New Ritchies Bus Depot

[geoff_184]

I note a large "For Sale" sign has gone up at the entrance to the Ritchies Depot in Swanson Road. Does anyone know if they are moving, or just seeking to become a tenant?

[kaiwhara]

Which yard in Swanson? They have two. Do you mean the place next door to the Concrete Beam place (their School Yard) or the one further towards Swanson (Urban, Coach and Intercity)??

I note a large "For Sale" sign has gone up at the entrance to the Ritchies Depot in Swanson Road. Does anyone know if they are moving, or just seeking to become a tenant?

[geoff_184]

I did write Swanson Rd (the other one is in Airdrie Rd)

I do know Ritchies wanted to greatly expand their Swanson Rd depot operation in 2008, but the resource consent was declined. They wanted to increase the depot storage from 40 to 52 buses, and daily vehicle movements from 200 to 550, but being in a residential area it didn't go ahead. I'm now wondering if they find the site too restrictive, and are moving on.

[kaiwhara]

At the time I wrote that Geoff I was typing that post on my phone and didnt have access to a half decent map so I could be forgiven for not knowing which one of two yards in Swanson you were talking about...

[geoff_184]

The real estate ad for the Ritchies depot indicates a lease back option to the end of 2012, so it would appear Ritchies are planning to leave the site from 2013.

http://www.harveys.co.nz/detail.php?pid=CTAT606

[ef30203]

I heard reliably that they are moving to Kumeu. The old particle board factory in Access Road would make a likely site if the building resource recovery company there at the moment is moving. Unless they have another site lined up.

Scott

[geoff_184]

Thanks Scott, that's interesting. I guess many of their school bus runs are out that way already, and of course the motorway extension probably gets buses into the western suburbs just as fast as from Swanson.

I wonder if they will close both Helensville and Swanson (including both Swanson Rd and Airdrie Rd), in favour of a single large depot at Kumeu?

[geoff_184]

Apparently the new Ritchie's bus depot is somewhere in the new Massey town development. Does anyone have any further info, such as exact location, and whether or not construction has started? They vacate their long standing Swanson Rd depot before Christmas, so I gather construction of the new depot must be either under way, or close to starting.

[Kevyn Miller]

The 2012 image in GoogleEarth shows a lot of earthworks in the Massey North Employment Special Area to the north of the town centre. Almost on the opposite side of Fred Taylor Drive from what looks like a bus parking area.
http://www.waitakere.govt.nz/abtcnl/pp/ ... -fact6.pdf

[locost_bryan]

Apparently the new Ritchie's bus depot is somewhere in the new Massey town development. Does anyone have any further info, such as exact location, and whether or not construction has started? They vacate their long standing Swanson Rd depot before Christmas, so I gather construction of the new depot must be either under way, or close to starting.

I've heard they've bought the Fistonich House movers site at 572 Swanson Rd, halfway between their two current sites. A Ritchies sign went up outside over the weekend iirc.

[geoff_184]

Thanks Bryan, I popped down to have a look, and they appear to be taking over the whole 560-580 block. The site is being cleared and some earthworks is evident. The site was a bit rough, with open ditches etc, so it looks like they are installing drains and preparing to level the whole site. An existing building on the site also looks suitable for modifying into a bus workshop.



Below shows how the new site (yellow) is large enough to replace the three existing sites (red) and even have room left over, so they should be able to accomodate some expansion of their operation. Will also be better for them to have one workshop instead of the two separate workshops they presently have.

[locost_bryan]

I was a little concerned that this might have been the secret Swanson location where the old Newmarket station building is in hiding.

[geoff_184]

You can see the Newmarket station building (in two halves), and the signal box, in the second of my images, next to the caravan park, in the top right corner of the house storage lot.

[geoff_184]

Seven months on and this relocation is still a fair way off happening. A large new workshop is under construction on the new site, but the bulk of site works is still in early stages.

[duddley]

Strangely enough NZ Bus seems to have an employee who sits at Mobil Swanson rd all day to fill up their buses, are drivers not allowed to fill them with fuel?.

[kaiwhara]

Strangely enough NZ Bus seems to have an employee who sits at Mobil Swanson rd all day to fill up their buses, are drivers not allowed to fill them with fuel?.

The Swanson Fuel Bay is being rebuilt, but although Drivers can Fuel Buses, generally they don't - his primary focus will probably be keeping tabs on how much fuel is being used...

[geoff_184]

Ritchie's drivers fuel their own buses at the Swanson depot. The Swanson Rd site also fuels the Airdrie Rd site buses, which is why Ritchie's regularly breach their resource consent for the Swanson depot, as traffic flows exceed their designated limit by having the Airdrie buses driving in and out of the Swanson site before parking up at Airdrie. Avoiding this will be one of the positive benefits of the relocation, which will allow higher traffic numbers.

[geoff_184]

The main new depot as of Sunday:



Half the main building is prefab, and half block work (that's a lot of blocks):



And work has now started on another new building, at the front of the site:

[new westie]

Dont I know they bought it. Had a rip roaring argument with the security lady on site, I was taking my two kids for a walk in the public reserve next to the development site, and she let loose insisting that I was on Ritchies Land and trespassing. Most unpleasant experience. Fortunately Council officers sorted it, confirmed the reserve status of the land (that scruffy bit along the creek) and told them off. However they have now fenced off part of the reserve on the grounds that it is part of their "construction site" (they apparently have to do restoration work in the reserve as part of their consent).
Hopefully they will finally put their boundary fence in the right place when they finish, instead of trying to bully the public off the reserve.

[geoff_184]

I didn't realise it was a public reserve there, although being a stream, it makes sense. Would be quite nice if they developed it with a walkway, from Pooks Rd to Swanson Rd.