Rugby-friendly station set for kick-off

Jenny Smyth says the lift at the Kingsland station will make it easier for people in wheelchairs to get to Eden Park. Picture / Kenny Rodger

It's full throttle ahead at the rebuilt Kingsland railway station in Auckland for disabled rugby fans such as Jenny Smyth, keen to get to games at Eden Park by train.

They will be able to use an elaborate new lift, part of a $4 million redevelopment, to reach the rugby ground in wheelchairs from trains arriving from West Auckland or Britomart.

The lift, which has just received its final certification and towers over the new station's twin platforms, is available only for disabled people and those with children in pushchairs.

It replaces a ramp that was dismantled to allow the station to be redeveloped around duplicated tracks in a $23 million rail upgrade between Mt Eden and Morningside.

A new ramp over double tracks would have taken too much space, so other passengers will have to use steps to reach a 3.2m-wide footbridge between the Eden Park side of the station in Sandringham Rd and the Kingsland shops in New North Rd.

They will eventually be caught off-side on a close-circuit television camera if they try to catch the lift, once this can be linked by fibre-optic cable to a security control centre at Britomart station.

Until then, security guards on duty on match days will screen the lift to ensure it is not abused by those able to scale the steps without too much difficulty.

Ms Smyth, whose multiple sclerosis confines her to an electric wheelchair but who is a recent convert to rail travel from her New Lynn home, is looking forward to using the lift to get to the park to support the Blues or the All Blacks.

She said yesterday that despite a difficult start last year, when a guard had qualms about taking her wheelchair on his train, she was finding rail travel far easier than using buses.

Although she does not have tickets to see the home sides battle the Lions next month, the Auckland Regional Transport Authority and rail operator Connex are relieved Kingsland station is ready to receive thousands of other fans for the tourists' two games at Eden Park.

The authority's general manager for rail, Elena Trout, said Connex would put on extra and longer trains for both the visiting Barmy Army and local fans.

Kingsland's rebuilt platforms are long enough, at 140m, to cater for six-carriage trains carrying up to 700 fans to or from the station at a time.

Mrs Trout said restricted vehicle access to streets around Eden Park on match days meant the new station had an important role in delivering fans to within walking distance of the ground.

Contractors are meanwhile being shortlisted for the next stage of duplicating tracks along the western line, on a 7km stretch between New Lynn and Henderson. This is expected to cost between $60 million and $70 million, including a new railway station being built as part of an ambitious transport interchange and civic centre under development by Waitakere City Council, and will take about a year to complete from next month.

The duplicate tracks already completed to Morningside have allowed a doubling of peak-time rail services between New Lynn and Britomart, to four an hour. Costs of the next stage will be shared by the Auckland Regional Council's investment arm and Land Transport New Zealand, which Mrs Trout said had yet to approve a grant, but had indicated it would look very favourably at doing so.

She said the entire railway line between Mt Eden and Swanson should have duplicate tracks by 2008, allowing trains to travel at 10-minute intervals along its 23km route.