Ryan Stickland: Forget Melbourne's V/Line it's time for Auckland's A/Line

Imagining a more extensive train network for Auckland.

This is a guest post from Ryan Stickland it originally appeared as an X/Twiter thread and has been republished here with permission.

Ryan is an aerospace engineer and native Aucklander with an interest in transit and urban design. He currently lives in Melbourne.

Much of the time I’ve spent on Melbourne’s extensive trains since I got here has been spent daydreaming about how Auckland could make its… quaint network a little more like this. So, I present to you, my map of Auckland’s expanded rail network!

The above is based of one of AT's post-CRL rail maps and most of this has been imagined to utilise existing infrastructure with only minor alterations (except for a few pie-in-the-sky dreams). Let’s start with the simplest of the bunch, A/Line! 

A/Line (nothing to do with V/Line stop asking questions) is several line extensions to service as many people as possible who may, conceivably, commute to Auckland.

There are three branches to Helensville, Poneko and Waiuku, expanding the Auckland network basically everywhere the tracks run on Google Maps. The last converts the Glenbrook Vintage Railway to a commuter corridor, sorry :/ 

Many of these extensions are on single-road, unelectrified track so will have to be somewhat infrequent and serviced by diesel trains like the VLocity (stop talking about Melbourne’s trains, god!). I’m hoping 3tph at peak is possible but this may be difficult with current infra.

Moving on, the astute among us may have noticed The Strand on the map! I propose renovating this rather dull relic into a major transit hub, serving as the terminus for regional trains with Waitemata as the suburban hub a la Southern Cross vs Flinders Street.

There will be a slight track realignment and some new platforms for local trains. A bus interchange will also be established as the new terminus for regional coaches, turning this into a proper inter-city hub!

I’m imagining the bottom 2 platforms can be restored to a through-running alignment so some regional trains can run south out of the city via Newmarket, freeing up capacity. This could also increase the resilience of the network for things like works in the CRL. 

Stabling of EMUs will have to be moved to the yard by Quay Park junction but that space isn’t being used for anything important anyway. 

Looking at it now there is probs room for even more platforms where that bus interchange is, which could be helpful considering the number of trains that will be coming through here. Also this rehabilitated station needs a new name, ‘The Strand’ doesn’t quite cut it. 

Disclaimer I’m not a railway engineer so I have no idea if any of this is realistic with signalling, switches etc lol, as I said these are my fantasies. Also, I know curved platforms are generally thumbs down. Trust me things only get less realistic from here. 

Next up, the Botany Line! We simply replace the Eastern Busway with rail. It can’t be that hard. 

Panmure station gets 2 new platforms on the site of a current carpark/small commercial lot. Hopefully, they can be trenched and run underneath the intersection as that place was only recently done up and I’d hate to dig it all up again.

There may need to be works to level out the grade between the station and estuary, and the new bridge likely wasn’t built to support trains. Oh well, these are all technicalities. 

From here the line just runs atop the busway through Pakuranga. A station at Pak plaza might be a challenge due to the tightness of the curve and the large intersection with Te Rakau Drive, in my head it’s trenched or underground. 

A second station is built at Gossamer Drive due to there being a pretty big catchment gap between Pak and Botany. After it crosses the estuary I don’t really know how it gets to Botany town center, nor really any details of the line after that.

I’ve pencilled in stations at Dannemora and Flat Bush but that part of the line is pretty nebulous in my mind. I mainly just want to bulldoze some of that flat lifeless suburbia down that way and build trains lmao. 

Next, let's move on to the Northern Line! Again we’re mostly just replacing BRT with rail, but first, we need to get wet!

We start downtown, where a new underground station – Wynyard – opens to serve the Viaduct and Wynyard Quarter. 

The route splinters off the CRL west of Waitemata and follows the alignment of Fanshawe Street. It then passes through Wynyard before hanging a right onto Beaumont and under Silo Park, by Hamer Street.

This would be a relatively straightforward cut-and-cover tunnelling job, however light rail could make this far simpler by just running atop Fanshawe and going down somewhere around Sturdee, though wouldn’t interface with the heavy rail network as well. Artist’s impression:

So far has all been south of the water, but now we tie in with my grander plan for the Second Harbour Crossing. This mixed-use ped/cycle/bus/rail bridge runs from Silo Park and arrives by the Harbour bridge at Sulphur Point before running to the old weigh station.

Here there’s a slight realignment of the motorway and a new transit hub – Onewa Road – to serve as an interchange between trains and buses to the Birkenhead/Glenfield.

And that’s basically it. As I said some is realistic, most is quite far-fetched, none is that rigorously researched. I just stare out the window and muse over what could be if there were a bit more political will. C’est la vie… 

Thanks for reading this far, it took some courage to share this creative project with the world and I hope it wasn't too cringe lmao. 

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