Parnell's future Train Station
- Press and commentary
East & Bays Courier 23, July,2010. Photo: by Fiona Goodall
STOPPING THE BUSES: Parnell Inc manager Debbie Harkness and business owner Christopher Brittain are among the 900 community members fighting a proposal for a bus depot in Parnell. The proposed entrance to the site would be at the end of Heather St.
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NZ Herald: Whose land is it anyway KiwiRail?
15 November, 2010. Story by Brian Rudman. With state-owned KiwiRail and its gentleman debt collector, Steven Joyce, demanding a trebling of the rent Auckland pays for access to the region's rail tracks, now might be a good time for the new council to try a bit of hardball in return. … Amid all the excitement of the coronation of Super City mayor Len Brown, news that KiwiRail had buckled to widespread opposition and abandoned plans to lease two hectares of Parnell land to New Zealand Bus as a depot for Link and other city buses got rather lost. >>more.
NZ Herald: KiwiRail abandons bus park idea
2 November, 2010. Story by Mathew Dearnaley:KiwiRail has backed down from a controversial plan to allow buses to park on land being eyed for a heritage-flavoured railway station in Parnell.
The state-owned company also on Friday assured former Auckland Regional Council chairman Mike Lee - whose organisation wound up on Sunday to make way for the Super City - that land would be made available for a station at Parnell. >>more
NZ Herald: Nicholas Stevens: First the dream, then the bombshell
23 October, 2010: Auckland could be a great city but it needs some work. It has an extraordinary geography, and a unique and diverse cultural mix, but its built environment suffers from a distinct lack of care. A great city needs self-respect, love of its communities and its heritage. >>more
NZ Herald: ARC presses for Parnell train station
30 September, 2010: KiwiRail and Auckland's Super City council will be urged to make an early start on a $13 million-plus Parnell train station centred around Newmarket's former heritage railway building. >>more
East & Bays Courier: Parnell fights depot
23 July, 2010: ALMOST 900 residents and a community board are backing the Parnell business association's effort to stop a proposal to turn two hectares of prime real estate into a bus depot. The Mainline Steam site on Cheshire St in Parnell is one of the options Infratil is looking at as a possible location to store its Link buses when the lease on its current depot in Halsey St expires in 2014. Property owner KiwiRail is in discussions with Infratil about the possibility of leasing them the site for up to seven years. >>more
The Bob Dey Property Report: Parnell horror at bus park replacing railway station-centred project
Parnell residents & businesses took their opposition to a bus-park proposal for 2ha beside the Mainline Steam site to the Hobson Community Board this week, and criticised KiwiRail for not fronting to explain its position. >>more
AKT blog: Latest Transport & Infrastructure News, Views & Information
Jon C. runs a very informative blog on transport issues, and keeps a good check on all posts to prevent trash commentary. The planned Parnell bus park is currently the Top Debate on the site, generating good commentary. Worth reading and participating!
22 July: Parnell Group turns up the heat on KiwiRail
20 July: Top debate: Parnell Bus Plan
Parnell Inc Media Release: KiwiRail discards local community
22 July, 2010: Parnell residents and businesses are reeling after KiwiRail failed this week to front at a heated community board meeting to discuss their plans to turn prized Parnell into a bus park for seven years. >>more
Parnell Inc Media Release: Parnell says “NO” to KiwiRail's bus park plans
19 July, 2010: Parnell residents and businesses are outraged by KiwiRail's plans to turn surplus Parnell land over to NZ Bus for use as a bus park for seven years or more. More than 800 residents, businesses and visitors to Parnell have signed a petition circulated about the community opposing the planned bus park. >>more
East & Bays Courier: Bus Depot site 'insensitive'
23 June, 2010: More than two hectares of prime real estate in Auckland's oldest suburb is being considered as the site for a bus depot, angering the area's business community. KiwiRail is looking at leasing the Mainline Steam site on Cheshire St in Parnell to NZ Bus owner Infratil for up to seven years. Parnell Inc manager Debbie Harkness says the proposal is "outrageously insensitive" >>more
Parnell News: Community says NO to planned bus park
11 June, 2010: Parnell will fight for visionary development. KiwiRail and Infratil, owners of the Link Bus, have embarked on a plan to utilise the Cheshire Street / Mainline Steam site in Parnell for a "bus park". Parnell Inc. and other Parnell stakeholders are adamantly opposed to and outraged by this plan.>>more
Parnell News: ARC backs Parnell's vision for future train station
11 June, 2010: And strongly opposes KiwiRail bus park proposal. Parnell has the support of the Auckland Regional Council in its pursuit of a grand vision for the over-two hectare site, originally part of The Domain and now surplus to KiwiRail's requirements. >>more
NZ Herald: Bus park horrifies Parnell group
10 June, 2010: Parnell's business community is horrified buses might be allowed to rumble down steep and narrow streets to a proposed new depot. >>more
Parnell News: KiwiRail plans massive bus park for Parnell
4 June, 2010: Alarming impacts for Parnell and vision for future station. KiwiRail revealed to Parnell Inc. last week that it is looking into the feasibility of turning the preferred site for the future Parnell Train Station, at Cheshire Street, over to Infratil for use as a bus park for up to seven years. >>more
NZ Herald: Path will link uni with rail
28 April, 2010:
Auckland City has allocated funds to link the university quarter in Symonds St to the railway at Parnell with a cycling and pedestrian path through the Domain.>>more
NZ Herald: Parnell leaders and ARC see bright future for old railway workshop
27 October, 2009: Parnell community and business leaders are campaigning to retain a large old railway workshop building and use it for a new "destination" station between their village centre and Auckland Museum. >>more
Parnell News: Parnell Station geats ARC support
16 October, 2009: Parnell Inc, together with Parnell Community Committee and architect, Nicholas Stevens, inspired the Auckland Regional Council's Transport and Urban Development Committee at its October meeting this week, with our initiative: to establish a destination train station at the Cheshire Street site in Parnell. >>more
East & Bays Courier: Big ideas for train hub
29 July, 2009: Auckland trains zoom past without stopping and residents, workers and shoppers don't even know it exists. But nestled behind Parnell, next to the train tracks and beside the Waipapa Stream is one of New Zealand's last carriagework buildings and over five hectares of unused land. Local business association Parnell Inc and award-winning architecture firm Stevens Lawson have a vision of transforming it into a train station, event space and vibrant cultural hub. >>more
Parnell News: Rodney Hide blown away by station vision
17 July, 2009:Local MP Rodney Hide visited the proposed site for the future Parnell train station at Cheshire Street yesterday and was, in his own words, "blown away." >>more
NZ Herald: Residents preparing for second battle against rail plans
11 May, 2009: The Mainline Steam Trust's desire to shift from its Parnell depot to West Auckland is being opposed by a residents' group with a successful record in railway battles. >>more
Parnell News: Parnell Train Station update
28 November, 2008: ARC's Mike Lee continues to push for progress. Auckland Regional Council Chair, Mike Lee, continues to push for the old Newmarket Train Station to become a working station at Parnell – and at the Mainline Steam site Parnell Mainstreet recommends. >>more
NZ Herald: Pressure grows over site of railway station in Parnell
28 August, 2008: Auckland City and the regional council have lined up with business associations to press government agency Ontrack for a railway station near Parnell's main street. >>more
NZ Herald: Uncertainty dogs old Newmarket Station
11 February, 2008: A tug-of-war is emerging over a new home for Newmarket's century-old railway station building as it is about to be cut in two and removed to an undisclosed storage site. >>more
NZ Herald: 'Storage' looms for historic Newmarket train station
17 December, 2007: Newmarket's historic railway station building is likely to be put into storage next month, amid uncertainty over the locality of a new Parnell train stop. >>more
NZ Herald: Parnell businesses make train-stop plea
13 August, 2007: Parnell's business community wants a new train stop between their suburb and the Auckland Domain - before the only remaining suitable site is gobbled up by property developers.>>more
Parnell News: Parnell Train Station update
28 November, 2008: ARC's Mike Lee continues to push for progress
Auckland Regional Council Chair, Mike Lee, continues to push for the old Newmarket Train Station to become a working station at Parnell – and at the Mainline Steam site Parnell Mainstreet recommends.
Previously, Parnell Mainstreet had made strong objections to ARTA's initial plan to place a Parnell Station above the old Carlaw Park site, below the very end of Heather Street . While ONTRACK is favourably disposed to relocating the Newmarket station building to the Mainline Steam site, it did not envisage it as the site for the new Parnell station because of its objections to the steeper gradient there.
In a recent letter to ONTRACK CEO, William Peet, Lee wrote:
“The ARC group objective at Parnell is for a working station in the Waipapa Valley and for the former Newmarket Station building to be the central element of this station. The ARC group objective is supported by Auckland City Council and by the local Parnell business association.
“Such a working station at Parnell would attract patronage serving both the Parnell village business district, visitors to the museum and Domain whilst also having good access to the University via walking and cycling opportunities through the Domain. …There is strong agreement on the idea of relocating the Newmarket heritage station building to the site approximately 150 metres northwest of thee Mainline Steam sheds. I have been advised that ARTA (Auckland Regional Transport Authority) has undertaken preliminary engineering assessments of potential sites for the station and has identified that a station located near the Mainline Steam site would comply with both ARTA and ONTRACK station guidleines.”
Countering earlier objections about locating a station on the steeper gradient below Mainline Steam, Lee made reference to other steeper gradients on sections of line throughout the NZ rail network that have a number of platforms built on them.
We look forward to hearing ONTRACK's response and are very pleased to have ARC and now ARTA championing an ideal solution for the train station planned for Parnell.