In addition to the station there will also be a bus/rail interchange on Davies Ave. The interchange will occupy Davies Ave between Wiri Station Road and Putney Way. ARTA plan to migrate all bus services from their existing routes along Leyton Way to this interchange – providing excellent bus/rail and bus/bus interchange.

The location for the station should probably be seen in the context of Manukau in the future, not as it is now (building for the future, how novel). Manukau City is a growth node and high density residential will be needed to provide for the predicted growth. So although in a perfect world the rail would have come further into the centre it’s current location isn’t too bad. If it’s there or nowhere, I’ll take there! The combination of the rail and the park edge are a great attraction for investment. If MIT do end up building here, and it seems pretty positive at the moment, this will be a great anchor for further development (not to mention a great driver of patronage for the station!).

It’s also worth noting that in early to mid next year (April-ish) the new SH20 to SH1 connection will open, reducing the traffic volumes (particularly heavy trucks) on Wiri Station. This will change the function and nature of the road (and the wider network including Davies Ave). So hopefully we’ll end up with a much less CAR-CAR-CAAAAR! environment around the City Centre.

Nick, as I understand it there’s no underpass (under Davies) planned at the moment. The intention seems to be to make Putney Way and Davies Ave an area where pedestrians have the priority.

The latest Manukau Matters (http://www.manukau.govt.nz/uploadedFiles/manukaugovtnz/Around_Manukau/Manukau_Matters/MM68.pdf) has more info on all the projects. However, the pictures of the station and interchange should be considered warily. If MIT build here the station design is likely to be completely different. Given the floor space MIT are wanting this will probably mean a ground floor station integrated into a multi-storey building above.

Lots of good stuff happening in Manukau, now we just have to pray to the integrated ticketing gods…

I can tell you from experience that the Puhinui Station is virtually non-existent. It is in the middle of nowhere and feels abandoned. And since Papatoetoe is so big, it only serves the western part of the subburb, so the new Manukau Station would have been really popular if it was along Great South Road, rather than being in Wiri.

Thank God though that something is going ahead. All we usually get is talk, talk and more talk. Hopefully they can extend the link through to the eastern suburbs. Why cant they just get on with it? Considering how important it is for the region, they are being really slow. I guess the priority is still roading.

The station would be best located in a cutting between the MCC offices and the square, but the MCC was to cheap to stump up $10 million so the underpass of Dvies Ave was cancelled. Oh well, such is life in Auckland.

Hopefully the southlink is built.

One thing that I dont like about this plan is the LOCATION. Hayman Park is like the abandoned part of the so called CBD that no one wants to go to. It is suurounded by huge roads (such as Wiri Station Road) which are a nightmare for pedestrians. Would have been more nice of its location was more to the east around Great South Road-closer to the residential areas. Right now, its smack bang in the middle of a semi-industrial area-unless ofcourse MCC encourages high density residential development in the future.