to mention the equipment) are still around.
I’m not quite sure what tunnelling technique is likely for the CBD tunnel. The fact that they’re going under streets suggest some cut & cover methods might be used (similar to Victoria Park), but at the same time I think there are parts of the CBD rail tunnel that will have to be VERY deep – so a bored tunnel might be more likely.
I have to say that overall I think the CBD rail tunnel will probably be bored and not cut & cover. So different equipment, different skills etc.
Way back in the dark ages when Newmarket had a yard a throughway between shops and onto an overbridge provided some pretty direct access from Broadway to the station. Do you know if this will still be the case or is the only access to the new station to be from Remuera Rd?
Also is it intended that there will be no services to Waitakere if the electrification is only going as far as Swanson?
I think there will be direct access from Broadway to the new station.
And yes, electrification will only go to Swanson. There’s a big tunnel between Swanson and Waitakere that would be just too expensive to enlarge for electrification as the number of trains that continue to Waitakere is minimal.
I don’t really think the Waitakere tunnel is all that much of a problem. Wasn’t the approach to northern portal much improved in the early 80’s? Here in Wellington, Ontrack along with HRS, Halverson Luke and others made short work of the old tunnels on the J’Ville line. No need for the line to be double tracked if say only half of west bound services went on to Waitakere from Swanson. I visited Auckland recently and caught the train at Panmure. What a contrast to the old station stuck in the middle of nowhere off Ireland Rd. Exciting times for Auckland with rail taking its place as an vital part of Aucklands public transport. I just hope the National Govt neanderthals don’t derail it.
The thing is that Waitakere is barely a suburb – just a tiny village kind of in the middle of nowhere. It’s just not really worth extending electrification there unless you were to go all the way to Huapai, which might happen eventually if Huapai grows enough.