Manukau Branch Thread

[kaiwhara]

Probably because I never saw it. I say dreaded, as it means rumaging through ones bag, finding a Crayon and trying to write instructions recieved via Squiggly Air legibly, in English!

The current rules do not allow trains reversing direction at Puhinui without filling in a dreaded SWA1! So no, you can't run Papakura to Manukau via Puhinui...

Out of curiousity, what is dreaded about an SWA1?

Kaiwhara, I don't think I ever got an answer to this question.

[Rail-it]

The current rules do not allow trains reversing direction at Puhinui without filling in a dreaded SWA1! So no, you can't run Papakura to Manukau via Puhinui...

Out of curiousity, what is dreaded about an SWA1?

Kaiwhara, I don't think I ever got an answer to this question.

Actaully, it could be considered a repositioning movement too which wouldn't require a SWA. The use of a SWA in that sought of situation is dependent on when the operator is advised of a movement at that particular location. It can also require a SWA as kaiwhara stated.

I don't know how that would go down as a permanent timetabled manoevure though. I couldn't imagine it being allowed anymore.

[royce]

Actaully, it could be considered a repositioning movement too which wouldn't require a SWA. The use of a SWA in that sought of situation is dependent on when the operator is advised of a movement at that particular location. It can also require a SWA as kaiwhara stated.

I don't know how that would go down as a permanent timetabled manoevure though. I couldn't imagine it being allowed anymore.

Trains can reverse at Newmarket junction so it must be possible to do it at Puhinui junction if the signalling and the rules are set up so it can be done. How much longer would it take maybe 5 mins at the most. Anyway it would be alternative to building the southern facing leg. Another thing it would give passengers two goes at getting to Manukau from the south firstly on a Papakura Manukau train going via Puhinui. Secondly by transferring from a Papakura Britomart train to a Britomart Manukau train.

[Rail-it]

Actaully, it could be considered a repositioning movement too which wouldn't require a SWA. The use of a SWA in that sought of situation is dependent on when the operator is advised of a movement at that particular location. It can also require a SWA as kaiwhara stated.

I don't know how that would go down as a permanent timetabled manoevure though. I couldn't imagine it being allowed anymore.

Trains can reverse at Newmarket junction so it must be possible to do it at Puhinui junction if the signalling and the rules are set up so it can be done. How much longer would it take maybe 5 mins at the most. Anyway it would be alternative to building the southern facing leg. Another thing it would give passengers two goes at getting to Manukau from the south firstly on a Papakura Manukau train going via Puhinui. Secondly by transferring from a Papakura Britomart train to a Britomart Manukau train.

Totally different situation. Basically Newmarket is arranged for that, and Puhinui is not.

[royce]

Trains can reverse at Newmarket junction so it must be possible to do it at Puhinui junction if the signalling and the rules are set up so it can be done.

Totally different situation. Basically Newmarket is arranged for that, and Puhinui is not.

I believe we are saying the same thing.
Things can be changed if there is the will and the money to do it. Anyway it was just an idea I came up with to pass the time. But they should have built the southern leg in the first place. Its hard to believe the cock ups that have being made on the Auckland rail network over the years. Talk about disfunctional. No wonder every other person is off to australia.

[Rail-it]

Trains can reverse at Newmarket junction so it must be possible to do it at Puhinui junction if the signalling and the rules are set up so it can be done.

Totally different situation. Basically Newmarket is arranged for that, and Puhinui is not.

I believe we are saying the same thing.
Things can be changed if there is the will and the money to do it. Anyway it was just an idea I came up with to pass the time. But they should have built the southern leg in the first place. Its hard to believe the cock ups that have being made on the Auckland rail network over the years. Talk about disfunctional. No wonder every other person is off to australia.

Exactly. They don't waste their money in Australia either like we do here...

[Akarana]

Is this correct? It is from Open Street Map.
It lists the 580 as well as 348, 328, 428 as services which use Davies Ave.



http://www.openstreetmap.org/?lat=-36.99351&lon=174.87779&zoom=17&layers=T

[john-ston]

I wouldn't trust it. For one thing, that map shows the 502 and 512 going down Whitford Avenue - something that it hasn't done probably ever.

[drosophila]

Timelapse

[geoff_184]

This one is more fun to watch, as it captures the demolition of the Manukau station entrance shelter, built at a cost of a few hundred thousand dollars and then made redundant before the station ever opened. Not too many organisations would make a series of timelapse videos showing how they waste public money



If only they made one of the period after the tar seal was put down on the track area, when all work ground to a halt for three months immediately afterward. The video scene would just stay the same throughout

[kaiwhara]

What? I had no idea they built, and then demolished the main entrance before it was opened to the public! I must be one of the only people to have actually walked through that building who wasn't part of the build team!

[geoff_184]

What? I had no idea they built, and then demolished the main entrance before it was opened to the public! I must be one of the only people to have actually walked through that building who wasn't part of the build team!

The entrance was there for about a year, and was intended to be temporary, but the opening date kept getting pushed back further and further, leading to the campus construction advancing to the point where it needed to be removed before the line opened.

[drosophila]

This one is more fun to watch, as it captures the demolition of the Manukau station entrance shelter, built at a cost of a few hundred thousand dollars and then made redundant before the station ever opened.

Demolished or dismantled? It looks like a structure that could easily be reused somewhere else. It's always easy to blame incompetence on something like this, but once it became clear the line wouldn't open in time the contract to build this shelter was probably signed and sealed.

[CCreegan]

It looks like a structure that could easily be reused somewhere else.

Yes in theory - like other recently removed items such as shelters from Kingsland and platform light standards from Ellerslie. But in practice will it? And is it economic to re-use, given storage and refurbishment costs? Doubtful.

[newnewt]

NZ Herald reports

Auckland Transport has ditched plans for a $20 million parking building from near Manukau's new railway station, a project understood to have caused some concern to senior council officials.

See http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=10813702

[Nick R]

Senior council officials, oh boo hoo Dick Quax worried there will only be a minor glut of parking at Manukau, not a massive one.

[Mr. Anderson]

Heh. Looks like Council officials told Auckland Transport officials to stop wasting money on stupid carparks. About time too!

[Yasukiwi]

NZ Herald reports

Auckland Transport has ditched plans for a $20 million parking building from near Manukau's new railway station, a project understood to have caused some concern to senior council officials.

See http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=10813702

One of the best pieces of transport news that's come out of Auckland this year!

[geoff_184]

...you are still arguing, then, that the asphalt was not supposed to be put on the trackbed?

I outlined the sequence of events, so you can decide for yourself whether it makes any sense or not. I would describe it as extraordinary if it was planned that way.

Perhaps you could explain why tar seal and stone chips were laid on the platforms in preparation for asphalt scheduled to be laid in December 2010, which then didn't happen, followed by a six month shutdown of work? Come on, give us your own theories. If you have a plausible answer, by all means share it

And that you still have this special knowledge of how those fools who do this for a living screw it up all the time?

As I wrote earlier, if you sleep better at night in the belief that an electrification mast is supposed to be installed and uninstalled at two or three locations before final installation, then so be it. If you think such screw ups don't happen, you're wrong. People make mistakes, it's called being human.

If all that is true, if you saw through the conspiracy and were proved right, then why the hell KiwiRail haven't put you in charge, I don't know. Perhaps they don't want to take you away from your important day-job of looking like a cool guy on a forum.

I'm only responding to you, and wouldn't be writing about the topic if you weren't inviting me to do so. Inviting me to reply to you, then insulting me for doing so - isn't that just trolling?

[CCreegan]

Anyway it's obviously true about the electrification masts. They have been installed every which way except upside down (fortunately there's no mounting plate on the top!).

The Manukau events certainly suggest a change of plan of some sort whether motivated by an error, or something else. That branch in general has had more than its share of deviation from original plan and political interference and cross purposes. Even more than Onehunga branch.