SUBURBAN TRAINS

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXIX, Issue 21358, 6 December 1932, Page 10

SUBURBAN TRAINS

REMOTENESS OF STATION A SUGGESTED REMEDY TUNNEL TO CHANCERY STREET From I lie tlay when the new Auckland station was opened there lias been a heavy and seemingly permanent decrease in suburban railway traffic. After boarding and alighting from trains for years within a few yards of Queen Street, regular travellers have never been able to reconcile themselves to a terminal station a third of a mile distant, and it is clear that great numbers of them have abandoned the railway in favour of other modes of transport. There are many in Auckland, including citizens not personally affected, who feel that something should be done to remedy the present state of affairs.

T he opinion was freely expressed some years ago that if possible the old station should bo retained for suburban traffic, or that at least a station should he built for that purpose near the siLe of the present outward goods shed in Breakwater Road. The railway authorities, however, declared that the new arrangement of the yard made both these proposals impracticable. Northern Outlet Scheme The new station was located originally with a view to tho early construction of a modern railway outlet to the North, commonly referred to as tho Moiningside tunnel scheme. This would have given a direct route under tho centre of the city, with a passenger station in the vicinity of the Town Hall, or possibly further north, near Victoria Street East. With such a line in use it would have been possible to arrange direct or, feeder train services by which passengers could bo brought close to Queen Street with a minimum of delay. However, the scheme has been shelved indefinitely, and Auckland is left with a main station not only a considerable distance from the retail business district.- but separated from it by a hill of some width. A novel solution of the problem has lately been suggested. Briefly, it is to tunnel through the hill from a point opposite the new station to the vicinity of Chancery Street, and there build a small terminal station capable of accommodating the normal short suburban trains of four or five carriages. 'J be railway lino would lie carried from tho present high-level embankment at the new station to Beach Road upon cither an embankment or a viaduct, and would cross tho road by an overhead bridge a few yards 111 front of the tunnel portal. Future Suburban Area Tile tunnel would have to. cany two lines of track, and its length would bo in the neighbourhood of 300 yards. Arrangements would bo required at the station for enabling engines to change from one end of a train to the other, but as suburban engines run with the cab either behind or in front, there should be no need for turntables. It is maintained that in the area between Chancery Street and Victoria Quadrant there should be sufficient space for a station designed fur handling short trains only. The practicability of the scheme naturally depends on the cost involved. In regard to this, it has to be remembered that there is great prospective suburban traffic to and from the districts at Tamaki that have been opened by the West field deviation. These areas, although vet unsettled, should carry a very large population in years to come. A proper city terminal would enable residents to reach Queen Street by train in something like a-quarter of an hour. Conditions favour the railway as against other forms of transport on this route, but past experience shows that continued use of the present station as a city terminal may lead dwellers iti tho future suburbs to travel by motor-omnibus, although the journey would be longer than by rail. It might even tend to retard the settlement process to which tho railway authorities look as a new source of revenue.