Eastern Line, Auckland

Eastern Line route map
0.0km / 0:00hr Britomart Transport Centre (Auckland)
Southern Line junction
The Strand Station
Ports of Auckland Terminal
The Strand
Tamaki Drive
4.6 / 0:06 Orakei
Orakei Road
5.8 / 0:09 Meadowbank
596m Purewa Tunnel
9.5 / 0:13 Glen Innes
Merton Road
Morrin Road
Mountain Road
12.2 / 0:16 Panmure
Ellerslie - Panmure Highway
Waipuna Road
15.1 / 0:19 Sylvia Park
South-Eastern Motorway
Southern Motorway (SH1)
Mt Wellington Highway
Great South Road
Westfield Junction
Railway Lane
18.0 / 0:24 Otahuhu
Kaka Street
Mangere Road
19.7 / 0:27 Middlemore
21.7 / 0:30 Papatoetoe
St George Street
Bridge Street
23.2 / 0:33 Puhinui
Manukau Branch
Manukau
NIMT, Southern Line

The Eastern Line is the name of the suburban rail service in Auckland, New Zealand between Britomart and Manukau via the North Island Main Trunk (NIMT) and Manukau Branch. Services are operated by Transdev under the AT brand.

Construction

The line from Auckland to Westfield via Glen Innes was constructed as the Westfield Deviation of the North Island Main Trunk. This eastern deviation had been proposed as early as the 1870s, but various events meant that it was never constructed, until traffic on the Auckland – Newmarket section of the NIMT began to experience significant delays. The Westfield Deviation avoided the major grades of the route via Newmarket, which had a highest point of 81 metres (266 ft) above sea level, compared with the new line's highest point of 24 metres (79 ft).

A small reclamation had been made in the early 1920s, 2 kilometres (1.2 mi) out of Queen Street into Mechanics Bay for goods yards and maintenance sheds. The remaining 14.28 km (8 miles & 70 chain) section was built as the "Westfield Deviation" between 1924 and 1930 by the Public Works Department as part of general improvements to Auckland's rail network, and authorised (estimated cost £375,000) by the Railways Improvement Authorisation Act, 1914.[1]

The Purewa Tunnel, a major engineering work halfway between the city and Glen Innes, was built in the mid-1920s by experienced miners who had worked on the construction of the North Auckland Line.[2]

The section from Mechanics Bay to Orakei required significant reclamation over Hobson Bay. At the same time a new road, Tamaki Drive, was built alongside part of the railway line. A notable feature of the deviation is that no road-rail level crossings were created by its construction.[3]

The Westfield Deviation via the Purewa Tunnel opened for goods traffic on 1 September 1929 using the down line to Westfield for single-line working, but was not used for passenger traffic until the up line to Auckland was opened on 11 May 1930.[4][5] The construction and opening of this line coincided with the then new Auckland Railway Station.

In December 2014, all Eastern Line train services began terminating at Manukau, rather than alternating between Manukau and Papakura. Electrification of the Auckland suburban network was completed in July 2015, and all passenger services on this line are electric.

See also

References

  1. ↑ "Railways Improvement Authorisation Act, 1914". New Zealand Law online.
  2. ↑ "Good Progress - Auckland Railway Deviation". The Evening Post. 12 February 1926. p. 8. Retrieved 10 January 2011.
  3. ↑ Bill Pierre (1981). North Island Main Trunk An Illustrated History. A W Reed.
  4. ↑ AJHR 1930 D1 page xvii
  5. ↑ Pierre, Bill (1981). North Island Main Trunk. Wellington: Reed. p. 178. ISBN 0-589-01316-5.
  • "Route of Westfield Deviation (map)". New Zealand Herald (Papers Past). 4 May 1925.
  • "Judges Bay Embankment (photo)". New Zealand Herald (Papers Past). 2 June 1926.
  • "Purewa Tunnel portal (photo)". New Zealand Herald (Papers Past). 23 April 1926.
  • "The Westfield Deviation in use (photo)". New Zealand Herald (Papers Past). 3 September 1929.
  • "Westfield Deviation at Purewa Station (photo)". Auckland Star (Papers Past). 29 August 1929.
  • "Another map of Deviation". New Zealand Herald (Papers Past). 5 September 1929.
  • "First Express on Deviation (photo)". New Zealand Herald (Papers Past). 19 September 1930.
  • "Aerial view of Deviation (photo)". New Zealand Herald (Papers Past). 5 September 1929.
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