Britomart Transport Centre

Britomart Transport Centre
Auckland Transport urban rail
An EMU sits at the newly electrified Britomart station.
Location	Queen Elizabeth II Square, Queen Street, Auckland City
Owned by	Auckland Council[1]
Line(s)	North Island Main Trunk Newmarket Line
Platforms	5
Construction
Platform levels	2
Bicycle facilities	Yes
Other information
Station code	BMT / AKL
History
Opened	July 2003
Electrified	25kV AC
Traffic
5.7 million
Services
Preceding station   Transdev Auckland   Following station Terminus Eastern Line Orakei toward Manukau Southern Line Newmarket toward Pukekohe Western Line Newmarket toward Waitakere Onehunga Line Newmarket toward Onehunga Preceding station   KiwiRail Scenic   Following station Terminus Northern Explorer Papakura toward Wellington
Heritage New Zealand - Category I
Designated	11 July 1986
Reference no.	101

General Post Office building in 1911, with the entrance to the Queen Street railway station to the right

Britomart Transport Centre is the public transport hub in the central business district of Auckland, New Zealand, and the northern terminus of the North Island Main Trunk line. It combines a bus interchange with a railway station in a former Edwardian post office, extended with expansive post-modernist architectural elements. It is at the foot of Queen Street, the main commercial thoroughfare of Auckland city centre, with the main ferry terminal just across Quay Street.

The centre was the result of many design iterations, some of them being substantially larger and including an underground bus terminal and a large underground car park. Political concerns and cost implications meant that these concepts did not proceed. However, at the time of its inception in the early 2000s the centre was still Auckland's largest transport project ever, built to move rail access closer to the city's CBD and help boost Auckland's low usage of public transport. It is one of the few underground railway stations in the world designed for use by diesel trains.^[2]

Initially seen as underused and too costly, it is now considered a great success, heading for capacity with the growing uptake of rail commuting. Limitations on further patronage are primarily due to the access tunnel from the east which provides only two rail tracks, and the lack of a through connection (via a rail link to the North Shore or to the Western line via a city tunnel) which would change it into a through station.

History

Cost over-runs and differing tastes made the centre 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,^[3] it has won numerous design awards and is internationally recognised for its innovative but heritage-sympathetic architecture.^[4] 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.^[5]

Earlier uses

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.^[6]

Auckland Railway Station moved west from its original site to Britomart in 1885 and remained there after the Post Office was built on the Queen Street frontage in 1911. In 1930 the station was relocated 1.2 km east to Beach Road and the former station site became a bus terminal in 1937 and car park in 1958.^[6]

Many proposals were made to locate the station back in 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 Britomart and a tunnel loop, but that was stopped by the Muldoon National Government, which claimed it was unjustified and too costly.^[7] In 1995, Auckland City Council purchased the old Post Office (PostBank offices closed in 1988,^[7] though some postal services remained open beyond that year) and proposed to redevelop 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 projected costs soared, partly due to the difficulties with potential water ingress. The developer eventually defaulted on contractual deadlines, and the project failed.^[1][8][9]

In 1998, a cheaper option was decided on, partly after a consultation process with stakeholders and citizens. The architectural design was chosen via a competition. It 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 Street was realigned in the late 1990s, a tunnel was built (completed in 2000) to provide the underground railway link. Bus services using the old bus terminal were diverted to other locations in June 2001.^[1][8][9]

Construction

Overview

Designed by California architect Mario Madayag in collaboration with local Auckland architects Jasmax,^{[1][3][3][10]} construction of Britomart commenced in October 2001, with structural design having been provided by OPUS.^[11] It involved 14 km of piling, some being 40 m long and driven 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 station has a site area of 5.2 ha and includes 236 m² retail area.^[1]

Britomart's underground train terminus prior to electrification

The main chamber of Britomart is one of the best interiors in New Zealand and shows the influence of the main hall of the Austrian Postal Savings Bank building by Otto Wagner.

The station opened to passengers on 7 July 2003, with the officia opening on 25 July 2003 by Sir Edmund Hillary and government ministers.^[13] Services to the old station ceased, except for some peak-time commuter services and excursion trains using the former Platform 4 (originally Platform 7), renamed 'The Strand'. The commuter services ceased after a few months.

Pedestrian underpasses

Initial plans included an underground pedestrian walkway 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 canopy over the footpath outside the station.

Further works

While no major works are currently planned for the station except for eventual installation of overhead wires, a major commercial building was built over the eastern approach tunnel in the late 2000s, at the eastern edge of the plaza behind the centre.^[14]

Capacity and rail connections

The station is designed to serve up to 10,500 passengers during the peak hour as a terminus.^[3] Capacity increases will probably not be possible without turning Britomart into a through station, with a tunnel underneath Auckland CBD (see below).

The station has five platforms, and is constrained by the 9.3 m width of the 426 m long double-track access tunnel. Early forecasts predicted that while double-tracking of the surrounding rail network would improve peak time train congestion, the capacity of the corridor would only be reached by around 2020.^[15] The recent growth in train patronage and increased services has meant that from 2011 the tunnel is at maximum capacity, almost 10 years earlier than predicted.^[16] Because of the capacity restrictions, a proposed Hamilton-Auckland commuter train service would have gone to the The Strand station some 1.5 km to the east.^[17]

Increased services

In its early days, Britomart received a lot of criticism due to it being built on a scale and level of grandeur that was well in excess of the capacity and patronage of the rail network. 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.^[18]

An ADL class MAXX train at Platform 4, Britomart

Patronage increased from 2.5 million journeys in 2003 to just over 11 million in January 2014, and more frequent services have been introduced by the Auckland Regional Transport Authority's (ARTA) rail operator Veolia to accommodate these greater numbers.^{[19][20][21][22]} 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.^[23]

The foresight of council planners in constructing such an iconic investment has spurred further development. The $600 million Project DART (Developing Auckland's Rail Transport)^[24] was undertaken, with the state-owned enterprise ONTRACK (now KiwiRail) providing 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.

Electrification

With the announcement on 17 May 2007 that electrification of Auckland's rail network would proceed, changes will include installation of overhead wires, with the project expected to be complete in 2013. After electification diesel trains are to be replaced by new electric trains that Auckland Transport (initially ARTA) is purchasing. A small number of diesel trains are likely to continue to use the station providing regional and intercity services to unelectrified network areas.^[25]

Britomart was officially electrified on March 2014, with New Zealand's Prime Minister, John Key flipping the switch in a commemorative ceremony ^[26]

Electric passenger services began running between Britomart and Onehunga Branch on 28 April 2014. ^[27]

City Rail Link

Plans for a tunnel southward underneath the CBD to Mt Eden have been debated for nearly a century. It 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 $1 billion, taking 5–7 years to plan and build.^[28][29]

On 5 March 2008 ARTA said that it had begun preliminary planning for a 3.5 km tunnel which would most likely be travelling under Albert Street and serving three underground stations near Wellesley Street (linking to Aotea Square), in the Karangahape Road / Pitt Street area, and one near Upper Symonds Street in Newton, at the southern end linking to a redeveloped station at Mt Eden.^[15][30]

Eastern tunnel capacity

A proposed alternative to increase capacity is the duplication of the existing eastern Britomart approach tunnel. This would require a new twin track tunnel approximately 500 metres long to be constructed parallel to the existing twin-track tunnel, providing four tracks from Quay Park Junction and retaining Britomart as a terminus. Estimated costs are $150 million to $200 million, taking of 4–5 years to plan and build.^[31] 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, but 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.^[31] While seen as an alternative to the CBD through connection tunnel, a duplicate eastern tunnel would not preclude an underground line from being built.

Another option that will be in operation from early 2011 and will allow an increase in capacity of the existing tunnel is the use of 'bi-directional signalling', which will allow a train to leave on the same track that it entered - and which would free it from having to cross over other tracks which may not be safely clear of other trains yet.^[32]

Services

The underground station looking east.

One of the futuristic dome-shaped skylights connecting to the public square above. The domes are intended to represent Auckland's volcanic heritage.^[3]

Trains

Suburban services are provided by Transdev on behalf of Auckland Transport, 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 City in the north-west.

The Northern Explorer, a thrice-weekly long-distance train between Britomart and Wellington via the North Island Main Trunk is operated by KiwiRail. Its predecessor service, The Overlander, 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.^[33]

Buses and ferries

Britomart is a major interchange between trains, buses and ferries. It is the terminus for many bus routes, and The Link and the free City Circuit buses go past on their loops around the city. Buses depart from Queen Elizabeth II Square in front of Britomart and from stops up to a block away. This lack of more integrated bus facilities is one of the less perfect outcomes of the final design, which cut the underground bus station due to costs and because the bus operators preferred an above-ground solution.^[1]

Just across Quay Street is the Auckland Ferry Terminal, serving suburbs such as Devonport and further destinations like Waiheke Island.

Heritage registration

The Chief Post Office was registered as a Category I heritage building by the New Zealand Historic Places Trust on 11 July 1986, with registration number 101.^[34]

Awards

Awards that the centre has received:^[3]

• 2004 Property Council of New Zealand - Merit Award, Special Purposes Category
• 2004 American Institute of Architecture^[35] - 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^[36]

See also

• Public transport in Auckland
• Transport in Auckland

References

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Britomart Transport Centre.

• Britomart Project (from the Auckland City Council website)
• Britomart Transport Centre (BTC official website)

Coordinates: 36°50′38″S 174°46′01″E / 36.844014°S 174.767010°E / -36.844014; 174.767010