Oh Really with Manukau
Numbers on track to grow | Stuff.co.nz.
Okay this escaped my notice but the Twitter Round Up pointed me to it. So lets take a quick look at this shall we?
From The Manukau Courier via Stuff website
Criticism of the new Manukau train station is being rejected by its passengers and Auckland Transport.
Some councillors have hit out at that lack of people using peak services at the $81 million station and its site, which stops just short of main shopping areas.
But regular passenger Adriana Pieterse says the claims are “picky”.
“I think it’s absolutely brilliant. The trains are on time and reliable.
“It’s central, right where everything is.”
Ms Pieterse says she uses the trains, which run along the eastern line through Glen Innes, to get to Britomart in the city and back to Manukau.
Right the article fails to do the basic research to establish the context of this traveller’s travel pattern. It should have been stated where this traveller works (just suburb will do fine), where the person lives (suburb also fine), and if they catch the train from Manukau to Britomart to head to work, how do they get to Manukau with no park and ride or main residential areas within 800 metres of the station. So sorry we can dismiss this traveller’s input due to lack of context from the reporter who should have known better.
She also uses them to connect with the Papakura station on the southern line.
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.
Two other passengers spoken to by the Manukau Courier didn’t want to be named but both say the station is conveniently situated for a course they’re doing in central Manukau.
Five bucks said their courses are at the buildings closest to the station rather than Westfield Manukau Mall so of course you would use the station.
But as I have said in other posts, the station is 435 metres short of its optimum position in offering best accessibility to Manukau City Centre. I have a picture attached below showing a 800 metre radius commonly used to mark the maximum extend someone will walk to and from a transit stop. Now as you can see the Mall, Courts, Cop Shop, and Pak n Save are all within the 800 metre mark. But hang on here come some obstacles that put a dent in that idea. To get to the courts and cop shop is straight forward as they are basically opposite the station. To get to Manukau Mall is alright but having to skitter across the car park, cross a soon to be busy road come bus thoroughfare, and a busy access-way next to the Civic Building (old Manukau City Council building) with possibly shopping, the kids and the pram in tow is not going to be an easy task. Nor pleasant if the weather bombs and pours with the site and path to the Mall exposed to the bitter South Westerly winds. For Rainbow’s end, repeat the Manukau Mall trek but try to cross the 4-lane Manukau Station Road which is not the quiets of roads, in fact it is State Highway 20 and has industrial traffic rumbling down it. Yes there is controlled crossings but that piece of road is truly auto-centric – not one for the humble pedestrian. As for getting to Pak n Save which is within the 800m circle – forget it. The route is around 1.3km each way through a series of dog legs, across at least two busy roads that are not pedestrian friendly, across the entrance of countless box retail and office buildings (so drive ways and lots of them), and up through an access way that has no foot path to Pak n Save at all. Oh and try bring your weekly shopping back down that route to the station – in the wet.
So I think on that assumption, one could understand my cynicism of the location of Manukau Station and where it should of been actually put.
As I have also said, the numbers would have been much higher already if the South-to-Papakura Link was also built and complete. That link (linking Papakura to Manukau) would form around 50% of the peak patronage into and out of Manukau and pushing 85% (until the Campus was built but that is irrelevant as the station is still in the wrong spot – period) for the off-peak and weekend patronage as people from the south come into Manukau to do their: shopping, socialising, movies, work/study, and Rainbows End trips. And it would have been the off-peak and weekend patronage that would have sustained the Manukau Station, just like the Sylvia Park Station does. What I am getting at it is; if that link was open today, I bet the numbers would be 3-5x higher using Manukau than current. One other thing, the way Manukau Station is built, is there any chance of extending the line to Botany for the future Botany Line or has that chance also been scotched. Some answers please Auckland Council and Transport.
Thus my commentary and criticisms of the station and the former Manukau City Council for its shoddy penny-pinching and planning still stand. I recommend Stuff go do some background research into the context and interviewer’s subjects first before putting half attempts on spinning positive effects of the station that are simply not there… The Rail Fallacy for Manukau Station continues to apply!
800 metre radius from Manukau Station
