It’s taken a while but AT has finally got around to posting the video that shows what the interior of the new EMUs will look like. They say the colours are still a work in progress so don’t get to caught up about them just yet.
We should get a chance to see what the trains will look like in person soon as the next mock-up from CAF should already be on the boat as it is due to arrive in June and after it has been reviewed by AT will be put on public display somewhere to allow people to comment on it. Here is the latest photos of that Mock-up from the April AT board report, once this arrives I think it will really help to get the wider public excited about them.
Good to see some further progress on the electrification project today, with the contract for the depot where the electric trains will be maintained and housed, being signed:
Auckland Transport has awarded the $40 million contract for the construction of the Wiri Maintenance and Stabling Depot for Auckland’s new electric train fleet to Downer New Zealand Limited (Downer).
Located next to the South-Western Expressway on Wiri Station Road on the old Winstone’s Quarry Site, the Wiri Maintenance and Stabling Depot will be the facility for maintaining and stabling the new electric trains that will be progressively introduced to the Auckland suburban rail network from early 2014 onwards.
The 7650 square metre building will have seven maintenance berths and will include systems that lift trains to enable maintenance, high level platforms to access the roof of trains along with a wheel lathe.
Downer, with their building construction partner Dominion Constructors, will also be responsible for development of the rest of the site including a train wash, cleaning platforms and stabling for 28 trains. Approximately six kilometres of new rail track makes up the sidings and connections to the Auckland suburban rail network. The facility has been futureproofed to maintain a fleet of up to 109 electric trains.
Mayor Len Brown says the Wiri Depot contract is a critical milestone in the electrification of Auckland’s rail network and a vital move towards a single, efficient, integrated transport network.
“This is a significant step to getting Auckland moving, and having a world-class, modern transport system that this region needs,” says the Mayor.
Auckland Transport Chief Executive David Warburton is pleased to see Downer joining the project that will ultimately result in the introduction of a new fleet of fast and comfortable electric trains as part of the on-going upgrade of public transport services in Auckland.
“The construction of the maintenance and stabling depot is a major step towards giving Aucklanders a 21st century rail service that will help keep the country’s largest city moving. It will also provide much needed jobs in the construction sector during the build. I’m delighted to welcome Downer and their subcontract partners to the team and have every confidence that they will exceed our expectations in terms of delivering the project on time and within budget,” he says.
Downer’s Major Projects Executive General Manager Fraser Wyllie is proud their organisation is able to contribute to the creation of a new era of rail travel for Aucklanders. “We are excited to be able to support the Auckland Transport Team on this transformational project for our city and extend the range of services Downer provides to one of our most important Clients,” he explains.
Significant earthworks to prepare the site for the Depot’s construction commenced in January 2011. The Depot build will commence shortly and take approximately 13 months. Once completed, the Wiri Maintenance Depot will be jointly managed by train operator Veolia and the manufacturers of the electric trains, Construcciones y Auxiliar de Ferrocarriles (CAF).
Fast facts – The Wiri Maintenance and Stabling Depot comprises:
· $40 million contract · 4.4 hectares on the old Winstones Quarry on Wiri Station Road · 7650 square metre building · The works were designed by Opus in collaboration with RLB quantity surveyors, Peters and Cheung geotechnical engineers and Arup consulting engineers · Six kilometres of rail track sidings · Stabling for up to 28 electric trains · Seven maintenance berths · Construction commences May 2012, completion expected June 2013 · The Depot will be operated by Veolia and CAF
A couple of images of the depot were shown at last month’s transport committee meeting:
It’s a pretty tight timeframe to have the depot finished by June next year, in time for the EMUs when they arrive.
The rail electrification project is only electrifying the system between Swanson in the west and Papakura in the south. This leaves two parts of the current network where we need to ask a question: what to do? Those parts are between Swanson and Waitakere (Waitakere township, not to be confused with Henderson station) in the west (and potentially further west to Huapai and Waimauku, although the Helensville rail service was a dismal failure), and between Papakura and Pukekohe in the south.
Interestingly, in 2003 Waitakere and Pukekohe had similarly low patronage, with less than 100 boardings a day at each station. However, since then usage of the two stations has diverged massively – as shown in the graph below: Along with Te Mahia station (down from 161 boardings in 2003 to 145 last year and surely another candidate for closure/shifting), Waitakere is one of just two stations on the entire network that has seen boardings fall since 2003. That’s quite a feat considering overall rail patronage has increase something like five-fold over the last nine years. Pukekohe sits at the other end of the spectrum, with patronage increasing ten-fold since 2003.
Looking forward, the respective future land-use patterns around Waitakere and Pukekohe suggest a different approach for the future of either station. Pukekohe is planned to be a satellite centre with a population of around 50,000, with the area between Pukekohe and Papakura also being significantly urbanised over the next 3o years (and therefore clearly a case for three or even four stations along the 18 km between Papakura and Pukekohe). In contrast, Waitakere station sits outside the main development corridor in the northwest, while residents in the area have tended to strongly battle against any further development happening (the same is true for around Swanson). In fact, when you look at the location of Waitakere township, it’s a bit unusual that it’s served by trains at all as it’s beyond the boundary of the urban area and not a particularly large place: So surely the way forward is to extend electrification from Papakura to Pukekohe. This is included in the Auckland Plan as a project for the 2012-2022 decade, but perhaps should happen sooner rather than later to take advantage of having all the machinery in place for the current electrification project (extending an existing project is often cheaper than starting a whole new project). Extending electrification would also significantly reduce our need to once again refurbish and extend the life of our pretty old and decrepit DMU trains. In fact, if we replaced the proposed Swanson to Waitakere shuttle train with a bus (for the same cost you could probably get at least twice the frequencies) then we can do away with having any diesel passenger services on the rail network once the EMUs arrive – which would surely be a huge cost saving in terms of reduced maintenance requirements.
The final question to consider is when might be the best time to close Waitakere Station. The other day Matt L pointed out in a comment that we might actually want to close the station sooner rather than later, so that we get all the negative publicity out of the way and ensure that it doesn’t cloud the positive feelings associated with when the new electric trains arrive. I thoroughly agree. I’d like to see Auckland Transport running an analysis of just how much it costs to serve those 90-odd passengers a day who use Waitakere Station (including requirements for additional trainsets as I think Waitakere is just over an hour from Britomart which makes running a clockface timetable need an extra train) and having the courage to cut the service sooner rather than later. The passengers might whine a bit, but if they’re provided with bus services at the same frequencies, or better, once integrated ticketing is rolled out they’re probably going to have a better service – while the rest of us who help fund the rail system, will save what is probably quite a lot of money.
An update to the progress of the EMUs was given to the transport committee yesterday and it provides quite a few new pictures of what we will eventually get (although the final colours are still to be decided. Just to give a quick recap the contract with Spanish company Construcciones y Auxiliar de Ferrocarriles (CAF) was signed in October last year for 57 EMUs along with a 12 year maintenance contract for them. We were also lucky in that we have been able to get 50% more EMUs than originally planned which means there will be enough to run them on all lines (previous plans had envisioned us buying or leasing some electric locomotives for use with some of the existing SA/SD carriages). The first trains is expected to arrive mid to late next year with the first one in service by the end of 2013 although my guess is that we won’t really see it in operation till 2014.
Just as a reminder this is the image we were shown last year when the contract was signed.
And here’s how they look now:
Artist’s impression of electric train in Britomart station. NB: exterior colours are still to be confirmed.
The designs have clearly been refined and improved upon and while I’m not 100% sold on the light blue, I think that in general these trains look great and they will be something the city be really proud about when they finally turn up. I can say that I’m really looking forward to the day the first turn up at my platform. Each EMU will have two motor cars, one at each end and in the middle will be a trailer car that will have a low floor section to allow for level boarding.
Here are some ideas about what the interior might look like:
And some diagrams that give an idea about what the seating layout will be:
And the low floor section which will have dedicated sections for wheelchairs and bikes:
A few other interesting things I have learnt is that the seats will all be cantilevered off the wall which will help to give extra space underneath them to store things. The seats are also a modular design so can be easily changed around if ever needed e.g. say we wanted to create more space we could turn around the seats to a metro style layout. It is probably worth pointing out that at this stage there hasn’t been a formal policy around bikes on trains at peak times but I’m pretty sure AT will work with cycling groups to come up with one.
The timeline for the project is similar to what we have seen in the past and the next key phase is Mock Up 3. As part of the design process CAF is building a series of mock ups so AT can ensure that things work as expected. The first mock up was in December and consisted of detailed CAD drawings, the second was a mock up of the drivers cab that arrived in February and featured in a Herald article. The third is probably the most interesting of the lot from a public perspective as it will be a life sized mock up of a section of the train that will incorporate that as many features as they can fit in and I believe that other than the cab it will have both a high and low floor section. The mock up will arrive in June and AT have said that it will go on public display somewhere so that people can get a look and try it out themselves. As you can see by the image below, things appear to be pretty far along
There are some pretty significant works happening this weekend on a number of transport projects around the region so if you are around the region it would be good to try and not get caught up in them.
First up we have the NZTA closing the motorway’s northbound lanes between Market Rd and Gillies Ave to enable them to move move the lanes onto the newly replaced Newmaket Viaduct. The lanes will be closed between 5pm on Saturday and and should reopen on the new viaduct on the morning of Monday 30th. As part of this the large blue crane will be shifted to the current northbound lanes to start taking down that viaduct.
Here’s the full press release:
The motorway’s northbound lanes will be closed between the Market Road off-ramp and the Gillies Ave on-ramps from 5pm Saturday, 28 January, for final preparations to allow drivers on to the new northbound viaduct from Anniversary Monday morning, 30 January.
“Travel delays will be inevitable, they will be considerable and they will be widespread” says the NZTA’s acting State Highways manager for Auckland and Northland, Steve Mutton.
“We’re talking about trying to re-direct up to 65,000 vehicles on the Sunday alone,” he adds. “Even with detours, the impact of the closure will be felt well beyond the Southern Motorway. If people absolutely must travel we’re urging that they allow a lot more time for their journey. “
“We accept that this may cause frustration – particularly on a long weekend – but our best advice is to stay away from the motorway during Auckland Anniversary weekend,” Mr Mutton says.
The closure is necessary so that the NZTA can switch the motorway’s northbound lanes across to the new viaduct. At the same time, the blue lifting gantry used for the viaduct’s construction has to be moved on to the existing northbound viaduct to help with its demolition.
Mr Mutton says construction of the new viaduct is ahead of schedule and the NZTA and its NGA Newmarket alliance partners (NZTA, Leighton Contractors, Fulton Hogan, Beca, VSL, URS, Tonkin @ Taylor and Boffa Miskell) want to deliver the benefits from the project to drivers as quickly as possible.
“To have reached the stage where we’re now ready to switch northbound traffic across to the new structure, significantly ahead of schedule is a remarkable achievement,” Mr Mutton says. “We’ve had fantastic support from drivers while we’ve replaced the old viaduct and we’re now asking people to help us again to keep the city moving through this closure.
“We’re taking advantage of a long three- day weekend so that we can deliver this important project to Aucklanders. We appreciate the support and patience of all drivers and we’ll be working hard to finish as quickly as possible.”
Mr Mutton repeats, however, that alternative routes will not be able to cope if regular weekend traffic flows occur.
“Even with a managed closure and detours in place, congestion will be extensive.”
The Automobile Association is supporting the NZTA in urging people to avoid unnecessary trips. If they do have to travel says AA spokesman Simon Lambourne, they should plan their journeys and drive with patience and care.
“Congestion will be significant with the closure of the northbound lanes,” Mr Lambourne says, “but the short term pain will be well worth it given the long term benefits of the new viaduct.”
The new southern viaduct at Newmarket opened in September, 2010, after a similar motorway closure.
Like the old viaduct built in 1965, its replacement is almost 700 metres long but it has wider lanes, is seismically stronger, and will produce less traffic noise.
“The viaduct stands at the heart of one of the most critical transport links for Auckland and New Zealand – one that carries on average more than 160,000 vehicles daily,” says Mr Mutton.
The opening of the viaduct’s northbound lanes on Auckland Anniversary Monday marks the latest in a series of large NZTA projects to improve travel through the central motorway junction (CMJ). The viaduct is located at the southern end of the CMJ. At its northern end, the Victoria Park tunnel opened last November, and new southbound lanes through St Marys Bay and across the Victoria Park flyover opened earlier this month.
“These are huge projects designed to help Auckland’s economy and its communities,” Mr Mutton says. “With the support of drivers during Auckland Anniversary Weekend we will be able to deliver the next very significant improvement to their motorway to make travel more reliable, quicker, and safer.”
The NZTA is running an extensive communications campaign using traditional and social media, and a large sign on the lifting gantry on the Newmarket Viaduct to make people aware of the closure and its impact on travel.
The southbound lanes on the Southern Motorway are not affected by the Auckland Anniversary Weekend closure.
Note to editors: In the event of adverse weather the weekend of January 28-30, these works could be delayed until Waitangi weekend.
Readers may remember that the same thing happened to the southbound lanes back in September 2010, similar warnings were given but overall things seemed to work smoothly. That was also helped in part by ARTA eventually listening to public calls and put on free trains during the shutdown however that won’t really be very effective this time as ……
Parts rail network will also be shut in many places for electrification upgrade works.
Buses will replace trains on the following lines:
EASTERN LINE: Papakura to Britomart via Glen Innes
SOUTHERN LINE: Papakura to Otahuhu
Please Note: On Monday 30 January additional services will operate for Auckland Anniversay Day festivities.
The most interesting thing about all of this is that the Western line and parts of the Southern line will actually remain open and with the exception of the Labour Day weekend which fell during the RWC, this is the first long weekend in recent memory that we have had even some trains running, in a way it is a little taste for the future once we get our shiny new trains (its not to last though as the entire network will be shutdown the following weekend).
You can see all changes to PT over the weekend here.
Additional trains will operate on the Western, Onehunga and Southern lines (north of Otahuhu). They will run about every half hour between approximately 10am and 6pm. At other times the normal weekend timetable will be in place.
There will also be extra buses on to cater for the various events that will be happening
The rail network fully reopens tomorrow following the longest shutdown that I am aware of (yes I am aware that trains have been operating on some sections for a few weeks now). The bit that needed the most time was between Britomart and Newmarket where the tracks needed to be lowered quite a bit to enable a flatter section to be built for the new Parnell station. The works have actually been brought forward by a few years due to the fact they would have become much more expensive if we had waited till after electrification had been completed. Thanks to Geoff in the CBT forum, here are some photos of the works as of Sunday 15/01.
Looking down from the top of the Parnell Tunnel
The site of the new station (the tracks weren't finished at the time)
The new underpass
And from the other side
As you can see there is quite a bit of work that has gone on to lower the tracks through the area and now that the work is finished the station can start to be built. That work is meant to happen over the course of the year with the station itself is not likely to open till the end of the year or early next year, here’s a reminder of what is proposed to eventually be at the site. I would also hope that something is done with the blank walls of the underpass to help keep the graffiti away.
Trains started running again on some lines yesterday marking the end of the Christmas shut down for some sections of the network and passengers at a few of those stations will have seen a new sight as well as a bit of a milestone, the first completed sections of overhead wire. The first few wires were actually put up a month or two ago but only now have some sections had the contact wire installed (the part that the train touches). This has been completed out west near Swanson as well as down the Onehunga line which will actually be the first section to be powered up, which will happen in April.
As you can see this are certainly going to change the rail landscape around the city and I guess my only concern is that there will be some people who think that this adds a lot of visual pollution and will get vocal about it, especially once they reach the Orakei basin but by that time it will luckily be far to late. On the other hand it will also act as a great advertisement of the rail network which will assist the ‘sparks effect’ to drive up patronage.
Also of note the new signalling system has also gone live out to Swanson which means that there is only Wiri to Papakura to go
Trying to get my head around whether 2011 was a good year or not such a good year for advocates of a more balanced transport system like myself, is a bit of a challenge. There were a number of good things which happened, but at the same time there were also a number of steps backward. Here’s my brief summary of the year.
The early months of 2011 were a time when Auckland Council and Auckland Transport were still very much “settling in”. We saw some really interesting first glimpses of what the council’s vision for Auckland’s city centre was in January, we found out that Len Brown’s goal for public transport patronage was 150 million trips a year by 2021 (and we wondered how that would be achieved). We also saw construction of the now open Wynyard Quarter tram loop. Submissions on preferred options for the Puhoi-Warkworth section of the holiday highway were written.
The February 22 earthquake in Christchurch obviously stands out as the whole country’s biggest event of the year, but seemed to have a remarkably little impact on the transport discussion here in Auckland. The government passed over a golden opportunity to back down over Puhoi-Wellsford (or at least downgrade it to something more sensible at a time when the whole country would have understood such a move), while Auckland Council sensibly pointed out that it would be many more years before serious money for the City Rail Link project was required. Behind the scenes, it was becoming fairly clear that officials reviewing the business case for the CRL were unlikely to come to agreement on the project’s merits.
In March the Auckland Unleashed discussion document was released, outlining the Council’s vision – at a broad-bush level – for Auckland over the next 30 years. We saw a great video of Len Brown’s rail vision for Auckland, but once again this positivity was tempered by the government’s feedback on the document (weirdly released before the discussion document) that pushed for more sprawl and more roads. Following hot on the heels of all that spatial plan discussion, we finally saw some progress on the implementation of a smartcard ticketing system in Auckland, with the launch of HOP. Unfortunately the complexity of the deal done between Auckland Transport, Thales, Snapper, NZ Bus, NZTA and so forth meant that the launch was generally met more by confusion than celebration.
From the optimism of those early months (earthquakes aside), the middle months of the year were a little more depressing – although the superb patronage stats throughout the year tempered this disappointment. The 2012 Government Policy Statement for Land Transport Funding turned out to be even stupider and more roads-obsessed than its 2009 predecessor, proposing additional RoNS that were so crazy they didn’t even end up being adopted into National’s election transport policy. But perhaps the biggest disappointment of those middle months was the review of the City Rail Link project, with the narrow-minded thinking of Ministry of Transport officials ignoring matters as fundamental as the bus and car capacity of the CBD when assessing the merits of the project. It was not a great year for the MoT, who also managed to forget to record the spending of around $180 million.
On a brighter note, the actual implementation of the HOP card went smoother than most (including myself) had expected. Bus loading times declined dramatically thanks to the speed of tagging on (although I still get annoyed at the cash-paying idiots who block the whole entranceway – any chance of some signage NZ Bus?) On a personal note, June was a pretty epic month with baby Adele arriving five weeks earlier than anticipated, leading to a couple of weeks of very regular travel to the hospital.
August saw the introduction of the Outer Link bus, as well as significance reconfiguration of all Western Bays services. Although further tweaks have been necessary (and probably will continue to be necessary in the future), overall the changes were very positive and have led to an increase in patronage exceeding what was forecast. After that, all eyes turned to the Rugby World Cup, which began on that fateful day of September 9th.
The transport chaos of RWC opening night was very unfortunate, but told us some very insightful things. As suspected, the CCO model of delivering many of council’s services through separate agencies did mean that they became siloed and didn’t talk to each other over matters as simple as the number of people expected to attend opening night. The highly fractured structure of running public transport in Auckland meant that everyone could point the finger at everyone else, whilst avoiding responsibility for that happened. But more positively, we also saw (and hopefully didn’t put off forever) an unprecedented willingness of Aucklanders to use public transport. There were over 140,000 rail trips around Auckland on September 9th, there probably could have been over 200,000 if we had the system to cope with them. I don’t think we’ve seen too much long-term damage from that evening, but perhaps we might see some long-term benefit with the realisation that it very much is Auckland’s public transport system that lets us down in our quest to become a truly world-class city.
During, and just after, the RWC, we saw draft versions of a number of really important documents that will help guide Auckland’s future. These included, the Draft Auckland Plan, the City Centre Master Plan, the Waterfront Plan and an Economic Development Strategy. I put together a fairly detailed submission on the Auckland Plan, and overall many thousands of submissions were received by the Council. Final decisions on these plans will be made in the first few months of next year.
In September we also found out one of the best pieces of transport news for the year – that we would get 57 electric trains rather than the originally proposed 35. The excellent work by Auckland Transport to secure this deal probably hasn’t been given the praise it deserves, especially as many tens of millions of dollars were squeezed out of the government as their contribution to the additional trains. It was also very welcome to learn that the trains are going to look damn nice too.
After the RWC was finished, the election rolled around pretty quickly. While the overall result wasn’t particularly positive, as it seems we will see more of the same from central government, there were some interesting outcomes. We will have our first transport planner MP, in the Greens’ Julie-Anne Genter, Labour’s new leader David Shearer has been a long-time supporter of public transport in Auckland, while Phil Twyford becoming labour’s transport spokerperson should also lead to a greater focus on Auckland transport issues. In the interests of fairness, we should give new transport minister Gerry Brownlee a chance before passing final judgment on him.
So overall it has been a pretty damn busy year when it comes to Auckland transport issues. As I noted at the start of this post, there have been a number of steps forward but also a number of steps backwards. 2012 should hopefully see the resolution of a number of these issues: a finalisation of the spatial plan, hopefully some agreed way forward on the merits of the City Rail Link, the proper implementation of integrated ticketing and many more interesting things.
I’m just hoping for a slightly less crazy year than this one.
While the rail system is shut to trains over the next few weeks, quite a lot of important works will be taking place. I’ll try to get out and about over my break to take some photos of what’s going on, but here’s a summary from Auckland Transport:
While most Aucklanders are enjoying their Christmas holidays, train stations and other parts of the rail network will be getting an upgrade.
Auckland Transport with partners KiwiRail and NZTA are making full use of the annual rail network closures to continue their extensive rail construction and maintenance programme.
Starting Boxing Day, the old Mountain Rd Bridge near Panmure Station will be demolished to make way for a new bridge as part of the AMETI Panmure transport project. This will allow for a new road next to the rail line, as well as allowing for electrification of the rail network. KiwiRail are currently carrying out preparatory ground work at two other overbridges; Morrin Rd and Orakei Rd ahead of building replacement bridges with enough clearance for electricity lines to run underneath.
Track enabling work at the proposed location for the new Parnell station is well underway including lowering and realigning the tracks over a 600m track section. Replacement bus services are in place to replace trains between Newmarket and Britomart.
Further back at Ellerslie, the $8 million station upgrade which includes relocating the Southern Line tracks to create space for an additional northbound motorway lane is progressing well. Already the old concrete ramp has been replaced with a set of stairs and a second passenger shelter has been added to the platform. When the seven month project is complete the station will have additional shelters and improved accessibility measures including new lifts for pedestrian access connecting to bridges over the motorway and train lines.
At the southern end at Papakura, the station is being upgraded to meet future patronage growth and modernise existing platform amenities. At the same time KiwiRail is undertaking a rearrangement of the tracks to provide a dedicated freight line through the station as well as optimising track and platform layouts ahead of the new electrified network.
Papakura is the southern extent of electrified railway and will provide integration for the continued diesel services south of Papakura to Pukekohe.
Auckland Transport Project Director for Rail Improvements Nick Seymour says: “The overall intention of the station upgrade programme is to improve the functionality of stations from both a passenger experience and a transport efficiency perspective.
“We have a lot to do in a short space of time and will be working around the clock in some locations. It is our intention to work as quickly and quietly as we can and return to normal services with minimal impact on surrounding businesses and communities.
“Although we understand there will be inconvenience for passengers the station enhancements will result in greater amenity and passenger comfort, with modern platform furniture, increased CCTV coverage, and improved access for mobility users.
“Working with both the NZTA and KiwiRail means a saving on time, money and minimum disruption to the roading and rail networks,” Mr Seymour says.
Auckland’s rail network is being upgraded to enable more frequent and reliable commuter services, and prepare for electrification in time for the delivery of Auckland’s new electric trains. Auckland trains will be out of action over the Christmas and New Year period with commencement of some southern services from the 4th Jan 2012. Full opening of the Auckland rail network is scheduled for the morning of 19th January 2012.
It seems that Parnell, Ellerslie, Panmure (for AMETI works) and Papakura will be the most interesting places to see the works that are happening. I also imagine that KiwiRail will be taking the opportunity of a closed network to also put up a lot more electrification masts and foundations.
I’m always amazed at how much work gets done in the short shutdown period. And I also give thanks to all the workers slogging away while we enjoy our holidays.
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