ARC Chair’s Last Minute “Dear Jim” Letter Over Newmarket West Station

ARC chairman Mike Lee has made a desperate last-minute Christmas eve plea for the Newmarket West temporary station at Kingdon St to be saved.

As first publicly revealed here on AKT, the station will be demolished in the next few weeks, now that the new Newmarket station is opening mid-January.

The ARC chairman has written to the KiwiRail CEO, Jim Quinn, quoting a Chinese saying = “take action – do nothing” – and requesting a meeting with Mr Quinn in January to discuss the issue further.
And in the letter, he reveals concerns about the flash new Newmarket station telling the KiwiRail CEO: “We have already been advised by management at Newmarket that the new $35m Newmarket rail station has limitations as its built on only three tracks. ”

AKT has obtained a copy. Here is what Mike Lee says in his letter:

Dear Jim

Further to earlier discussions and further to my phone call of last evening, I am writing to formally request  KiwiRail instruct its contractors to refrain from demolishing or damaging the Newmarket West (Kingdon St) rail stations over the Christmas holiday period. The local community has been tipped off by a contractor that there are plans to demolish the station over the Christmas period.

You should be aware that the ARC and Ontrack agreed in March 2007 to retain the so –called “temporary station” on an indefinite basis and Ontrack committed to fully consult with the ARC before modifying or removing the temporary station. This was part of a settlement of a long standing dispute between the ARC and Ontrack (negotiated between Mr William Peet and myself in the presence of Brian Roche the then chair of ARTA) about the future of the old Newmarket station heritage building which has been earmarked by Onntrack for demolition.

The other elements of the settlement were (as noted):

• agreement not to demolish the Newmarket heritage station building
• its relocation to a suitable locality near Newmarket (which both sides agreed would be if at all possible Parnell)
• and finally the recommissioning of the Onehunga Branch Line at that time closed and the track system earmarked for removal.

In return, the ARC agreed to lift tis opposition to the construction of the new Newmarket station to proceed – rather than persist with our original preference which was for a new station concept designed around the heritage buildings.

The Newmarket West station as we anticipated has proven to be very popular with travellers on the western line – allowing a direct connection from Britomart to the west without taking up extra journey time backing up in and out of the main station.

You will also be aware of your concerns about the future of Newmarket West have been reinforced by rail passengers and local ratepayers and businesses who are very keen to retain this facility.

Clearly, the retention of a Newmarket West station would also be very important to the viability of long haul express rail services form Waimauku and Huapai and regular signal failure disruptions undermined the viability of the Helensville service in the eyes of the travelling public.

Clearly the lesson that should be learned is that a quick and convenient commute should be the key factor in any successful rail service and therefore where possible delays such as the nearly 10 minutes it takes to divert north to the Newmarket main station should be avoided where possible.
We have already been advised by management at Newmarket that the new $35m Newmarket rail station has limitations as its built on only three tracks.
We believe Kingdon Street provides an extra degree of resilience and flexibility not only to Newmarket but to the whole Auckland rail network.
This extra option could be of increasing importance as Newmarket becomes more congested.
In our conversations, you have indicated KiwiRail would follow ARTA’s lead on this issue and clearly the ARTA position is different from that of the ARC. We have heard over recent months a variety of different explanations from ARTA why it wishes to have the station demolished – frankly these appear to change with every meeting.

Dissecting ARTA’s arguments as they have been advanced one after the other, it appears essentially that ARTA is simply seeking to justify a corporate position it adopted several years ago and refuses to be moved.

Perhaps the reason provided by ARTA board member Mike Williams sums it up best who, at an ARC / ARTA liaison meeting, stated that we have a new station building in Newmarket and we want to “funnel” everyone through it. But ARTA, despite requests from the ARC has never undertaken any market research or surveyed the preferences of rail passengers.

However, the ARC as the shareholder and major funder of ARTA (and as the contributor of more than $20m towards the construction of the new Newmarket station) believes it has a responsibility to Auckland ratepayers and rail passengers. On this basis we would ask you to suspend any demolition activity over the Christmas holiday period until we can have the opportunity to engage with KiwiRail in the New Year.

Our request is to meet with you at a convenient time early next year to discuss objectively in a formal setting the future of Kingdon Street Station, In the meantime, our request is that KiwiRail refrain from spending any money on demolition activity at this time. In other words we request in the words of an old Chinese saying “take action – do nothing.”

I take this opportunity to wish once again the Compliments of the Season.

Yours sincerely,
Michael Lee,
Chairman, Auckland Regional Council

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