Extra night trains for Christmas-week shoppers

New Lynn's new station will open inside this new $160 million trench in September.

Extra night trains are running in Auckland this week for last-minute Christmas shopping forays to Sylvia Park, ahead of a holiday-season closure of large sections of the rail network.

The Auckland Regional Transport Authority and rail operator Veolia have added the extra late-night trains to their eastern line services between Britomart and Papakura until Wednesday evening in the campaign to lure more Aucklanders to public transport.

"Late-night shopping in the week leading up to Christmas is always a busy time and by running additional services to Sylvia Park we hope to make life a little easier for our customers," said the authority's customer services general manager, Mark Lambert.

Extra trains will leave Britomart at 10.40pm and 11.55pm until Wednesday, and will be reciprocated by services from Papakura at 10.40pm and 11.40pm.

But anybody loaded up with Christmas presents at Sylvia Park for a return trip to central Auckland should catch the earlier of the trains from Papakura, which will call at the mega-mall at 11.11pm, as the second service stops short for the night at Otahuhu.

There will be no rail services on Christmas Day. Then replacement buses will fill in for trains for three weeks across much of the network to allow hundreds of KiwiRail staff and contractors, working around the clock in shifts, to complete an ambitious construction programme at more than nine sites.

Trains will run south of Otahuhu, but all three railway lines to the north will be shut until January 4, when extra eastern services will resume at 10-minute peak-time frequencies through Glen Innes to carry passengers between Pukekohe and Britomart.

The entire western line and the southern line section between Otahuhu and Britomart will remain shut until Monday, January 18, when Newmarket's $35 million grand replacement station and the neighbouring reconfigured railway junction will start business.

Railway tracks beneath several bridges and tunnels will be lowered during the line closures to provide enough clearance for the $1 billion electrification project, and construction work will continue on three other new stations, at Grafton, Avondale and New Lynn.

An underpass will also be dug beneath the western line at Kingsland Station to increase access for Rugby World Cup crowds in a $6 million upgrade by the transport authority.

Authority communications manager Sharon Hunter said much of the work on Auckland's rail upgrade could only be done while no trains were running.

The main body of work was scheduled for the post-Christmas period to minimise disruption, as that was the time of lowest demand for rail services.

Although the electrification project between next year and 2013 will mean more Christmas shutdowns, Ms Hunter promised passengers their patience would ultimately be rewarded with timetable and service improvements.

The opening of the New Lynn railway station in September inside a $160 million trench will mark the completion of the western line track duplication project.

Grafton's new station in Park Rd, replacing the train stop outside Mt Eden Prison in Boston Rd, will open in April and Avondale's replacement station will become available in the middle of next year. The Onehunga branch line with two new stations is also due to open at that time.

But Christmas Eve will be the last day of the Helensville passenger rail trial, after the transport authority and its Auckland Regional Council parent decided to cut their losses on a service carrying only about 18 city-bound passenger a day.

Council members including chairman Mike Lee believe the trial was doomed to failure by the way the authority designed the daily return service, but are pushing for a reinstatement of trains as far as Huapai or Waimauku by March, to run at least twice a day.

Mr Lee said he believed the Waimauku passenger catchment was big enough to justify an extension of services from the Waitakere village as long as they were run at reasonable times and were not hampered by the frequent disruption suffered by Helensville commuters.

He said investment had already been put into station facilities and it would be a waste of those resources for trains to end their runs at Huapai, as suggested by council officials, rather than continue just 4km down the track to Waimauku.

Waimauku is about half way between Waitakere and Helensville, a distance of just over 30km.

Replacement bus service information and other public transport timetables: www.maxx.co.nz