Drury railway station, formerly known as Drury Central railway station, is an under construction railway station in

Auckland Auckland (pronounced ) ( mi, Tāmaki Makaurau) is a large metropolitan city in the North Island of New Zealand. The List of New Zealand urban areas by population, most populous urban area in the country and the List of cities in Oceania by po ...

, New Zealand. It is due to open in 2025 as part of the

Auckland railway electrification Auckland railway electrification occurred in phases as part of investment in a new infrastructure for Auckland's urban railway network. Electrification of the network had been proposed for several decades. Installation started in the late 2000s a ...

project. It will serve the Drury area in south Auckland. The station will be located on the existing rail line, south of Waihoehoe Road, between Flanagan Rd and Great South Rd.

History

As part of the

New Zealand Upgrade Programme New is an adjective referring to something recently made, discovered, or created. New or NEW may refer to: Music * New, singer of K-pop group The Boyz Albums and EPs * ''New'' (album), by Paul McCartney, 2013 * ''New'' (EP), by Regurgitator, ...

, Jacinda Ardern's government announced $371 million in funding towards the electrification of track from Papakura to Pukekohe, and a separate $247 million towards the construction of two new stations in Drury Central and Drury West. This was later expanded to include a third station at Paerata. Planning consent was granted for the Drury Central and Paerata stations in February 2022, with further work being undertaken to gain approval for the Drury West station. The new stations have attracted criticism from public transport advocates, who say that they are too designed for auto-dependency. In May 2022,

KiwiRail KiwiRail Holdings Limited is a New Zealand state-owned enterprise responsible for rail operations in New Zealand, and operates inter-island ferries. Trading as KiwiRail and headquartered in Wellington, New Zealand, KiwiRail is the largest rail ...

and Auckland Transport announced proposed names for the three stations, replacing the placeholder names of Paerata, Drury West, and Drury Central. These names were gifted by

mana whenua In New Zealand, tangata whenua () is a Māori term that literally means "people of the land". It can refer to either a specific group of people with historical claims to a district, or more broadly the Māori people as a whole. Etymology Accordi ...

, in order to restore the original te reo Māori names of the area. The placeholder name of Drury Central was replaced by Maketuu, paying tribute to the traditional name of the Maketuu stream, as well as the historic name of Te Maketuu Pā, nowadays known as the Pratts Road Historic Reserve, which are both located nearby. In August 2022, the

New Zealand Geographic Board The New Zealand Geographic Board Ngā Pou Taunaha o Aotearoa (NZGB) was established by the New Zealand Geographic Board Act 1946, which has since been replaced by the New Zealand Geographic Board (Ngā Pou Taunaha o Aotearoa) Act 2008. Althoug ...

returned its verdict on the name, rejecting the use of double vowels as preferred by the Mana Whenua Forum, and also rejecting the use of 'Maketuu' as a name, saying it had little association with the local area and may be confusing. Instead, they recommended the name 'Drury'. The iwi involved expressed strong dislike of the decision, saying that the new proposed name is heavily associated with colonisation, and exclusive of Māori ancestral interests in the area. The public consultations on the name change ran until early November that year.

References

{{Public transport in Auckland Proposed railway stations in New Zealand Rail transport in Auckland Railway stations in New Zealand Railway stations scheduled to open in 2025