Britomart Transport Centre

Infobox Station
name=Britomart Transport Centre
type=MAXX Urban rail

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image_size=
image_caption=The Britomart building, with the railway station underground and behind.
address=Queen Elizabeth II Square, Queen Street, Auckland City
coordinates=
line=North Island Main Trunk Railway
Newmarket Branch
other=
structure=
platform=5
levels=2
tracks=
parking=
bicycle=Yes
baggage_check=Yes (long distance)
passengers=
pass_year=
pass_percent=
pass_system=
opened=July 2003
closed=
rebuilt=
electrified=No
ADA=
code=BTC
owned=Auckland City Council" [http://www.mfe.govt.nz/publications/urban/urban-design-case-studies-mar05/urban-design-case-studies-colour.pdf Urban Design Case Studies] " - New Zealand Ministry for the Environment, March 2005, ISBN 0-478-18995-8]
zone=
former=
services=
mpassengers=5.7 millionFact|date=August 2008

Britomart Transport Centre (often simply Britomart), is the CBD public transport hub of Auckland, New Zealand. It combines a bus interchange with a railway station in an Edwardian former post office, extended with expansive post-modernist architectural elements. It is located at the foot of Queen Street, the main commercial thoroughfare of Auckland CBD, with the main ferry terminal just across Quay Street.

At the time of its inception, the centre was Auckland's largest transport project ever and is one of the few underground railway stations in the world where diesel motive power is used. [" [http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/1/story.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=10424801 Smoke chaos at Britomart] " - "The New Zealand Herald", Tuesday 20 February 2007] It is the northern terminus of the North Island Main Trunk line. The centre was built to move rail access closer to the city's CBD and help boost Auckland's low usage of public transport.

History

Cost over-runs and differing tastes made Britomart politically controversial, the design often being described as a large hole in the ground, both literally and figuratively. Despite this and a NZ$204 million price tag, it has won numerous design awards and is internationally recognised for its innovative but heritage-sympathetic architecture. [References provided within this same article (Awards)] The main source of contention was the relatively great expense of this public transport development in the Auckland Region which is traditionally very focused on the private car (like all of New Zealand). [ [http://www.transport.govt.nz/mode-of-transport/ Mode of Transport, Figure for New Zealand Regions] (from the Travel Survey Highlights 1997-98, New Zealand Ministry of Transport)]

Earlier stations

Britomart is on reclaimed land in the middle of what was once Commercial Bay. It is named after Point Britomart, a former headland at Commercial Bay's eastern end. In the 1870s and 1880s the headland was levelled in order to extend the railway line to the bottom of Queen Street, and was used to fill in Commercial Bay.

The original Auckland railway station moved west to the Britomart site in 1885, and remained there after the Post Office was built on the Queen St frontage in 1911. In 1930 it was relocated 1.2 km east to Beach Road, to the (now former) Auckland Railway Station, and the site became a bus terminal (from 1937) and carpark (from 1958). [http://www.britomart.co.nz/history1.html Chapter 1 - The Historic Land 1600-1959] (from the official Centre website)]

Many proposals were made to relocate the station back to the CBD, most notably in 1973 and 1987, with the 1970s proposal of the Mayor of Auckland, Dove-Myer Robinson, envisaging an underground station at the Britomart site as well as a tunnel loop. This was however stopped by the Muldoon National Government as being too costly and unjustified. [http://www.britomart.co.nz/history2.html Chapter 2 - City Takes Control 1959-1995] (from the official Centre website)] In 1995, Auckland City Council purchased the old Post Office (which had closed in 1988) and proposed to develop the area as a transit centre. Early designs called for both the bus terminal and the railway to be underground, but these plans were scrapped as consultation showed that buses were preferred above ground by both users and operators, and as projected costs soared, partly due to the difficulties with potential water ingress. The developer eventually defaulted on contractual deadlines, and the project failed. [http://www.britomart.co.nz/history3.html Chapter 3 - Transforming the Waterfront 1995-1999] (from the official Centre website)] [http://www.britomart.co.nz/history4.html Chapter 4 - The Britomart Project 1999-2001] (from the official Centre website)]

In 1998 a cheaper option was decided on (partly by a now more receptive consultation process with stakeholders and general citizens). The architectural form was chosen via a competition process. The design used part of Queen Elizabeth II Square and surrounding streets as a bus terminal, with the existing dilapidated bus terminal redeveloped to incorporate both bus services and a pedestrianised area. When nearby Quay St was realigned in the late 1990s, a tunnel was built (completed in 2000) to provide the underground railway link to Britomart. Bus services using the old bus terminal were diverted to other locations in June 2001. [http://www.britomart.co.nz/history3.html Chapter 3 - Transforming the Waterfront 1995-1999] (from the official Centre website)] [http://www.britomart.co.nz/history4.html Chapter 4 - The Britomart Project 1999-2001] (from the official Centre website)]

Construction

;OverviewDesigned by California architect Mario Madayag in collaboration with local Auckland architects Jasmax, [http://jasmax.co.nz/frames/cutural-frame.htm Cultural & Civic Projects - Britomart Transport Centre] (from the Jasmax website)] [ [http://jasmax.co.nz/frames/cutural-frame.htm Cultural & Civic Projects - Britomart Transport Centre] (from the Jasmax website)] [" [http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/8/story.cfm?c_id=8&objectid=159287 Auckland City vision a transport of delights] " - "The New Zealand Herald", Thursday 9 November 2000] construction of Britomart commenced in October 2001, with structural design having been provided by OPUS. [" [http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/12/story.cfm?c_id=12&objectid=10465509 Opus IPO set to ride out volatility] " - "The New Zealand Herald", Monday 24 September 2007] It involved 14 km of piling, some being 40 m long and driven 16 m into the underlying bedrock, mainly to provide good earthquake protection, and to futureproof the area for potential later construction of buildings on top of the station. 200,000 cubic metres were excavated for the station, and 40,000 cubic metres of concrete poured. ["First Britomart Tour – Wednesday 29 November 2006" - IPENZ, Auckland Branch, January 2007 Bulletin] The station has a site area of 5.2 ha and includes 236 m² retail area.

The new station was opened in July 2003 by Sir Edmund Hillary and several government ministers. [ [http://www.labour.org.nz/gallery.jsp?cid=ASTIMG18838 Ministers at the opening of Britomart] (from the New Zealand Labour Party website)] Services to the old station ceased, except for some peak-time commuter services and excursion trains using the former Platform 4 (originally Platform 7), renamed 'The Strand'. The commuter services ceased after a few months.

;Pedestrian underpasses

Initial plans included an underground pedestrian walkway connecting Britomart to Queen Elizabeth II Square, the nearby downtown ferry terminal and the main shopping street of Queen St. Due to cost over-runs only the short link to the square was built, the remainder replaced with a sizeable but less effective canopy over the footpath outside the station.

Capacity and rail connections

The station is designed to serve up to 10,500 passengers during the peak hour in its current configuration as a terminus. Capacity increases will probably not be possible without turning Britomart into a through station, with a tunnel underneath Auckland CBD (see below).

The station has five platforms, and is constrained by the 9.3 m width of the 426 m long access tunnel, which allows only two tracks. Forecasts predict that while double-tracking of the surrounding rail network will improve peak time train congestion, the capacity of the corridor will be reached by around 2020.

Increased services

In its early days, Britomart received a lot of criticism due to its being built on a scale and level of grandeur that was well in excess of the capacity and patronage of the rail network in Auckland at the time. Auckland Regional Council transport committee chairwoman Catherine Harland acknowledged that "Britomart opened ahead of its time", raising public expectations that the state of the rail network could not yet fulfil. [" [http://www.nzherald.co.nz/topic/story.cfm?c_id=348&objectid=3576940 Happy birthday, Britomart] " - "The New Zealand Herald, Wednesday 07 July 2004]

In recent years rail patronage has increased greatly, from 2.5 million journeys in 2003 to 5.7 million in the year ending June 2007, and more frequent services have been introduced by the Auckland Regional Transport Authority's (ARTA) rail operator Veolia to accommodate these greater numbers. [ [http://www.arta.co.nz/xxarta/news/media_releasexx.cfm?entryID=FD9D0703-BCD4-1A24-9806-5D09C391290A New tracks, more services, greater reliability] (media release from ARTA, Wednesday 6 June 2007. Retrieved 2007-10-09.)] [ [http://www.arta.co.nz/shadomx/apps/fms/fmsdownload.cfm?file_uuid=A99C6001-BCD4-1A24-9CDE-FCF8BDB29DC8&siteName=arc Rail Development Plan 2006 - Foreword] (from the ARTA, August 2006)] [ [http://www.esr.org.nz/events/even2005/AkRegionTransport.html Auckland's Transport Strategy and the Role of Rail] (from the Engineers for Social Responsibility website)] This has led to concerns that the station will soon be at maximum capacity. During the peak, only 18 trains per hour can enter and exit.Fact|date=June 2007 [ [http://www.esr.org.nz/events/even2004/EastTransCorridor.html Auckland's Eastern Transport Corridor] (from the Engineers for Social Responsibility website)]

The foresight of council planners in constructing such an iconic investment in Auckland's public transport has already spurred further development. The $600 million Project DART (Developing Auckland's Rail Transport) [http://www.arta.co.nz/arc/xxarta/news/rail-newsletter-issue-29.cfm Rail Newsletter Issue 29] (published on the Auckland Regional Transport Authority (ARTA) website, late 2006)] is underway, with the state-owned enterprise ONTRACK undertaking the ‘below rail’ construction (i.e. platforms, tracks and signals) and ARTA providing the passenger services and facilities at stations (i.e. lighting, shelters and access), with funding from the Auckland Regional Council and Land Transport New Zealand.

Electrification

With the announcement on May 17 2007 that electrification of Auckland's rail network would proceed, changes will include installlation of overhead wires, with the project projected to be complete in 2013. After the electification, diesel trains are to be phased out from suburban services and replaced by new electric trains that ARTA is to purchase in the near future. However a small number of diesel powered trains are likely to continue to use the station providing regional and intercity services to unelectrified network areas. [ [http://www.arta.co.nz/xxarta/news/media_releasexx.cfm?entryID=97F88B31-BCD4-1A24-9EAE-05C57234A683 21st century public transport for Auckland] - Auckland Regional Transport Authority, Thursday 17 May 2007]

City underground loop

Plans for an underground loop from Britomart southward underneath the CBD to Mt Eden have been debated for many decades. The route would possibly go via underground stations at midtown near Wellesley St and one at uptown servicing the Karangahape Rd area, to a new station at Mt Eden. [ [http://www.arta.co.nz/shadomx/apps/fms/fmsdownload.cfm?file_uuid=A99C6001-BCD4-1A24-9CDE-FCF8BDB29DC8&siteName=arc Auckland’s rail network tomorrow: 2016 to 2030] (from the ARTA, August 2006)] This loop would allow trains to run through the station rather than having to reverse out over the same set of tracks. Governments have so far been unwilling to provide funding for this project and it is unlikely to proceed in the near future, though the major investments into public rail transport as decided on in 2007 have put it back on the drawing board. Current estimates for the cost of the loop are at around $1 billion, taking 12-16 years to plan and build."Following the money" - "e.nz magazine", IPENZ, January/February 2007] " [http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/1/story.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=10440850|title=$1b Auckland rail upgrade powers ahead] " - "The New Zealand Herald", Monday 21 May 2007]

On 5 March 2008 ARTA said that it had begun preliminary planning for a 3.5 km tunnel between Britomart and Mt Eden, beneath Albert Street and including underground stations near Wellesley Street and Karangahape Road.cite web|url=http://www.nzherald.co.nz/organisation/story.cfm?o_id=500511&objectid=10496216|title=$1b loop tunnel plan to unlock Britomart|date=2008-03-05|publisher=The New Zealand Herald|author=Mathew Dearnaley|accessdate=2008-03-05]

Eastern tunnel capacity

A proposed alternative to increase capacity is the duplication of the existing eastern Britomart approach tunnel. This would require a new twin track tunnel approximately 500 metres long to be constructed parallel to the existing twin-track tunnel, providing four tracks from Quay Park Junction and retaining Britomart as a terminus. Estimated costs are $150 million to $200 million, taking of 4-5 years to plan and build.Britomart West Rail Extension Feasibility Study (URS Group, final report for Auckland City Rapid Transit Group, 2004)] Such a project would allow the same capacity increase as the CBD loop at approximately one sixth to one fifth the cost, but without any of the additional benefits that the two new CBD underground stations or the more direct route to the Western Line would provide.

Initially seen as an inferior, but cheaper and more politically acceptable alternative to the CBD tunnel, the duplicate eastern approach is regaining favour due to the comparatively short build time. Even if planning commenced immediately the city underground loop might not become operational until several years after the maximum capacity of the existing corridor is reached. While seen as an alternative to the CBD through connection tunnel, a duplicate eastern tunnel would not preclude an underground line from being built.

Another option considered by ARTA to somewhat increase the capacity of the existing tunnel would be the use of 'bi-directional signalling', which would allow a train to leave on the same track that it entered - and which would free it from having to cross over other tracks which may not be safely clear of other trains yet. ["Transport's Big Leap Forward Waiting On Law" - "The New Zealand Herald", Monday 03 March 2008, Page A5]

ervices

Trains

Suburban services are provided by Veolia on behalf of ARTA, under the MAXX brand name. Most services either commence from or terminate at Britomart. The suburban network extends to Pukekohe in the south and Waitakere City in the north-west.

The Overlander, a daily (high summer) or thrice-weekly (off-season) long-distance train between Britomart and Wellington via the North Island Main Trunk is operated by Tranz Scenic, part of KiwiRail. The service was threatened with closure in 2006 and its future remained uncertain even after Toll reversed its decision to suspend services after public comments on the closure were strongly negative [ " [http://www.nbr.co.nz/home/column_article.asp?id=16305&cid=4&cname= "Overlander saved"] - "National Business Review", 28 September 2006)] .

Discussions have recently begun to re-establish a twice-daily return service to Hamilton, approximately two hours south of Auckland by rail. This service will most likely begin in 2008 or 2009 as an extension of the current service to Pukekohe. A previous service, the Waikato Connection, operated this route briefly in 2000/2001.

Buses and ferries

Britomart is a major interchange where passengers can transfer between trains, buses and ferries. It is the terminus for many bus routes, and the free "City Circuit" and "The Link" services go past on their loops around the city. Buses mainly depart from Queen Elizabeth II Square in front of Britomart, though the large number of bus routes also requires some to depart from stops located up to a block away. This lack of more integrated bus facilities has been noted as one of the less perfect outcomes of the final design, which cut the underground bus station due to costs reasons and because the bus operators preferred an aboveground solution.

Just across Quay Street from Britomart is the Auckland Ferry Terminal, serving suburbs like Devonport and further destinations like Waiheke Island.

Awards

Awards that Britomart Transport Centre has received:

*2004 Property Council of New Zealand - Merit Award, Special Purposes Category
*2004 American Institute of Architecture [ [http://archrecord.construction.com/features/bwarAwards/archives/04a_britomart.asp Britomart Transport Centre] (from the "Architectural Record" website)] - "Architectural Record" / "Business Week" International Winner
*2004 New Zealand Institute of Architects - Resene Award, Community and Cultural
*2004 New Zealand Institute of Architects - Resene Award, Heritage and Conservation
*2004 Illuminating Engineering Society of Australia and New Zealand - Lighting Award
*2004 New Zealand Concrete Society - Concrete Award
*2005 New Zealand Institute of Architects - Resene New Zealand Award for Architecture, Community & Cultural
*2007 Kenneth F. Brown Asia Pacific Culture and Architecture Design Award - Honorable mention [" [http://www.hawaii.edu/cgi-bin/uhnews?20070607143402 School of Architecture announces winners of the 2007 Kenneth F. Brown...] " - "UH News", University of Hawaii, Thursday 7 June 2007]

ee also

* Public transport in Auckland
* Transport in Auckland

References

External links

* [http://www.aucklandcity.govt.nz/council/projects/britomart/project.asp Britomart Project] (from the Auckland City Council website)
* [http://www.britomart.co.nz Britomart Transport Centre] (BTC official website)