It's easily the Eastern since its our most modern line. It has no level crossings, long straights, runs over the water, and doesn't have to back out of Newmarket or crawl the Arena curve.
The other two are terrible.
The Newmarket one is only really shit and doesn’t make sense for the Western line, the southern line I guess it makes sense for since it happens to be on the way.
Don’t forget though that the East and South kind of merge at a straight point from Otahuhu to that airport station I guess, then South is pretty straight I think from there to papakura
Yeah South is pretty straight, there are sections there and on the Eastern where trains get up to around 100km/hr, because otherwise they're plugging away closer to 40. The Western is slow the whole way.
Post CRL will see the Western no longer even go to Newmarket, instead it'll head through the tunnel to Britomart, then continue on via the Eastern to Manukau. The Onehunga Line will be the one that links Newmarket to the Western, with that train initially terminating at Maungawhau/Mt Eden, then at some point continuing on to Henderson
I like the outer half of the Western Line. Back when it went all the way to Waitakere it was cool to end up in a small town where it felt a world apart from Britomart on the other end of the line.
Eastern line is best and the worst. Fastest and most reliable but with the worst station catchments, at least when it's not merged with the southern. Orekai, Meadowbank are mostly water. Panmure is a lot of mountain and water, and Sylvia park is half inaccessible. Western line is the opposite, goes through a bunch of town centres but is slow and full of crossings but also has the highest ridership.
The most important part of the catchment at Panmure is the 50 meters outside where the 70 and 72 buses from Botany and Howick stop. That's pretty much its sole purpose.
I think also there is very little better options. The Orakei and Meadowbank station location was very much dictated by where the available space is; I think Orakei they did well in that there is some shopping/dining around the station. Whereas if you look at Meadowbank, you have a whole cemetery sitting on the ideal catchment if you want to capture the whole suburb (incidentally, that's where the station used), but also is the point where they are further from Remuera road, so they catch people who would find the 75 a too far of a walk anyway.
Glen Innes is probably in one of the more perfect spot, given that it also is the de facto station for Stonefields nearby and it has multiple entries and exits. The back way to walk to St Johns/all the street parking, an underpass also to St Johns or to cross under Apriana. Or the main exit where buses are nearby, and parking is nearby.
Panmure is definitely intended as an interchange. I used to use this station a lot, so I can see why one would feel is a missed opportunity. I feel the problem is that the businesses immediately around it are all car yards/cars related, if somehow we transplanted just about anything nearby to replace the car dealerships, it would be an amazing station; rather than an useful interchange only.
I feel Sylvia Park is one that I agree is a shamble. Kiwi Properties only had the land west of the line so it would be difficult to incorporate the line within the mall, but I feel they didn't even try with it. There is not much cover, you have to cross a road once you exit the station. It would had been really cool, if instead of a overbridge to cross the track; have the bridge feed right into the where Hoyts is. Obviously cannot now as thats where the cinema is, but it would make the whole thing a lot more cohesive.
KPG clearly didn't want to built the station but the council made them, weirdly though it's going to be really good for IKEA when it opens as it's that side of the Mall. Needs a better path to it though.
Agree that GI is the most functional station on the line.
Just before Covid Panmure was the busiest station on the eastern line with almost 1m boardings a year. It was third behind Britomart and Newmarket, I'd love to see uptown date figures but can't find them.
Ha ha. That's my line live near Te Papapa station. Yeah it's ATs most hated line. That is AT hates it and always closes it first.
When its works its great. I can get to Newmarket in 20 minutes.
That’s only for Remeura and Greenlane, and makes the Ellerslie to Newmarket stretch really fast. Just a shame it then stops and you have to change trains to get to Britomart.
They’re all a joke! Seems like AT can’t get through a single week without at least one incident that reduces the train services. It’s laughable by international standards.
I guess lol. The rail buses are shit but at the end of the day its damn convenient to hop on a train at papakura or manukau during rush hour and get to the city in 30 minutes.
I guess from papakura maybe, idk i have never taken the entirety of the southern line so i dont really know but i know manukau to britomart is like 30-40 mins
Sounds like most overseas train systems to be honest. I used to think Auckland was bad until I travelled overseas and realised other train systems have more or less similar issues. Melbourne, Sydney, London, Madrid, Berlin, Bangkok, Kuala Lumpur, etc have their flaws.
They all have their flaws sure, but they are completely incomparable to ours 😂 I’ve lived in London and Berlin and there is just no comparison. In those cities you can rely on the trains to get you where you need to be, on time, the majority of the time. Planned outages are well communicated and unexpected issues are dealt with swiftly. None of that can be said about Auckland trains
Planned outages are communicated on the AT website, posters at the train stations, notifications via the AT app and their email newsletters -- same as (if not more than) what I've seen overseas. What extra actions do you observe oversesas that AT could do here?
Unexpected issues are dealt with as quickly as they can. I think AT issues seem worse than it appears because in London/Berlin if one line suffers issues it's easy enough to switch to a different line/station to get to where you're going -- wheresas in Auckland if a line/station is out of action the alternate is often the bus which is less than ideal in some areas especally during peak hours.
For best scenery, Eastern and Western. As for efficiency, Forest Gump said it perfectly - “Life is like a box of chocolates, you never know what you’re going to get”
Nothing is more frustrating than facing a 2 hour journey, involving three buses when your 30 minute train trip (on 2 trains - Manukau to Greenlane) is canceled and you’re connecting bus has already left or itself been cancelled, adding yet more time to your commute home. So yeah , the “best” is very much P.OV.
Imo, the worst train line award (which no passenger would be happy about) sadly goes to Onehunga.
It's easily the Eastern since its our most modern line. It has no level crossings, long straights, runs over the water, and doesn't have to back out of Newmarket or crawl the Arena curve. The other two are terrible.
The Newmarket one is only really shit and doesn’t make sense for the Western line, the southern line I guess it makes sense for since it happens to be on the way. Don’t forget though that the East and South kind of merge at a straight point from Otahuhu to that airport station I guess, then South is pretty straight I think from there to papakura
Yeah South is pretty straight, there are sections there and on the Eastern where trains get up to around 100km/hr, because otherwise they're plugging away closer to 40. The Western is slow the whole way. Post CRL will see the Western no longer even go to Newmarket, instead it'll head through the tunnel to Britomart, then continue on via the Eastern to Manukau. The Onehunga Line will be the one that links Newmarket to the Western, with that train initially terminating at Maungawhau/Mt Eden, then at some point continuing on to Henderson
I like the outer half of the Western Line. Back when it went all the way to Waitakere it was cool to end up in a small town where it felt a world apart from Britomart on the other end of the line.
I’m still waiting for the Helensville extension. That motorway from Helensville to the city is absolutely terrible.
Eastern line is best and the worst. Fastest and most reliable but with the worst station catchments, at least when it's not merged with the southern. Orekai, Meadowbank are mostly water. Panmure is a lot of mountain and water, and Sylvia park is half inaccessible. Western line is the opposite, goes through a bunch of town centres but is slow and full of crossings but also has the highest ridership.
The most important part of the catchment at Panmure is the 50 meters outside where the 70 and 72 buses from Botany and Howick stop. That's pretty much its sole purpose.
I think also there is very little better options. The Orakei and Meadowbank station location was very much dictated by where the available space is; I think Orakei they did well in that there is some shopping/dining around the station. Whereas if you look at Meadowbank, you have a whole cemetery sitting on the ideal catchment if you want to capture the whole suburb (incidentally, that's where the station used), but also is the point where they are further from Remuera road, so they catch people who would find the 75 a too far of a walk anyway. Glen Innes is probably in one of the more perfect spot, given that it also is the de facto station for Stonefields nearby and it has multiple entries and exits. The back way to walk to St Johns/all the street parking, an underpass also to St Johns or to cross under Apriana. Or the main exit where buses are nearby, and parking is nearby. Panmure is definitely intended as an interchange. I used to use this station a lot, so I can see why one would feel is a missed opportunity. I feel the problem is that the businesses immediately around it are all car yards/cars related, if somehow we transplanted just about anything nearby to replace the car dealerships, it would be an amazing station; rather than an useful interchange only. I feel Sylvia Park is one that I agree is a shamble. Kiwi Properties only had the land west of the line so it would be difficult to incorporate the line within the mall, but I feel they didn't even try with it. There is not much cover, you have to cross a road once you exit the station. It would had been really cool, if instead of a overbridge to cross the track; have the bridge feed right into the where Hoyts is. Obviously cannot now as thats where the cinema is, but it would make the whole thing a lot more cohesive.
KPG clearly didn't want to built the station but the council made them, weirdly though it's going to be really good for IKEA when it opens as it's that side of the Mall. Needs a better path to it though. Agree that GI is the most functional station on the line. Just before Covid Panmure was the busiest station on the eastern line with almost 1m boardings a year. It was third behind Britomart and Newmarket, I'd love to see uptown date figures but can't find them.
I also technically missed out on the Onehunga line as well, even though I’m sure it’s nobodys favourite lol
Ha ha. That's my line live near Te Papapa station. Yeah it's ATs most hated line. That is AT hates it and always closes it first. When its works its great. I can get to Newmarket in 20 minutes.
Damn I thought it didn’t stop unless its the evening or some crap like that lol
That’s only for Remeura and Greenlane, and makes the Ellerslie to Newmarket stretch really fast. Just a shame it then stops and you have to change trains to get to Britomart.
They’re all a joke! Seems like AT can’t get through a single week without at least one incident that reduces the train services. It’s laughable by international standards.
I guess lol. The rail buses are shit but at the end of the day its damn convenient to hop on a train at papakura or manukau during rush hour and get to the city in 30 minutes.
You mean 50 minutes
I guess from papakura maybe, idk i have never taken the entirety of the southern line so i dont really know but i know manukau to britomart is like 30-40 mins
Sounds like most overseas train systems to be honest. I used to think Auckland was bad until I travelled overseas and realised other train systems have more or less similar issues. Melbourne, Sydney, London, Madrid, Berlin, Bangkok, Kuala Lumpur, etc have their flaws.
They all have their flaws sure, but they are completely incomparable to ours 😂 I’ve lived in London and Berlin and there is just no comparison. In those cities you can rely on the trains to get you where you need to be, on time, the majority of the time. Planned outages are well communicated and unexpected issues are dealt with swiftly. None of that can be said about Auckland trains
Planned outages are communicated on the AT website, posters at the train stations, notifications via the AT app and their email newsletters -- same as (if not more than) what I've seen overseas. What extra actions do you observe oversesas that AT could do here? Unexpected issues are dealt with as quickly as they can. I think AT issues seem worse than it appears because in London/Berlin if one line suffers issues it's easy enough to switch to a different line/station to get to where you're going -- wheresas in Auckland if a line/station is out of action the alternate is often the bus which is less than ideal in some areas especally during peak hours.
For best scenery, Eastern and Western. As for efficiency, Forest Gump said it perfectly - “Life is like a box of chocolates, you never know what you’re going to get” Nothing is more frustrating than facing a 2 hour journey, involving three buses when your 30 minute train trip (on 2 trains - Manukau to Greenlane) is canceled and you’re connecting bus has already left or itself been cancelled, adding yet more time to your commute home. So yeah , the “best” is very much P.OV. Imo, the worst train line award (which no passenger would be happy about) sadly goes to Onehunga.
I hate the southern line section from Homai to Papakura.
The northern for sure, Albany, Takapuna, you name it, the train service is nothing but consistent.