ARTA are holding an “Open Day” on the Onehunga Line, where we can come along and hear about their plans, next Tuesday evening. It should be an interesting evening – as hopefully we learn a bit more about what’s going to happen in terms of some of the details. I’m curious about a few things actually:
- Will the services go all the way to Britomart? I’m convinced that it will fail if the trains terminate at Newmarket.
- Where will buses be re-routed to complement the train station?
- What kind of services are ARTA proposing?
- What weekend services are ARTA proposing?
- Have they talked to Dress-Smart Onehunga about encouraging more of their shoppers to use the line?
Hmmm… so many questions, well here’s what I think on those issues.
Firstly, yes I am convinced that the service will need to go to Britomart and not just to Newmarket. Back in April there were rumours that the service might terminate at Newmarket, presumably because the available slots into Britomart are limited – due to the need for a CBD Rail Tunnel. However, in June there seemed to be confirmation that this wouldn’t happen, and that the service would go all the way to Britomart. It was also confirmed that the stations would be located in (roughly) the following locations:
In terms of integrating with surrounding bus services, this issue is a little trickier. There is a bus station in Onehunga at the moment, although it’s on the other side of the main shopping street. All the busesfrom Mangere and further south, that pass through Onehunga, currently chug through that bus station – which is rather inconveniently located in comparison to the train station. I hope that ARTA do look at re-routing many of the buses past the train station, so that the option is available for people coming from further south to hop off the bus and onto the train at Onehunga. However, one issue with that is the lack of integrated ticketing in Auckland – goodness knows when we’re going to fix that up.
Setting the need for the service to go all the way into Britomart aside for a minute, I think what will – more than anything else – determine the success or failure of the Onehunga Line, are the proposed service frequencies. A few options seem to have been bandied about: half hour frequencies at peak hour, hourly frequencies at other times, not sure about the weekend. Well, I am going to be pretty bold here in saying that half hour frequencies are essential for this to succeed. Not just at peak hour, but inter-peak, during the evenings and (perhaps most importantly) at the weekend. This level of certainty for services will encourage people to use the train, and while patronage levels off-peak might start off pretty low, I do think that over time the consistency of the service will encourage people to take it up.
One significant drawcard for weekend services would be for people trying to get to Dress-Smart Onehunga, a shopping mall (outlet centre) that is the big white splodge just about where the Onehunga Train Station in the map above. Contrary to the claims of their website, Dress-Smart does NOT have an enormous amount of free parking, and in fact on weekends it can be a mission and a half trying to find a parking space there. They also run a shuttle bus between the city and the mall during the week, which probably costs them a decent chunk of money too. What we’ve learned over the past couple of years since the Sylvia Park train station opened, is that people are very very keen to catch the train to a shopping mall if they’re given the chance. Sylvia Park is about the 4th or 5th most popular station on the network now, and I suspect at weekends it’s probably even higher. That success story could happen at Onehunga too – if we get some good integration between the shopping mall and the train station.
So what is good integration? Well here are some ideas for a start:
- Clear signage in the trains and also on the train timetables showing that you can catch the train to Onehunga station in order to access Dress-Smart.
- Clear signage at Onehunga train station pointing people in the direction of Dress-Smart (which is only a block away).
- Clear signage in the shopping mall showing people how to get to the train station – signage along the route too so people don’t get lost.
- Real-time information signs within the shopping mall showing people how many minutes it is to when the next train to Britomart departs. This would make people who are unaware of the train station, actually aware of the service and how easy it is to find out when the trains leave.
- Half-hourly frequencies at weekends – so it’s not a disaster if you miss a train.
I’ll take these ideas along to ARTA next Tuesday. Are there any other ideas that people think would help make the Onehunga Line a success?
Think of the work done when Sylvia Park’s station was introduced. When guards and announcements once said “Britomart to Papakura via the Waterfront and Glen Innes” they now say “Britomart to Papakura via Glen Innes and Sylvia Park”. I can see this happening for the Onehunga line…. It terminates at Dressmart, but you could always have references to Mt Smart Stadium? “Onehunga via Newmarket and Mt Smart”
What about late night services for events at Waikaraka Park – patrons can disembark at Oranga or Te Papapa and walk to the speedway?
Seen the Manukau Airporter 380 bus run from Manukau to the Airport? What if we ran a service from Onehunga – Airport direct? This could give ARTA an idea of the patronage that could use light rail links to the Airport?
“All the trains from Mangere and further south, that pass through Onehunga, currently chug through that bus station ”
Trains?
In fact you might like to proof read the whole post – some inconsistencies.
Thanks for that Chris – I think that’s the only mistake. Must remember not to write posts and watch TV at the same time!
“just ‘about’ the Onehunga Train Station in the map above”
Eagle eye
Feeder buses from Mangere..?
What about station design, is the Onehunga station going to be pretty temporary, i.e. till electrification or the SAL and Airport lines..?
This will not happen, but I’ll suggest it anyways, how bout free travel on the line for a month to get people using the service, then they are able to experience the benefits and get hooked to public transport!
Sounds good to me, is Joshua and Jarbury one and the same..?
Confusingly, no.
But free travel for a month is a good idea I reckon. A damn good idea.
When passing through Takapu Road Railway Station in Tawa, DressMart has a sign which states its the stop is for Dressmart. But little else is done to get people onto the train. But I guess in the Tawa example there is ample room for parking and I’m yet to see the car park full. I would think with little effort, malls and business accosiations can provide cheaper fears just to get people spending in the area.
I think money also has to go into urban design to encourage more walking around the area, so people will be comfortable about walking to Dressmart and other areas in Onehunga
Melbourne recently opened Eastlink toll freeway was free for a month when it first opened, presumably to get drivers used to the route before the reality of tolls hit them. If a private consortium of venture capitalists think it is a profitable loss leader, then maybe ARTA should look into it!
At the least there would be no nasty articles in the Herald talking about the lines ‘failure’ after only one week of operation.
To get people catching the train to Onehunga for shopping, need to get good connections to other parts of the network. I would imagine that people going to Dress-mart would come much more from the suburbs as opposed to the CBD itself. It needs to be timetabled for good connections at Newmarket for services to the West, and Penrose for services to the South. Unfortunately the people of the Glenn Innes/Panmure area would have a roundabout route (via Britomart) to get to Onehunga. I guess you would need to do investigations as to where most customers would come from and timetable the onehunga trains to meet the appropriate services.
A lot of people seem to catch trains from Britomart to Sylvia Park to do shopping there at the weekend. I know that I’m probably not a “typical” person, but I have done it a few times and have seen others getting on the train at Britomart and off at Sylvia Park with me.
But yeah, it would make sense to have some integration with the timetable of the southern line.
To see the Onehunga line functioning like you suggest would be great but I would also suggest that ARTA need to consider the design of the actual station as well. Imagine how much larger the passenger catchment would be if you could ride a bike to the station and either take it on the bus or store it in a locker. Can you suggest that to ARTA at the “Open Day”? Park and Ride and its most simple form…
Bike storage sheds have been included at stations on the Northern Busway, so I see no reason why they shouldn’t be part of the Onehunga station.
I’ll add it to the list.
You can’t measure success unless you define it.
Here are some ideas.
Will it reduce traffic congestion? Imperceptibly.
Will it increase or reduce the burden on ratepayers to subsidise public transport? Increase
Will it increase or reduce noxious emissions from transport? Increase, until it is electrified, assuming it is.
Will a significant proportion of its users come from private car drivers? Unlikely
Will a significant proportion of its users come from existing public transport services, cycling and walking? Likely
Or is transport policy here measured by whether people use it, rather than whether it is a net gain for society given the transfers of money needed to make it happen. Because if there is no net gain, it is a wealth destroyer.
I would measure success through it providing people with a better transport option to the city, that is faster than the bus and more environmentally friendly than the car (especially once the line is electrified).
I don’t see a problem with many of its users coming from people who already catch the bus. It will provide them with a better transport option, and those buses that are no longer necessary can be used on routes that desperately need more capacity.