Auckland railway platforms platform guesses to cost millions

By BERNARD ORSMAN and CATHY ARONSON

Millions of dollars will have to be spent rebuilding railway platforms because the Auckland region does not know the size of its future modern train network.

The bill for rebuilding platforms at the new Britomart railway stations alone will be upwards of $2 million.

The $212 million Britomart transport station is due to open in July, but the Auckland City Council and council-owned infrastructure managers Auckland Regional Transport Network Ltd (ARTNL) are building railway platforms by guesswork.

Nobody has decided whether the post-2006 train fleet will require low or high platforms.

Britomart project director Grant Kirby said the platforms were being built at 840mm with flexibility to take trains from 500mm to 1100mm by lowering or raising ballast or adding a concrete slab on the platform.

Mr Kirby said "either way it was not an expensive proposition" - between $500,000 and $1.5 million. However, another source told the Herald the cost was closer to $2 million and the issue was a case of bad management of public money.

ARTNL, which is doing up stations at Glen Innes, Ranui and Papatoetoe in time for the Britomart opening, is building platforms at 750mm. Chief executive Martin Gummer said changing heights at a later date would cost relatively little.

ARC transport manager Barry Mein said specifications for the new train fleet would not be known until a business plan was finished in March.

"One of the things we want to work through is the platform height or what the the floor height of the vehicles will be," he said.

Disagreements on the new trains prompted an independent review of the plagued rail project by Sir Ron Carter to try to bring warring political factions together.

He said they had to get on and order interim trains to meet an expected 20 per cent increase in passengers when Britomart opens.

Only weeks after the review was released, one of the parties to the project has released a report damning the ARC's decision this month to lease trains from the Great Zig-Zag Railway museum in Australia.

The report, prepared by former Tranz Rail engineer Bill Whall, raises concerns about the safety of the seven 40-year-old former Brisbane carriages chartered to carry schoolchildren in Auckland.

Herald feature: Getting Auckland moving