Missing South-to-Papakura Rail Link
Mayor wants missing rail link built ‘sooner rather than later’ – National – NZ Herald News.
Seems the NZ Herald has picked up on the Manukau Line – and today was only day two of “full” services (or day one for weekday).
Tough questions need to be asked to Auckland Council (not AT on this one as even they are head scratching like the rest of us) especially when the mayor says this:
Mayor Len Brown has promised southern councillors he will do “yeoman’s work” to ensure the link is provided sooner rather than later. Until then, passengers wanting to go south from Manukau on the new line will have to travel north to Puhinui and wait for southbound trains. Although much of the 2km line has duplicate tracks, they go only north towards Britomart when they link up with the main trunk at Wiri. That is unacceptable to Papakura councillor Calum Penrose, who says southern residents are in serious need of better public transport to improve job and training opportunities. Mr Penrose was heartened when Mayor Brown told him and Manurewa councillor Sir John Walker that KiwiRail believed a southern link could be provided for $5-6 million.
But yet we have this:
KiwiRail would not discuss prospects for a southern link or confirm a suggestion that Ports of Auckland‘s new railhead at Wiri may be in the way. Infrastructure and engineering general manager Rick van Barneveld said it had not received a proposal from Auckland Transport to build such a link.
Despite the mayor’s promise, Auckland Transport spokeswoman Sharon Hunter said no provision for a southern link was being included in a network plan under development by her council-owned organisation.
So hello what is going on here folks?
Mr Wood is also concerned that the new Manukau railway station ends in a trench “in no-man’s land”, 400m short of the bustling Westfield shopping mall.
Already commented on it HERE and at Transport Blog, especially when a prime redevelopment opportunity was missed (again)
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2 Responses to “Missing South-to-Papakura Rail Link”Trackbacks
Check out what others are saying...[...] Um again the reporter fails to put into context the situation on how a traveller gets from Manukau to Papakura by train which includes a transfer at Papakura and a decent wait for that Southern Line train. The missing Southern Link was also not mentioned, so here it is in this post I wrote up about it. [...]
[...] about this in two separate posts: Manukau does have its short comings (MANUKAU STATION); and MISSING SOUTH-TO-PAPAKURA RAIL LINK and called out Councillor Quax on the issues raised. So again I call out Councillor Quax as he [...]