Britomart Transport Centre
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| Britomart Transport Centre | |
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| Overview | |
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| Year Established: | 2003 |
| Distance: | 490 km (straight distance) from Wellington |
| Auckland Suburban Network | |
| Lines Served: | Southern, Eastern, Western |
| Previous Station: | Newmarket (Southern) Orakei (Eastern) |
| Next Station: | None, terminal |
Britomart Transport Centre is the Auckland, New Zealand CBD transport hub, combining a bus interchange, railway station, and Edwardian former post office building in an expansive post-modernist architectural melange, with the main ferry terminal just across Quay St. The centre was built to boost use of public transport - Auckland's population of 1.2 million spreads over a very wide area, making bus and rail services expensive to implement.
Cost over-runs and differing tastes made Britomart politically controversial, the design often being described as a large hole in the ground, both literally and figuratively. Despite this, it has won numerous design awards and is internationally recognised for its innovative but heritage-sympathetic architecture. The main source of contention was the relatively great expense of this public transport development in a city that is traditionally very focused on the private car.
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[edit] History
Britomart is on reclaimed land in the middle of what was once Commercial Bay. It is named after Point Britomart, a former headland at Commercial Bay's eastern end. In the 1870s and 1880s the headland was levelled in order to extend the railway line to the bottom of Queen Street, and was used to fill in Commercial Bay.
Auckland's railway station moved west to the Britomart site in 1885, and remained there after the Post Office was built on the Queen St frontage in 1911. In 1930 it was relocated to Beach Road, and for the rest of the 20th century the Britomart site was a bus terminal (opened in 1937) and carpark (opened in 1958).
Over the years (most notably in 1973 and 1987), many proposals were made to relocate Auckland's railway station from Beach Road. The site, 1.2 km east of the CBD, was considered too distant for most commuters. In 1995, the Auckland City Council purchased the old Post Office (which had closed in 1988) and proposed to develop the area as a transit centre. Early designs called for both the bus terminal and the railway to be underground, but these plans were scrapped as projected costs soared into the billions.
In 1998, after a rethink of the project, a more cost-effective solution was found that used part of Queen Elizabeth II Square and surrounding streets as a bus terminal, with the existing dilapidated bus terminal redeveloped to incorporate both bus services and a pedestrianised area. When nearby Quay St was realigned in the late 1990s, a tunnel was built to provide the underground railway link (completed in 2000) to Britomart. Bus services using the old bus terminal were diverted to other locations in June 2001. Construction of Britomart commenced in October 2001, and it opened in July 2003.
[edit] Capacity & Connections
[edit] Increased Services
In its early days Britomart received a lot of criticism due its being built on a scale that was well in excess of the capacity and patronage of the dilapidated diesel rail network in Auckland at the time. However, in recent years patronage has increased by leaps and bounds: more frequent services have been introduced to accommodate the increased number of passengers, and this has lead to concerns that the station will soon be at maximum capacity. At present during the peak only 18 suburban trains an hour can enter and exit.
The foresight of council planners in constructing such an iconic investment in Auckland's public transport has already spurred some further development. Current proposals recommend electrifying and upgrading the rail network and constructing a new line to Manukau City in the south. These proposals are dependent on funding being obtained from national government, which has been reluctant to follow local requests in this matter[citation needed]. Only some of the proposals are likely to be realised in the next decade.
Auckland has ordered its next batch of diesel-hauled carriage trains, so it is likely that electrification is a long way off, despite recent (2006) increases in oil prices.[citation needed]
[edit] City Underground Loop
Plans exist for an underground loop to be built from Britomart to Mt Eden via Albert Street, with two additional underground stations to serve the central business district, one midtown near Wellesley St, the other uptown servicing the Karangahape Rd area, and a new station at Mt Eden. This loop would allow trains to run through the station, rather than having to reverse, thus increasing capacity. There have been discussions and proposals for such a loop since the 1930s, but Government has been unwilling to provide funding for this project, and it is unlikely to proceed in the near future.
One building on Queen St reportedly features a basement that was designed as the outer shell of a proposed midtown underground station.[citation needed] This is no longer possible, since the location of Britomart station makes a Queen St route unfeasible.
[edit] Pedestrian Underpasses
Initial plans included an underground pedestrian walkway connecting Britomart to Queen Elizabeth II Square, the nearby downtown ferry terminal and the main shopping street of Queen St. Due to cost over-runs only the short link to the square was built, the remainder replaced with a sizeable but less effective canopy over the footpath outside the station. Given Auckland's variable climate and often torrential rainfall, patrons hope that the remaining links will be built.
[edit] Train Services
Suburban services are provided by Veolia on behalf of ARTA. Most services either commence from or terminate at Britomart. The suburban network extends to Pukekohe in the south and Waitakere in the north-west.
The Overlander, a daily (high summer) or thrice-weekly (off-season) long-distance train running between Britomart and Wellington via the North Island Main Trunk is operated by Tranz Scenic, part of Toll NZ. The service was repeatedly threatened with closure, most recently in 2006, and its future remains uncertain even after Toll NZ has reversed its decision to suspend services after public comments on the closure were strongly negative [1].
Discussions have recently begun to re-establish a twice daily return service to the neighbouring city of Hamilton, approximately two hours south of Auckland by rail. This service will most likely begin in 2008/2009 as an extension of the current service to Pukekohe in the south west of metropolitan Auckland.
[edit] Bus and Ferry Services
Britomart is a major interchange where passengers can transfer between train, bus and ferry services. It is the terminus for many bus routes, and the free City Circuit and Stagecoach The Link buses go past on their loops around the city.
Just across Quay St from Britomart is the ferry terminal, serving destinations such as Devonport and Waiheke Island.
[edit] References
- ^ "Overlander saved" (National Business Review, 28 September 2006)
| Railway Stations on the Eastern Line (Full List) |  |
| Britomart • Orakei • Meadowbank • Glen Innes • Panmure • Westfield • Otahuhu • Mangere • Middlemore • Papatoetoe • Puhinui • Homai • Manurewa • Te Mahia • Takanini • Papakura • Pukekohe | |
| Railway Stations on the Southern Line (Full List) | |
| Britomart • Newmarket • Remuera • Greenlane • Ellerslie • Penrose • Westfield • Otahuhu • Mangere • Middlemore • Papatoetoe • Puhinui • Homai • Manurewa • Te Mahia • Takanini • Papakura • Pukekohe | |
| Stations on the Western Line (Full List) |
|---|
| Britomart • Newmarket • Boston Road • Mt Eden • Kingsland • Morningside • Baldwin Ave • Mt Albert • Avondale • New Lynn • Fruitvale Road • Glen Eden • Sunnyvale • Henderson • Sturges Road • Ranui • Swanson • Waitakere |
 The Overlander passenger train stops: (North Island Main Trunk Railway) |
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| Auckland (Britomart) | Middlemore | Papakura | Pukekohe | Hamilton | Otorohanga | Te Kuiti | Taumarunui | National Park | Ohakune | Marton | Feilding | Palmerston North | Levin | Paraparaumu | Porirua | Wellington (Railway Station) | |
