New bridge puts buses on fast track

Auckland's new busway between Newmarket and Britomart will be buzzing this morning after the completion of a replacement road bridge over the western railway line.

KiwiRail subsidiary Ontrack opened the bridge at the Newmarket end of Park Rd to its full width of two lanes in each direction last week, clearing the way for the $43 million corridor to start carrying more buses.

Only Link buses have been using the full busway since it opened ahead of schedule almost two months ago, because of a chokepoint in Park Rd, where traffic remained confined to one lane each way while the replacement bridge was built to give electric trains more clearance.

But the Auckland Regional Transport Authority added a series of bus services carrying passengers from and to a range of eastern suburbs to the busway yesterday, in preparation for today's commuter runs.

That should cut several minutes off journeys to work by enabling the buses to avoid congestion along much of Khyber Pass Rd, where Ontrack is still working on a second replacement bridge.

More buses, such as from southern and northern suburbs, will be added to the busway in January.

Traffic should also start flowing more freely on the other side of Newmarket from tomorrow when Ontrack will fully open a replacement bridge along Remuera Rd.

The bridges are part of an almost $100 million upgrade to the Newmarket railway junction through to Boston Rd, which includes a new $35 million central station opening behind Broadway in January and another beneath Park Rd.

Newmarket rail users fighting for the retention of a temporary station off Kingdon St, near the junction of the western and southern lines, were surprised last week when the transport authority said it was considering building a permanent facility there for $9 million to $13 million.

Supporters of the temporary station, such as Auckland Regional Council chairman Mike Lee and Newmarket business owner Guy Herbert, are questioning the authority proposing such an expensive alternative while it is considering budget cuts to cover a $60 million shortfall in Government subsidies over three years.

Mr Herbert said it was "bizarre" to suggest spending so much money when his fast-growing neighbourhood already had "a perfectly functional station that everybody uses".

He feared it was a ploy to allow the temporary station, which cost about $750,000 to build in 2007, to be demolished over Christmas without any intention of replacing it.

He said that without being able to stop at Kingdon St, all Waitakere-bound trains would have to pass through the Newmarket junction from Britomart to reach the central on the southern line, then reverse back to the western line.

Mr Lee said nobody was asking the transport authority to make Kingdon St a permanent station.

He said the money would be better spent building a new station at Parnell, which was left off a three-year funding programme even through planners believe it could be the third busiest in Auckland after Newmarket and Britomart.