KEY POINTS:
Railway commuters transferring at Newmarket between the western line and the southern line service face a 10-minute walk from today.
But Ontrack says work at the weekend has enabled western line trains to use a new curve of track and for the first time head directly to Britomart, instead of the usual detour into Newmarket Station. That means a saving of a few minutes for passengers.
At the same time, two temporary stations were completed at Newmarket for use from today.
One at Kingdon St, called Newmarket West, is for western line commuters and the other on Remuera Rd (Newmarket South) is for those using the southern line.
Service provider Maxx will have guides at the stations to help passengers and Maxx has new timetables available.
Cameron Brewer of the Newmarket Business Association said although passengers faced two years of temporary facilities and disruption, by 2010 Newmarket would have a new $25 million central station linked to the business area.
Once a $50 million upgrade of the Newmarket junction area was complete, the two improvements would make it more attractive to catch a train to shop at Newmarket.
Campaign for Better Transport spokesman Cameron Pitches said there would be "some short-term pain for long-term gain". Temporary stations made it more difficult for people who want to transfer from the western line to the southern line, because they had a 10-minute walk between Kingdon St and Remuera Rd.
If they did not want the walk, they could go through to Britomart, swap trains and come back out again.
On the credit side, Mr Pitches said, western passengers would be spared the traditional "back shunt" at the old Newmarket Station for the train to turn around. He said this should save a couple of minutes on the train.
Ontrack says the temporary stations will reduce disruption to services while the new station is built and give workers a large, safe construction area. The Newmarket work is part of a $600 million upgrade to enable more frequent and reliable services.
