KEY POINTS:
Auckland's public transport agency is unenthusiastic about using a multi-million-dollar land purchase by its regional council parent for a new Onehunga railway station.
Although the council has an unconditional purchase agreement for the 0.8ha site at the lower end of Onehunga Mall, ready for settlement at the end of this month, the Auckland Regional Transport Authority is planning a station in nearby Princes St instead.
Council transport group manager Don Houghton told the politicians yesterday that the authority had never been enthusiastic about using the former ITM hardware store site for a station because it was on a tight curve beside the soon-be-resurrected Onehunga branch railway line.
But he said the authority was enthusiastic about using the site for a "multi-modal" transport interchange centre such as a park-and-ride facility.
The council is not saying how much it is paying for the site at 109-111 Onehunga Mall, but it will be between a 2005 Government valuation of just over $3 million and an initial asking price believed to have been $10 million.
Mr Houghton said in a report that the site offered an opportunity "to develop rail-related passenger transport facilities within an integrated urban redevelopment that reflects the ARC's interest in the successful implementation of the regional growth strategy".
It was "in a pivotal location at a transport hub in a part of Auckland that is actively in the process of redeveloping".
But he disclosed that the transport authority did not intend using the site when passenger trains were reintroduced late next year.
He said the authority, which said it had yet to reach a decision, feared a platform there would mean excessive horizontal stepping distances for passengers trying to get on or off trains.
The authority had instead identified a site a short distance to the east in Princes St, between Galway and Victoria Sts, which lay mainly within the rail reserve.
Mr Houghton said there was enough land to build a platform, but only on one side of the single track. The rail reserve was generally not wide enough for duplicating tracks without buying extra land, but the Government agency Ontrack had agreed a suitable station could be provided there.
The transport authority is also considering building a second station at Te Papapa, between Church St and Mays Rd, and a train stop near the Mt Smart Stadium.
Regional council chairman Mike Lee said there was no doubt the Onehunga Mall site would be used "for rail and urban development purposes, and we are obliged to think of both when we consider transport".
He said railway pioneers had coped with curves on the line a hundred years ago.
Council transport committee chairwoman Christine Rose urged her colleagues to look at the site "for its opportunities rather than its limitations".
