I was out at Manukau the other day so stopped by to see how how the new MIT campus was looking. The campus sits on top of and will be integrated to the Manukau station. The work is now primarily focused on inside the building.
Work is also going on in front of the building on Davies Ave. The crossing here will eventually link the new bus interchange and the train station.
Inside the building, is what the entrance to the station is expected to look like.
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Looking good, but needs some friends nearby.
Was out there recently and AT is gating the station and putting a ticket office and trehe exits at the ends of the platform will be closed off and be used only in emergencies.They puts toilet up near entrance and mirror was defaced.Which leaves one question why did they not gate panmure.
Likely to be done in the near future along with New Lynn, Grafton and Mt Albert.
More on gating in the next few days. Have some timelines to post
“what the entrance to the station is expected to look like”
wow
Note that all of that is MIT’s campus, building, so I assume will be closed off somehow in the evenings.
understood. Love the Pacific design influences that couldn’t be in some other part of the world.
Agreed on the Pacific design influences. I love how Auckland is slowly but surely taking its proper place as one of the great Pacific Rim cities. Every little bit helps, and its also nice to see this development happening in Manukau, helping to invigorate this regional city centre with fresh purpose.
Imagine what the Aotea Station entrance could look like..
Or Orakei Station entrance if the developers and AT do a proper job.
But there will be another entrance right?
Right now, there is little need for a secondary entrance. There is pretty much nothing to the west except some industry…
What I mean is, how will the station be used after hours if the entrance is right in the MIT campus? But as to your point, people travel to industry so an entrance that enables these trips seems reasonable to at least be planned for.
If MIT is anything like the city campus it will be open until midnight everyday anyway. Plus could easily be designed to gate off all access except station.
You leave the part open required to enter and exit the station and use a portable barrier to close of the rest of campus and full closure once all the trains have gone. Not that hard to do
On that note, does anyone know if the EMU’s will run late night or possibly 24/7, it seems sun-thurs always finishes around 10pm which makes train quite useless for people who do nightshifts, even if patronage is low the much lower cost of the EMU’s operation should make it fine to cater for everyone and make trains a full-on serious form of transportation as opposed to “oh shit, its late i have to get a taxi now and drain my bank account”. The airbus express runs all night, but… connecting PT services do not… lol… For me I have to get the bus back from work as I finish 11pm or sometimes midnight, those who do the later shift HAVE to drive unless there shift ends after 5am (around the first train service). The niterider is pretty good but it only caters to party-goers due to only operating sat morning (fri night) and sun morning (sat night), it seems the trains follow this with only doing late services on fri-sat nights. I believe EMU’s should cater to minorities too if it wants to win over more car drivers.
Yeah, trains will have to run until midnight. The last current buses to South Auckland are 1130/1145pm.
We do expect both much more frequent service [every 10 minutes] and extended hours. And will certainly be doing everything we can to hold AT to delivering both.
Based on the fact that the Station entrance sign indicates platform 1 and 2 both being used for departures to Britomart that they will “ping pong” trains between platform 1 and 2
[using it like a mini-Britomart]. Or is that wishful thinking on the artistic renderers part?
I’ve not been to Manukau since it opened.last year so don’t know how the platforms work now.
All I can remember about Manukau Station (other than it being too far away from the other buildings) is Councillor Quax’s statement on it being a “Boondoggle”.
It sure is a mighty fine looking Boondoggle if ever I saw one.
Artistic licence at present as even at peak trains only run at 20 min frequencies, rest of the day at 1hr.
Would do Henderson as well.Do all the major stations.Papakura would be possible I wonder though has alot of entrances andexits.
Its not even a ten minute walk along the road and you are in the back of manukau shopping centre
A shame that the project was delayed because of the Mainzeal collapse, the project was expensive enough as it was and judging by the amount of cutbacks by MIT in terms of staffing and class selections it has cost them dearly extra.
Still would be better if the station was A. Under the coming bus station and directly integrated with it, and B. Future proofed for through running.
I agree, there is probably no intention to have trains for the eastern suburbs
AMETI is mainly about busways (except for the Panmure interchange).
Through running to Botany via Te Irirangi Drive Patrick?
Yeah but when
It will be SO long until Manukau is big enough to justify the rail link to Botany, and vice versa that I don’t actually think it is worth safeguarding the corridor.
You’re not joking are you? You do realise that this kind of thinking is how we got in the mess of not having PT corridors in the first place? I presume you’ve been to Manukau recently or have driven along Ti Rakau – Te Irirangi?
No I am entirely serious. I see it being 50+ years before rail is justified on this corridor and the bus row can easily be upgraded to rail later if necessary
But there is a corridor that could be used as a busway and converted to LRT or Light Metro in the future. To lose it would be a huge step backwards. Also, I think you have grossly underestimated the potential for growth in the area and the potential, existing, demand for quality PT including in Botany and SE Auckland in general. I think you should visit Manukau. I was surprised at the changes just a couple of years ago. I suspect that’s even more profound today.
Didn’t they allow for rail to go down the middle of Te Irirangi Drive? It’s wide enough and ugly enough to fit it in. It’s currently like a drag race from one set of lights to the next.
Sorry Bryce, think I haven’t been very clear.
I don’t think that there is any point reserving a corridor to through route heavy rail along the existing Manukau line along to Botany. Definitely should protect the bus corridor and develop along the CFNtimeline then look to get Light Metro (Skytrain) as the CFN period wraps up.
Copy.
Te Irirangi Drive is designed to take at ground, elevated, or (via cut an cover) underground heavy or light rail. The problem is for heavy rail is that Manukau Station is not designed to allow the track to be extended via a tunnel to Te Irirangi Drive and then onwards to Botany. The true opportunity for a Botany heavy rail Line was lost in 2004 when the Eastern Transport Corridor got defeated.
And sorry sailor boy Manukau has just taken off again shrugging off its GFC slump and has begun expansion both within the Manukau City Centre and the surrounding industrial complexes in Wiri. That said for now we can run a bus corridor from the airport to Manukau and back to Botany at 15 minute frequencies 7 days a week for the next ten years. After that running a Sky Train type system along the same corridor building it in stages (bit by bit) can be built to move even more people at higher frequencies.
Just need the correct planning and patience.
I would suggest you will actually need far more frequency than that but yes, that is what I am thinking, except I don’t think that Heavy Rail will ever be justified, I prefer your skytrain proposal, except I would do your gray loop as a surface option, more like American Light Rail where ever possible and elevate it only to clear intersections if you have to.
We can easily run buses in their own row down the middle of Te Irirangi with priority signals at intersections. 10 minute frequencies would make it very well used I would expect. I can’t believe we haven’t already built it given we have the corridor. How much do we think to build?
I would say $60 million?
Have the developers and the railway people safeguarded the ability to extend the line east, if needed?
Nope
See this post http://greaterakl.wpengine.com/2012/04/17/history-never-repeats-except-for-transport-in-auckland/
Here’s Len Brown for ya.
Those high balconies/walkways with glass balustrades look a bit precarious. I envisage a flakey teen accidentally falling off it already.
Or copycat suicides from th Business building at UoA