Happy New Year

Happy New Year, and welcome to 2013. KiwiRail staff are hard at work on major projects around the Auckland network, and Papakura station is one of them. Although staff had obviously knocked off for the day when I arrived, the progress made since my last update about a week ago is clear.

Platform 2's new track is ready for ballast

The other side isn't quite finished yet, although the rebuilt platform is now half sealed

Oddly the new track is connected to the southbound track instead of the centre track. One hopes this is just temporary prior to clearing of the left over rails

The Platform 1 rebuild isn't quite finished yet

The new northern end of the island platform

A more substantial update may be made in the next few days, rather than this "refresher" post to quickly keep you updated.

Final update before 2013

This will probably be my final update for 2012, as this weekend I head away on holiday and won't be back until the New Year. I've not yet found a fill-in during this time, but if I do they will happily keep you updated during the Christmas holidays.

Papakura station starts a two week long closure this Saturday, from 22 December to 7 January when trains as far as Newmarket and Sylvia Park (with transfer) resume. Holiday timetables are available at ticket offices, or online.

Presumably some major track work and the finishing of Platform 2 will take place over the break, but before that some other work is being done.

The new shelter under construction at the south end of the island platform

Drain works appear to be finished, with the platform awaiting resealing

The new end of Platform 2, viewed from the remains of Platform 1

What's left of Platform 1

A train passes under the Clevedon Road bridge - you can see the three tracks with the future Platform 2 track in the middle

The track north of the bridge

I wish you all a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year, and safe travels if you're heading away this Christmas.

Platform 2 end done

The north end of Platform 2 seems to be as finished as it can be, with more work having to wait until Platform 1 is closed.

Overview of Papakura station from 12 December

The new end of Platform 2

The demolished remains of the end of Platform 2

Drain works in Platform 2 are much welcome

Bases in the guts of the platform-to-be: they look like bases for a new shelter and light/flag posts

It looks like AT need to invest in some new temporary signs

Fixed lift

The lift at Papakura has been repaired, with both broken panels replaced with clear glass.

Both broken panels are now replaced

Concrete cutters were also hard at work, sending dust into the air.

Not quite sure what they were doing though

Most of the redundant platform has disappeared altogether

The platform is also having drainage works done

Platform 2's electronic sign has disappeared

Demolition and a smash

Despite a rail shutdown last weekend not much appeared to have happened, besides some more demolition of the end of Platform 2.

Just tidying up the end

Not a lot has happened on the old platform

Some formation work has been carried out however

And then this happened: it's not entirely clear what caused the glass to smash, but contractors and Veolia staff were trying to figure out the cause

It wasn't the first panel to be smashed either: note the bottom red panel, it's also got a hole in it