An extra bridge, but only for emergencies

A second footbridge will be built over Kingsland railway station in Auckland, but for emergency evacuations only, rather than for crowds streaming out of nearby Eden Park.

Unless the station's platforms have to be cleared because of an emergency, passengers will be restricted to an existing bridge or a new underpass to be built beneath the railway tracks in a $6 million station upgrade for the Auckland Regional Transport Authority.

The underpass proposal has been known for some time, but the second bridge was revealed only late last week in a drawing made public by the authority.

The upgrade, is intended to cope with Rugby World Cup crowds in 2011.

Authority communications manager Sharon Hunter said the need for the bridge was identified during a review of fire safety.

Asked how much it would cost, she said only that it was "a standard item to cover" within a budget of just over $6 million million for the station upgrade, which remained subject to review once detailed design was completed.

Although the upgrade will cost one and a half times that of the $4 million spent reconstructing the station in 2004, Ms Hunter said the two "very different projects" could not be compared.

"The platform extensions and widening are a different scope and an underpass is a new item. Also construction costs have increased."

Ms Hunter said the second bridge was needed to satisfy Building Code requirements before a consent was sought from Auckland City Council.

It will be built at the eastern end of the station, and will lead to a fire egress easement through a council-owned carpark to New North Rd.

The public underpass on which work is beginning at the western end of the station will be 3.5m wide.

The width of the new bridge has yet to be confirmed.

A new flight of stairs will be added to the eastern side of the original footbridge for a better distribution of passengers along the station's northern platform, which is to be extended by 40m to 175m.

That and the southern platform, which is to be widened and extended by 20m to 155m, have been designed to handle up to 15,000 passengers queuing after World Cup matches to catch trains running to Newmarket or Britomart on two sets of tracks.

The police raised concern in a report last year, saying crowds of up to 9000 sports fans already used the station after big matches at Eden Park, and it had outgrown its capacity, with "crushing" on the original 3.2m wide bridge and illegal foot crossings of the railway tracks.