Bus park horrifies Parnell group

Parnell's business community is horrified buses might be allowed to rumble down steep and narrow streets to a proposed new depot.

Business association Parnell Inc also fears a proposal by NZ Bus owner Infratil and KiwiRail to park up to 60 Link buses on the 2ha site on railway land below Cheshire St will disrupt traffic on Parnell Rise and undermine a longer-term vision for a community development project.

Association manager Debbie Harkness says the two parties revealed at a meeting that they were considering asking Auckland City to install traffic lights on Parnell Rise to allow buses to run down Bedford St and then up a two-lane driveway parallel to the railway line from the northern end of Heather St.

"A bus park is likely to place severe strain on our network of intimate and historic side streets, which were never intended for large vehicles or heavy traffic flows," she said in a letter to Infratil and KiwiRail.

Auckland Regional Council's transport and urban development committee weighed into the row yesterday, endorsing the site for a new railway station and deeming its interim use for bus "stabling" inappropriate to its topography and other factors including the narrowness of access streets and the area's historic residential character.

"We have to look at land uses to ensure they work and complement transport, rather than this harebrained scheme of parking buses in the middle of a well-established and intimate community," said committee chairwoman Christine Rose.

The council's heritage and parks committee chairwoman, Sandra Coney, accused KiwiRail of being relentless in wanting to maximise economic return from the site and she described the bus proposal as bizarre.

"If that's where their heads are they are not fit to be in charge of KiwiRail," she said.

NZ Bus chief operating officer Zane Fulljames would not comment on the proposal for a five- to seven-year lease on the site, except to say the company had been working for some time to identify potential alternatives to its central city depot in Halsey St.

But KiwiRail chief executive Jim Quinn rejected the regional councillors' criticism, saying the scheme would not compromise future development opportunities for the site, based around a potential new railway station.

Local architects have produced a concept plan for Parnell Inc for the site which puts a large workshop building occupied by heritage rail operator Mainline Steam and community artists at the centre of a mixed-use development next to a station, which they hope would become a gateway to the Auckland Domain and Museum.

The area looks run-down at present, but the business association does not believe a bus depot surrounded by security fencing will enhance the area, let alone improve access between Parnell and the Domain.

Mr Quinn said it was up to Infratil to satisfy Auckland City Council about access and other planning issues but the site was big enough to accommodate a bus depot without removing the Mainline Steam workshop.

KiwiRail believed the Parnell community had some "really good" ideas for developing the site, and "would love to see [it] used constructively and in a way that people like".

But Mr Quinn said commercial backers for those ideas had yet to emerge and KiwiRail had a responsibility to try to gain a commercial return from the site in the meantime. "We are not the developer, that is not our role."