Britomart Transport Centre
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Britomart Transport Centre MAXX Urban rail |
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The Britomart building, with the railway station located underground and behind. |
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Station statistics | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Address | Queen Elizabeth Square, Queen Street, Auckland City | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Lines | Western Line Eastern Line Southern Line |
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Levels | 2 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Platforms | 3 (accessing 5 tracks) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Tracks | 5 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Parking | Yes | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Bicycle facilities | Yes | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Baggage check | Yes (long distance) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Other information | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Opened | July 2003 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Electrified | No | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Code | BTC | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Owned by | ARTA | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Traffic | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
5.7 million | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Services | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Britomart Transport Centre (often simply Britomart), is the CBD public transport hub of Auckland, New Zealand. It combines a bus interchange and railway station in an Edwardian former post office (extended with expansive post-modernist architectural elements), with the main ferry terminal being just across Quay Street. It is located at the foot of Queen Street, the main commercial thoroughfare of the Auckland CBD.
At the time of its inception, the centre was Auckland's largest transport project ever and is also one of the few underground railway stations in the world where diesel motive power is used.[1] It is the northern terminus of the North Island Main Trunk line. The centre was built to move rail access closer to the city's CBD and thereby help boost Auckland's low usage of public transport.
Contents |
[edit] History
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 and a NZ$204 million price tag,[2] it has won numerous design awards and is internationally recognised for its innovative but heritage-sympathetic architecture.[3] The main source of contention was the relatively great expense of this public transport development in the Auckland Region which is traditionally very focused on the private car (like all of New Zealand).[4]
[edit] Earlier stations
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.[5]
The original 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 1.2 km east to Beach Road, to the Auckland Railway Station, and for the rest of the 20th century the Britomart site was a bus terminal (from 1937) and carpark (from 1958).[5]
Many proposals were made to relocate the station back to the CBD, most notably in 1973 and 1987, with the 1970s proposal of the Mayor of Auckland, Dove-Myer Robinson, envisaging an underground station at the Britomart site as well as a tunnel loop. This was however stopped by the Muldoon National Government as being too costly and unjustified.[6] In 1995, Auckland City Council purchased the old Post Office (which had closed in 1988)[6] 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 consultation showed that buses were preferred above ground by both users and operators, and as projected costs soared.[7][8]
In 1998 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 (completed in 2000) to provide the underground railway link to Britomart. Bus services using the old bus terminal were diverted to other locations in June 2001.[7][8]
[edit] Construction
Designed by California architect Mario Madayag in collaboration with local Auckland architects Jasmax,[2][9][10] construction of Britomart commenced in October 2001, with structural design having been provided by OPUS.[11] It involved 14 km of piling, some of the piles being as long as 40 m and driven as far as 16 m into the underlying bedrock, mainly to provide good earthquake protection, and to futureproof the area for potential later construction of buildings on top of the station. 200,000 cubic metres were excavated for the station, and 40,000 cubic metres of concrete poured.[12]
The new station was opened in July 2003 by Sir Edmund Hillary and several government ministers.[13] Services to the old station ceased, except for some peak-time commuter services and excursion trains, using the former Platform 4, renamed 'The Strand'. The commuter services ceased after a few months.
[edit] Capacity and rail connections
The station is designed to carry up to 10,500 passengers during the peak hour in the current configuration, i.e. as a terminus station.[2] Further increases, considered necessary for better frequencies in the long term, will likely not be possible without turning Britomart into a through station (as opposed to the current terminus configuration) for which in turn, a tunnel underneath parts of the Auckland CBD will be required (see below).
At the moment the station has five platforms, but is constrained by the 9.3 m width of the 426 m long access tunnel that allows only two tracks. Foecasts predict that while double-tracking of the surrounding rail network will improve the currently experienced peak time train congestion, the capacity of the corridor will be reached by around 2020.[14]
[edit] Increased services
In its early days, Britomart received a lot of criticism due to its being built on a scale and level of grandeur that was well in excess of the capacity and patronage of the rail network in Auckland at the time. Auckland Regional Council transport committee chairwoman Catherine Harland acknowledged that "Britomart opened ahead of its time", raising public expectations that the state of the rail network could not yet fulfil.[15]
However, in recent years rail patronage has increased greatly, from 2.5 million journeys in 2003 to 5.7 million in the year ending June 2007, and more frequent services have been introduced by the Auckland Regional Transport Authority (ARTA) and its rail operator Veolia Transport to accommodate these greater numbers.[16][17][18] This has led to concerns that the station will soon be at maximum capacity. During the peak, only 18 trains per hour can enter and exit.[citation needed][19]
The foresight of council planners in constructing such an iconic investment in Auckland's public transport has already spurred further development. The $600 million Project DART (Developing Auckland's Rail Transport)[20] is underway, with the state-owned enterprise ONTRACK undertaking the ‘below rail’ construction (i.e. platforms, tracks and signals) and ARTA providing the passenger services and facilities at stations (i.e. lighting, shelters and access), with funding from the Auckland Regional Council and Land Transport New Zealand.
[edit] Electrification
With the announcement on May 17, 2007, that electrification of Auckland's rail network would proceed, further changes will be seen at Britomart to cater for the necessary overhead wires that will be part of the electrification project. The project timeframe is from May 2007 with a projected completion in 2013. After the electification, diesel trains will be phased out from suburban services and replaced by the expected new electric trains that ARTA will purchase in the near future. However a small number of diesel powered trains are likely to continue to use the station to provide regional and intercity services to areas of the network that remain unelectrified.[21]
[edit] City underground loop
Plans for an underground loop, to be built from the Britomart area, running southward underneath the CBD to the general Mt Eden area have been debated for many decades. The route would possibly go via underground stations at midtown near Wellesley St and one at uptown servicing the Karangahape Rd area, to a new station at Mt Eden.[22] This loop would allow trains to run through the station rather than having to reverse out over the same set of tracks. Governments have so far been unwilling to provide funding for this project and it is unlikely to proceed in the near future, though the major investments into public rail transport as decided on in 2007 have put it back on the drawing board. Current estimates for the cost of the loop are at around NZ$ 1 billion with a 12-16 year plan-and-build duration.[23][24]
On 5 March 2008 ARTA revealed that it had begun preliminary planning for a 3.5km tunnel between Britomart and Mt Eden, beneath Albert Street and including underground stations near Wellesley Street and Karangahape Road.[14]
[edit] Duplicate eastern tunnel
A proposed alternative to increase capacity is the duplication of the existing eastern Britomart approach tunnel. This would require a new twin track tunnel of approximately 500 metres length to be constructed parallel to the existing twin track tunnel, providing a total of four tracks from Quay Park Junction and retaining Britomart as a terminus station. Estimated costs are in the range of $150 million to $200 million dollars with a plan and build duration of 4-5 years.[25] Such a project would allow the same capacity increase as the CBD loop at approximately one sixth to one fifth the cost, but without any of the additional benefits that the two new CBD underground stations or the more direct route to the western line would provide.
Initially seen as an inferior (yet cheaper and more politically acceptable) alternative to the CBD tunnel, the duplicate eastern approach is regaining favour due to the comparatively short build time. Even if planning commenced immediately the city underground loop might not become operational until several years after the maximum capacity of the existing corridor is reached. [25]
While potentially seen as an alternative to a central city underground tunnel, a duplicate eastern tunnel does not preclude a city underground line from being built.
[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.
[edit] Services
[edit] Trains
Suburban services are provided by Veolia on behalf of ARTA, under the MAXX brand name. 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 between Britomart and Wellington via the North Island Main Trunk is operated by Tranz Scenic, part of Toll NZ. The service was threatened with closure in 2006 and its future remained uncertain even after Toll reversed its decision to suspend services after public comments on the closure were strongly negative [26].
Discussions have recently begun to re-establish a twice-daily return service to Hamilton, approximately two hours south of Auckland by rail. This service will most likely begin in 2008 or 2009 as an extension of the current service to Pukekohe to the south of metropolitan Auckland. A previous service, the Waikato Connection, operated this route briefly during 2000 - 2001.
[edit] Buses and ferries
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. Buses depart from various places in front and around the centre. While the bus stations in the square directly in front of the building are the most obvious, the large number of bus routes has forced some to be located up to a block away.
Just across Quay Street from Britomart is the Auckland Ferry Terminal, serving coastal suburbs like Devonport or further destinations like Waiheke Island.
[edit] Awards
Awards that Britomart Transport Centre has received:[2]
- 2004 Property Council of New Zealand - Merit Award, Special Purposes Category
- 2004 American Institute of Architecture[27] - Architectural Record / Business Week International Winner
- 2004 New Zealand Institute of Architects - Resene Award, Community and Cultural
- 2004 New Zealand Institute of Architects - Resene Award, Heritage and Conservation
- 2004 Illuminating Engineering Society of Australia and New Zealand - Lighting Award
- 2004 New Zealand Concrete Society - Concrete Award
- 2005 New Zealand Institute of Architects - Resene New Zealand Award for Architecture, Community & Cultural
- 2007 Kenneth F. Brown Asia Pacific Culture and Architecture Design Award - Honorable mention[28]
[edit] See also
[edit] References
- ^ Smoke chaos at Britomart - The New Zealand Herald, Tuesday 20 February 2007
- ^ a b c d e Cultural & Civic Projects - Britomart Transport Centre (from the Jasmax website)
- ^ References provided within this same article (Awards)
- ^ Mode of Transport, Figure for New Zealand Regions (from the Travel Survey Highlights 1997-98, New Zealand Ministry of Transport)
- ^ a b Chapter 1 - The Historic Land 1600-1959 (from the official Centre website)
- ^ a b Chapter 2 - City Takes Control 1959-1995 (from the official Centre website)
- ^ a b Chapter 3 - Transforming the Waterfront 1995-1999 (from the official Centre website)
- ^ a b Chapter 4 - The Britomart Project 1999-2001 (from the official Centre website)
- ^ Cultural & Civic Projects - Britomart Transport Centre (from the Jasmax website)
- ^ Auckland City vision a transport of delights - The New Zealand Herald, Thursday 09 November 2000
- ^ Opus IPO set to ride out volatility - The New Zealand Herald, Monday 24 September 2007
- ^ First Britomart Tour – Wednesday 29 November 2006 - IPENZ, Auckland Branch, January 2007 Bulletin
- ^ Ministers at the opening of Britomart (from the New Zealand Labour Party website)
- ^ a b Mathew Dearnaley (5 March 2008). $1b loop tunnel plan to unlock Britomart. The New Zealand Herald. Retrieved on 2008-03-05.
- ^ Happy birthday, Britomart - The New Zealand Herald, Wednesday 07 July 2004
- ^ New tracks, more services, greater reliability (media release from ARTA, Wednesday 06 June 2007. Retrieved 2007-10-09.)
- ^ Rail Development Plan 2006 - Foreword (PDF) (from the ARTA, August 2006)
- ^ Auckland's Transport Strategy and the Role of Rail (from the Engineers for Social Responsibility website)
- ^ Auckland's Eastern Transport Corridor (from the Engineers for Social Responsibility website)
- ^ Rail Newsletter Issue 29 (published on the Auckland Regional Transport Authority (ARTA) website, late 2006)
- ^ 21st century public transport for Auckland - Auckland Regional Transport Authority, Thursday 17 May 2007
- ^ Auckland’s rail network tomorrow: 2016 to 2030 (PDF) (from the ARTA, August 2006)
- ^ Following the money - e.nz magazine, IPENZ, January/February 2007
- ^ Auckland rail upgrade powers ahead - The New Zealand Herald, Monday 21 May 2007
- ^ a b Britomart West Rail Extension Feasibility Study (URS Group, final report for Auckland City Rapid Transit Group, 2004)
- ^ "Overlander saved" - National Business Review, 28 September 2006)
- ^ Britomart Transport Centre (from the Architectural Record website)
- ^ School of Architecture announces winners of the 2007 Kenneth F. Brown... - UH News, University of Hawaii, Thursday 07 June 2007
[edit] External links
- Britomart Project (from the Auckland City Council website)
- Britomart Transport Centre (BTC official website)
- Britomart Transport Centre is at coordinates Coordinates: