Glenora Road or Tironui?

Written by Ben Ross - Talking Auckland

Community Wants Glenora Road Station, Auckland Transport wants to reopen the old Tironui Station

 

After years of united interests in the Papakura-Takanini area are all in agreement on Glenora Road Station needing to be built, our friends at Auckland Transport decide ‘nope’ we will reopen the old Tironui Station (closed in the 1980’s) instead. This is the same Auckland Transport who is jerking the community around over Glenora Road Station as it wants the Takanini Village Developer (the Wallace Family) to shell out $28m to grade separate Walters Road Level Cross (which had another crash at the site earlier this week: Crash at Walters Road Level Crossing) before Glenora can be built by the developer as a literal gift to the City (that is at no cost to the ratepayer like the Sylvia Park Station).

E-Local (a community magazine) did an article on the fight between the community wanting Glenora Road Station and Auckland Transport wanting the Tironui Station to be reopened. The online edition while up is broken at the moment so below is the paper copy:

Will place the digital copy up when it is fixed.

Source for e-Local: http://www.elocal.co.nz/Back_Issues~Area~PAP.html

 

I have no idea what Auckland Transport are playing at here but it is something that does not surprise me. Let me put it this way to AT; Glenora Road Station with a bus stop, cycle lockers, kiss and ride (drop off bay), and a park and ride will serve a catchment of up to 5km from the Station (unlimited catchment for Park and Ride) and take pressure off Papakura’s Park and Ride facilities. Tironui Station for where it is located could never offer the kiss and ride, bus stop, and park and ride facilities so its catchment will always be limited to 1,200 metres. That said AT will need to pull finger and make sure the feeder buses feed adequately into the new Glenora Road Station (and AT struggles with feeder buses as is at the moment) once Glenora is open and Takanini is closed.

Here are two quick graphics I drew up earlier of Glenora Road Station

Glenora Road Station, Park and Ride, and Bus Interchange
Glenora Road Station in Proximity to the Social Housing Area

Those maps are pretty old as Takanini Village Stage 1 is already complete with Stage 2 awaiting the library and Glenora Road Station approval but you can see the catchment Glenora Road Station would serve.

 

Time to file another set of Local Government Official Information and Meeting Acts requests into the modelling Auckland Transport has supposedly done. I can safely say Auckland Transport are not the flavour of the month down here at the moment with their idea of Tironui Station as well as the recent crash on Walters Road Level Crossing.

 

8 thoughts on “Glenora Road or Tironui?”

  1. Here’s a little more of an update of the Tironui station road re-establishment (although nothing too new):

    http://www.bettertransport.org.nz/forum/viewtopic.php?f=1&t=4317&start=20

    I had a good look at the location last night on my walk home (as well as inspecting the Glenora site) and I felt that there really isnt much difference at all in the two locations. The two (possible) concerns for me is the security and how wide the corridor will remain along the line between Takanini Village and Tironui station road (as a third main will be in the pipeworks sometime in the future).

    Access in both locations isn’t great, however a well positioned bus stop on Porchester (say just past the diary in the already made extended car parking space-that’s perfect for a bus bay) would make perfect sense.Theres also plenty of room to convert the current park at Tironui into a small park in ride- only accessable from Great South Road though.

    I think that 900 meters difference between Takanini and Glenora isn’t practical, nor is closing Takanini (even thought it’s a terrible station at the moment). Tironui does represent far better value, due to the removal of an aweful lot of red tape (which Kiwirail have pointed out to me in the past as being a very real obstacle for Glenora) , far superior spacing between the existing stations (about 1800 meters- which forms a really nice catchment circle) and being able to be commissioned in a very short time.

    The question then is what sort of priority does AT place on re-instating Tironui as I’ve not seen any budget for it, nor would I expect it to be a trivial amount to rebuild the station there (even though the red tape would be largely removed)…

    1. What red tape would there be with Glenora Station?
      The Local Board have already smoothed the processes over so there would be no issues from there.

      As the developer of Takanini Village is paying for the station money would not be an issue either.

      So the question is what is AT, KR and Council dragging the chain over (and it better not be Walters Road)

  2. Hi Ben – do you know when are they are due to commence building in the area highlighted in RED on the 2nd map. Are there any plans to your knowledge to look at a grade separation for Manuroa Rd as well? Cheers

    1. I think that Manuroa is being surveyed at the moment, but I’ve not seen it mentioned in the LTP (meaning Auckland city’s plan for the next 10 years)…

      1. Will check on Thursday after the Auckland Development Comment in regards to the Manuroa Road Crossing. Probably waiting on NZTA’s decision on whether they upgrade or close the Spartan Road crossing as part of the Takanini Interchange upgrade from 2017

  3. Thanks for the article + link to the (highly logical) piece from elocal.

    Actually Tironui Station makes sense… If you don’t bother to physically view this area and just “google Map it” you will come to the conclusion the re-instating the old tironui station makes an awful lot of sense (and avoid an awful lot of red tape).

    However, if AT were to come any drive around the area (in their bus shuttles 😉 ) then they’d probably come to quite a different conclusion (you know the one that all the locals have). I just feel that there almost needs to abe a matryl on the levels crossings (even though there already is) in the area before real traction might take place.

    I’ve spoken to one of the Takanini Village owner’s once, during the summer of 2012-13 ( me being nosey on my daily walk home). He had some interesting things to say about it all. Should Glenora Station be built he was saying that an overbridge linking them to Mitre10 Mega, who were happy to share the costs, was in the works (wonderfully logical). He quoted 1 million pax using Bruce Pullman and there being alot of uncertainty around the library (which hopefully the LTP has clarified this week). As for the station, he was mystifyied as all the powers that be were all over the place with it.

    I’ve had one email from a local council board member saying that he was extremely hopefull of getting the Glenora station past the line, but my emails back from (what was OSH- I complained citing the health and safety act regarding the death at Walters road), AT and Kiwirail all essentially told me (politely) to go away as it wasn’t something for them to address (go and see …. organisation) .

    One thing that’s also being missed is the Takanini High School that’s to be built on the old Papakura Army golf course (some 300-400 meters from both locations of the proposed station). National’s announcement a few weeks ago (to me) seems to suggest that it may finally be given the go ahead. If a SHA that absolutely booming isn’t one of these schools I’ll be truly shocked (and dissappointed as the Ministry of Education already own the land). http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=11307929

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