Otahuhu Railway Station

Otahuhu
Auckland Transport Urban rail

The main entrance to Otahuhu Station, serving the bus and railway platforms
Location Otahuhu, Auckland
Coordinates 36°56′50″S 174°50′0″E / 36.94722°S 174.83333°E / -36.94722; 174.83333
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   Auckland Transport (Transdev)   Following station
toward Britomart
Eastern Line
toward Manukau
Southern Line
toward Papakura

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 nearby streets. Otahuhu station features a historic, decommissioned 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.

Concern was raised in 2007 about the 1.2 km walk between the station and the nearest bus services, with the station located in an out-of-the-way industrial area.[4] These concerns were addressed by the construction of a bus-train interchange which opened in October 2016.

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 was 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 was one of the last to be decommissioned in Auckland, as part of a project to upgrade the signalling of the Auckland suburban network in preparation for electrification. Mainline signalling 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.

Bus-train interchange

The bus platforms at Otahuhu Station during an open day on 29 October 2016. The railway platforms are behind the left-hand platform in this view.

A public open day was held with station designers in August 2014. Enabling works began in November 2014 after the temporary closure of Titi Street Bridge. The following year (November 2015) main construction works began (building the concourse area and landscaping). The bus station and concourse was completed in October 2016.[5] The opening of the Otahuhu bus interchange heralded the roll out of a simpler public transport network for South Auckland. The decommissioned signal box has been retained as a historic feature of the new station.[6][7]

Services

Transdev Auckland, on behalf of Auckland Transport, operates suburban services to Britomart, Manukau, Papakura and Pukekohe via Otahuhu. The typical weekday off-peak timetable is:[8][9]

Bus routes 32, 33, 321, 322, 324, 325 and 326 serve Otahuhu Station.[10]

See also

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. ↑ "Locke, local candidates action on public transport". Green Party Press Release, via Scoop.co.nz. 24 September 2007. Retrieved 22 September 2010.
  5. ↑ "Otahuhu bus train interchange". Auckland Transport. Retrieved 27 October 2015.
  6. ↑ "New Otahuhu Station and a New Network for South Auckland". Auckland Transport. Retrieved 25 October 2016.
  7. ↑ "New Otahuhu Station to open for new network". Stuff.co.nz. 27 October 2016. Retrieved 27 October 2016.
  8. ↑ "Eastern Line timetable" (PDF). Auckland Transport. Retrieved 11 June 2016.
  9. ↑ "Southern Line timetable" (PDF). Auckland Transport. Retrieved 11 June 2016.
  10. ↑ "Southern Guide – from 30 October 2016" (PDF). Auckland Transport. Retrieved 30 October 2016.
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