Avondale railway station is on the
Western Line of the Auckland railway network. Relocated in 2008, the station can be accessed from St Jude St, Layard St, and Crayford St.
The proposed
Avondale–Southdown Line would connect to the Western Line just east of the station.
History
* 1880: Opened as one of the original stations on the
North Auckland Line
The North Auckland Line (designation NAL) is a major section of New Zealand's national rail network, and is made up of the following parts: the portion of track that runs northward from Westfield Junction to Newmarket Station; from there, wes ...
.
[''Railway Stations of Auckland's Western Line'' (2004) by Sean Millar] The station was known as Whau for the first two years of its existence.
* 1882: A
post office
A post office is a public facility and a retailer that provides mail services, such as accepting letters and parcels, providing post office boxes, and selling postage stamps, packaging, and stationery. Post offices may offer additional serv ...
opened as part of the station.
* 1912: The post office closed.
* 1914: The platform was upgraded to an
island platform
An island platform (also center platform, centre platform) is a station layout arrangement where a single platform is positioned between two tracks within a railway station, tram stop or transitway interchange. Island platforms are popular on ...
layout with a new building on the new platform.
* 1915: A
signal box
In signal processing, a signal is a function that conveys information about a phenomenon. Any quantity that can vary over space or time can be used as a signal to share messages between observers. The ''IEEE Transactions on Signal Processing'' ...
was added.
* 1966: The line to
Morningside was double-tracked.
* 1967: The signal box was removed after this section changed to centralised traffic control.
* 1993: The platform was raised to meet the requirements of ex-Perth trains.
* 1995: The station building was relocated to
Swanson
Swanson is a brand of TV dinners, broths, and canned poultry made for the North American and Hong Kong markets. The former "Swanson Company" was founded in Omaha, Nebraska, where it developed improvements of the frozen dinner. The TV dinner bu ...
.
Originally planned for demolition due to its poor state, Waitakere Community Board members Dave Harré and
Penny Hulse
Penelope Anne Hulse is a New Zealand politician, and was Deputy Mayor of Auckland from the formation of the Auckland Council Super City until 2016. She continues to represent the Waitākere Ward on the Auckland Council and is Chair of the Envi ...
lobbied the
New Zealand Railways Corporation
New Zealand Railways Corporation (NZRC) is the state-owned enterprise that owns the land beneath KiwiRail's Rail transport in New Zealand, railway network on behalf of the Crown. The Corporation has existed under a number of guises since 1982, wh ...
to save and refurbish the building.
* 2008: The footbridge was demolished, the platform removed and a temporary station erected 50m to the east of the site.
* 2010: A new station was constructed and the line double-tracked westward beyond Avondale. The station opened on 14 June.
* 2014: Platforms extended to 150m from 143m for the new electric AM class EMU trains.
Upgrade and relocation
![Soon To be Former Avondale Train Station](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/9/92/Soon_To_be_Former_Avondale_Train_Station.jpg)
Until 26 December 2008 it had an
island platform
An island platform (also center platform, centre platform) is a station layout arrangement where a single platform is positioned between two tracks within a railway station, tram stop or transitway interchange. Island platforms are popular on ...
just west of Blockhouse Bay Road, reached via a footbridge off the road. In 2010 an upgraded station was built on Layard Street, north of the St Jude Street level crossing and approximately 100m west and 200m south of the old station.
The new station provides better connections with the Avondale town centre and the platform is on a straight section of track, unlike the old platform which was on a large sharp curve.
Electrification work was completed and the station began serving
electric trains in 2015.
Services
A number of bus routes pass nearby on Great North Road, Rosebank Road and Blockhouse Bay Road. These include routes 18, 22N, 22R, 138, 191, 195, 209 and 670.
See also
*
List of Auckland railway stations
This is a list of the railway stations in the public transport network of Auckland. It includes closed and planned stations. Auckland has 13 fare zones, with some zone overlap areas. The routes shown pass into and out of central, western, eas ...
References
{{coord, 36, 53, 49.34, S, 174, 41, 56.86, E, region:NZ-AUK_type:railwaystation, display=title
Rail transport in Auckland
Railway stations in New Zealand
Railway stations opened in 1880
1880 establishments in New Zealand
Buildings and structures in Auckland
West Auckland, New Zealand