Otahuhu Railway Station

Otahuhu Railway Station
MAXX Urban rail

The station in 2010
Location Titi Street,
Otahuhu,
Auckland
Coordinates 36°56′50″S 174°50′0″E / 36.94722°S 174.83333°E
Owned by New Zealand Railways Corporation and Auckland Transport
Line(s) Eastern Line
Southern Line
Platforms Island platform
Tracks Mainline (2)
Construction
Platform levels 1
Parking No
Bicycle facilities No
History
Opened 1873
Electrified 25kV AC[1]
Traffic
Passengers (2011) 954 passengers/weekday[2]
Services
  ONTRACK  
Preceding station   MAXX (Veolia)   Following station
Eastern Line
toward Manukau
Southern Line
toward Pukekohe

Otahuhu Railway Station is located on the Eastern and Southern Lines of the Auckland rail network. It has an island platform layout and can be reached by pedestrian overbridges from Walmsey Road Road and Titi Street. Otahuhu station features a signal box and is the point where both freight and passenger trains enter and exit the main line from the Westfield locomotive depot.

The station was opened in the 1870s to serve the increasing settlement at Otahuhu, with a road eventually constructed to the station. The station included a goods shed and a main building, which however burned down in 1909 after a fire in the oil room got out of hand with no water supply available to suppress the fires.[3]

In 1927, Otahuhu Railway Workshops opened on a site west of the station. This facility became the North Island's foremost wagon and carriage construction and repair facility. It was progressively closed from 1986 to 1992.

Further south, between Otahuhu station and Mangere station, a rail fabrication facility was built. This facility is still in use. Otahuhu also possessed Auckland's second-largest locomotive depot, which was opened in 1905, and closed in 1968, with the opening of the Westfield facility.

The station, as of 2010, remains one of the worst-maintained on the Auckland network. Concerns have also repeatedly been raised in previous years about the security situation (especially at night) and the distance to the nearest bus services, with the station located in an out-of-the-way industrial area.[4][5]

Upcoming upgrade

In May 2011, Auckland Transport and KiwiRail started work to lengthen the platform to accommodate longer passenger trains. The platform area around the signal box will be raised and further platform installed around the base of the pedestrian over bridge to Walmsley Road.

In July 2011, the signal box at the station will be one of the last to be decommissioned in Auckland, as part of a project to upgrade the signaling of the Auckland suburban network in preparation for electrification. Mainline signaling in the Otahuhu station limits will be operated from the National Train Control Centre (NTCC) in Wellington, along with the rest of the Auckland network.

Services

Transdev Auckland, on behalf of Auckland Transport, operates suburban services to Britomart, Manukau, Papakura and Pukekohe via Otahuhu. Since 8 December 2014, the basic weekday off-peak timetable is:[6][7]

References

  1. ↑ "Auckland Electrifcation Map" (PDF). KiwiRail. 28 April 2014. Retrieved 11 July 2014.
  2. ↑ Auckland Transport Board Meeting (20 November 2012) Agenda Item 10(i) "Rail Electrification Extension" p. 16
  3. ↑ "Railway Station Destroyed". United Press Association via Colonist, Volume LII, Issue 12695. 13 November 1909.
  4. ↑ "WELCOME TO THE ... University of Manukau". The Aucklander. 29 November 2007. Retrieved 22 September 2010.
  5. ↑ "Locke, local candidates action on public transport". Green Party Press Release, via Scoop.co.nz. 24 September 2007. Retrieved 22 September 2010.
  6. ↑ "Eastern Line timetable from 8 December 2014" (PDF). Auckland Transport. Retrieved 21 November 2014.
  7. ↑ "Southern Line timetable from 8 December 2014" (PDF). Auckland Transport. Retrieved 21 November 2014.