CORRESPONDENCE

Evening Post, Volume LXXXIII, Issue 140, 13 June 1912, Page 2

CORRESPONDENCE

TE ARO STATION TO THI EDITOB. Sir, — Since I suggested through your columns of Ist May that the central railway station might be built at Te Aro, there have been the usual ready critics decrying the proposal. It has been said "there is not the available room for such a station" ; "granted the 1 dock site is central, ■why bring trains there when we have trams?"; "why increase the loss incurred now through tho' trains running to Te Avo?" ; "the present railway as a public utility is a joke" ; and so on. I am with this critic to the full. • It is a joke, but who are the perpetrators? Please 'grant me space to strengthen my plea. The ablest report that I have read on large railway ' stations is that jecently given by A. Kaim, Inspector of the Hungarian ,State Railways, and submitted for discussion- at. the International Railway Conference. Before summing up his conclusions, he says: — "It is desirable in the interests of the public that large passenger stations should be placed as nearly as possible to the dentre of population- according to its distribution. The sorting and shunting yards must be put outside • the populated .districts, where land is cheaper and less consideration need be paid to the surroundings." His conclusions are: — "When a new station is to be built or an old one to be re-arranged, the following rules should be observed :' (1) Passenger and goods traffic should be kept separate. (2) The passenger station should be located as near the centre of town as possible. (3) It is incontestably advantageous to have stations with tracks above or below the street level. Ticket offices, luggage rooms, book and other stalls, and .the staff should be on the ground floor, 'while waiting and refreshment rooms should be at* th« track level. Goods yards can be built in another part of the town, but near commercial and industrial centres." Now as to available space ait Te Aro. Including the present railway premises, and the destructor yards, and about three acres to be reclaimed, we have twentysix acres, and this is without "shifting the Town Halli" etc., as threatened by another critic. To the April number of the Railway Magazine Mr. George B. Wade contributes an article on the largest railway stations in the world. The New York City station of the Pennsylvania Railway Company — certainly now one of the largest and most extensive railway stations in the world — has an -area of 28 acres. After this comes the Gare St. Lazare, in Paris, with an acreage of over 25 acres ; then the Waverley Station, Edinburgh, with 23 acres ; followed by Waterloo, London, with. 20£ acres ; Euston, London, with 18 acres ; and Liverpool-street, London, with 16 acres. On this I claim that. the 26 acres at Te Aro are sufficient for some con-, siderable time. Why, the Glasgow central station, Caledonian Railway, has only 12 acres fora station and six acres for auxiliary sidings. Five double and one single platforms are provided with Ist, 2nd, and 3rd class waiting and refreshment rooms, as well as a very large central hotel, and the shape of the site is not unlike the site at Te Aro. To pass the wharf, a viaduct or subway is necessary. If the latter, it would start at about Bunny-street, sinking to 15£fc (rail level) below street level, rising about Odlin's warehouse. _ The. expense could be minimised by using sheet steel piling, the estimated cost of which is £15,000 a mile. There is less than a mile to dp. Bridges over the subway would give access to wharves. An overhead track would be noiser and more unsightly, of course, but quite possible. As a precedent, we have the Glasgow station 'I have mentioned, where both the approach and platforms are elevated. Cost! . Yes, such a project will cost something, but what' cost is proposed for the "suburban" station at Bunny-street? We were told £300,000, and it is reported the cost of that station and yards will reach £750,000, and for what? Permanent dissatisfaction. I only ask that a glance forward should be cast. Let us take a lesson from the older Home-lands. Let ub hand down to our children some evidence- that our faith in the future of our country and Empire^ City was such 'that they will be constrained to keep the country and keep it going. — I am, etc., J. E. JENSINSON. Wellington, 7th June. '"