There would be heaps of spirits Linguing around that whole building that passed away 100years ago plus all those builders that built the train tracks the railway stations May they all rests well there
How wonderful it would be if this grand old lady could be brought back for intercity services again? Services to Tauranga, services to Whangarei, services to Rotorua, services all the way to Wellington. And a big investment for services to New Plymouth, Gisborne, Taupo. It’s such a beautiful old building and would make such a nice welcome to or farewell from Auckland. And so convenient to Grafton gully & the motorway for out of town visitors or people taking a holiday from Auckland. Build a platform connecting it to the eastern line; and it also could be integrated with the urban rail network.
Thank you for filling me in on what I was in too much of a hurry to take in when buying a last-minute ticket for the Silver Fern to Wellington, in the mid-1980s. The station halls are magnificent, and the detailing beautiful. What a shame it's not pulsing with life. Only by reading the description and these comments have I learned why. Greetings from Australia 🇦🇺
It's mainly because of the track that turns around to head south from Britomart is in the way. I don't know if crl would fix that. When they find a fix to that then they could explore options for using the old railway station. However, it would require a lot of work getting it back to a train station, and there is no reason to, other then asthestics.
thank you for making this video! So great to see inside the building, you have a great eye for detail and al ove of heritage. This used to be an unsuccessful Auckland University student accommodation hence the dark blue sign 'Railway Campus' at 3:30. It has a very beautiful foyer of course, but it really was a bad decision decades ago to place this so far away from the commercial heart of Auckland. Even now that eastern Quay St area is really not a thriving area. Ah well at least we have Britomart now!
Thank you for the compliments! You’re right, it’s really not in the right place. It would cost a lot of money to upgrade it to a boutique hotel or the like. It’s stuck in limbo, but at least it’s preserved!
It's a real shame that such a beautiful heritage building as Auckland Railway Station wasn't able to continue to be used for its designed purpose like its counterpart station building in Wellington, especially when you see the nearby Strand "station" built out of shipping containers. I guess at least Auckland Station is still being used and looked after as accommodation as opposed to being left abandoned to fall into disrepair.
I started work in 1970 and had a flat on Parnell Rise. I would walk to the station to catch the trolleybus into Queen Street, to work. There used to be this grotty tearoom where the Heritage Dining Room is, and they still used those old white railway cups and saucers. It looked like it was still stuck in the 50's. The food never looked appetizing, mainly tea, sandwiches, and pies. The atmosphere of the place hasn't changed.
@@francisheperi4180 That’s a great story! Thank you for sharing. My earliest memory is from the late ‘80s, I believe - and like you I remember the atmosphere being very sparse even then. I’m just so glad that it has been frozen in time.
I remember catching the train to Wellington with my family back in 1984 when I was a little kid. The frustrating thing is that this was built in this location not in the city centre, it took almost 70 years for a proper Auckland central station to be rebuilt.
My friend lived in there 22 years ago, we would jimmy the door to a storage area on the top floor which led to the inside of the roof u could walk on top of the ornate roof looking thru to people below was a cool place interesting building for sure
If you to where the Stabling Yards are now you can where the old Platforms were , But the Tunnels from the Old Station Building to the Platforms are long gone .
Shame we not still using our original old railway station like Wellington is . The old railway station was brilliant I was catching the train into the old station daily .
It's not central , downtown etc . Inconvenient. I have no idea how town planners chose us location. Maybe Auckland city grew in an unplanned manner and left the railway station isolated away from the hub etc
@@Evan-j7m The truth is; it’s about the same distance from more of Auckland’s CBD as the Wellington terminus is to most of Wellington’s CBD. The key differences are; most of Wellington’s CBD is not cut off from the station by a big busy wide road like beach road, and it’s on the flat part, and it’s well served by buses. This great old station just wasn’t in any ideal spot for an urban rail terminus, if you worked on (say) Symonds street, you would have to take a long bus trip or just hike up a hill after getting off of the train. The Britomart location has proven much more ideal as it’s integrated with the buses. But I think it is an ideal spot for an intercity railway terminus. I have long dreamed of a day that could make a comeback.
@danieleyre8913 great evaluation thanks. On another 'what if' , if Auckland Council had taken up , mayor Sir Dove Meyer Robinsons plan begin investing in light rail service , then continue investing, Auckland would by now have a state of the art transport service .
I think it's a crying shame that such a grand building with a Heritage 1 status has been so neglected, the outside of the building looks terrible and obviously has not had a pressure wash in years but that is typical of the way we treat buildings like that. As for the use of the station as such it was built away from the downtown area of Auckland but the local authorities there did nothing to see how it could become the new main station, it seemed to me they were fixated on having the new station underground and ignoring the future issues that have now become reality as there is no connection at all for the actual trains that work from the Strand and on the few trips I have made up from Wellington it's a long miserable walk to the city and by curving the track down from the Parnell Rise and selling of land where the shunting yards used to be the Strand Container platform looks set to be the future of rail into Auckland. I'm so glad our station here in Wellington is still the way it was intended and is fully utilized as both commuter and long distance trains literally at the northern end of the city.
@@JohnR-NZ I am very fond of Wellington Station, having travelled to and from there numerous times. Ironically new sidings are being laid in Auckland near the Strand - presumably for EMUs to be stabled.
The Wellington station is actually about the same distance from the CBD as this grand old lady is. The differences are that most of the Wellington CBD is on flat land, there’s buses galore between the station and points in the Wellington CBD, and there’s no big wide busy road cutting the station off like, there is with Beach road. Call me a dreamer but I think that this grand old station, while not ideal for urban rail like Britomart, is still in a good location for intercity trains with its proximity to Grafton gully and the motorway, making it easy to access for Taxis, coaches, urban buses private automobiles, etc. I think that it could make a comeback for that role in the future, it could also be connected to the urban rail system with a set of platforms on the eastern line. Keep Britomart for the urban rail, system, with its terminating platform for a future AirPort Express (and maybe an express to Hamilton), but use this grand old lady for services to Tauranga, Whangarei, Wellington, Rotorua, etc.
Question was this filmed on a Saturday as it looked like the Te Huia was coming from Otahuhu Yards . And inside there is a set of Stairs that were not there when I use to go in there to the Dining area to get a bite before getting the Road Service Bus North . And there use to be a aka in there also .
It was filmed on Friday afternoon. I believe in its first appearance Te Huia was arriving from Hamilton, having travelled up via the Southern Line. The stairs in the old station provide access to upper floor apartments. There are also some old lifts, which seem to be refurbished originals that might have provided access to NZR clerical offices.
Why was this station closed? When I took the trip to Wellington in 2011 we left from Britomart? Is that correct? I believe that is not used now either for the long distance trains. Great video! Cheers from Wagga, NSW.
Auckland Railway Station was closed because almost all the platforms were decommissioned when Britomart opened in 2003. Auckland Station was too far from the city centre to be a good commuter station. When electric trains started running into Britomart in 2014, the diesel extraction fans were removed from Britomart, so long-distance diesel-hauled services were moved out to The Strand Station. So yes, you did board in Britomart. Cheers!
I really liked the idea of putting a rugby stadium behind it and redeveloping the area around it and putting platforms underneth to serve as a long distance station. Shame it not realistic money wise.
Why oh why do Aucklanders have this obsession with building a rugby stadium? Nobody goes to live events at Eden park anymore, stadiums are expensive white elephants. Look at that turd in Albany! Honestly; your city could make many more improvements to its infrastructure that could assist its economic boom, and make sporting bodies fund their own stadia.
The building is NOT empty, it is used as apartments. the trouble is Artificial Intelligence is making us dumb, like do people understand "Ignoring Road Code Rules and inciting accidents is Inflationary"
@@daddybob6096 I plan on eventually making a short documentary film with narration, and interviews with historical experts. This was just having a nosey around.
Don't go there if you want to watch your favorite sports game, the television system is hopeless, it is always freezing up every minute or so for a brief second
@@AotearoaRailThe word "rubbish" would describe the TV reception better, It is like reading a second handbook, a previous reader has cut the bottom of the page they have read to use as a bookmark, so every dozen or so pages you miss a sentence of the story.
Surely it would be a simple job to return the Auckland Station back to its designed purpose. The Strand station is a joke and impossible to get to. No wonder Aucklander take their cars when travelling.
@@bizzlebasil1 If KiwiRail had more money to spare, and more intercity trains running out of Auckland, I could imagine them being able to put an underpass from the station building to the isolated platform, from which long distance trains could depart. But as things are, it’d be cost prohibitive, unfortunately.
@@AotearoaRail When the old trains station closed and everything went to underground Britomart, trains did stop at the old stations for a while, but it looks like not many passengers got on/off as they preferred to use the underground Britomart being closer to "everything" passengers wanted, so the service was discontinued from the newer train timetables.
There would be heaps of spirits Linguing around that whole building that passed away 100years ago plus all those builders that built the train tracks the railway stations May they all rests well there
How wonderful it would be if this grand old lady could be brought back for intercity services again? Services to Tauranga, services to Whangarei, services to Rotorua, services all the way to Wellington. And a big investment for services to New Plymouth, Gisborne, Taupo.
It’s such a beautiful old building and would make such a nice welcome to or farewell from Auckland. And so convenient to Grafton gully & the motorway for out of town visitors or people taking a holiday from Auckland. Build a platform connecting it to the eastern line; and it also could be integrated with the urban rail network.
Problem is the Nats sold it, we’d have to buy it back for some exorbitant rate
@ Not if a compulsory acquisition order was ever filed & passed. It could be defined as essential infrastructure.
Thank you for filling me in on what I was in too much of a hurry to take in when buying a last-minute ticket for the Silver Fern to Wellington, in the mid-1980s. The station halls are magnificent, and the detailing beautiful. What a shame it's not pulsing with life. Only by reading the description and these comments have I learned why. Greetings from Australia 🇦🇺
The tearooms were a thing of beauty and a damn good cup of tea to boot.
Ridiculous that you have a premier long distance tourist train leaving from a container, when a hundred or so meters away is a beautiful station.
@@Chris-p2s1cReally?
In my eyes it looks like a railway terminus. And nothing like any hotel I have ever seen.
@@Chris-p2s1c I don’t mean to be rude.
But I feel safe assuming that I’ve seen and stayed at more hotels that you have.
It's mainly because of the track that turns around to head south from Britomart is in the way. I don't know if crl would fix that. When they find a fix to that then they could explore options for using the old railway station. However, it would require a lot of work getting it back to a train station, and there is no reason to, other then asthestics.
@@kaimanawastudios It’s a good design for a terminal station and is in an ideal location.
thank you for making this video! So great to see inside the building, you have a great eye for detail and al ove of heritage. This used to be an unsuccessful Auckland University student accommodation hence the dark blue sign 'Railway Campus' at 3:30. It has a very beautiful foyer of course, but it really was a bad decision decades ago to place this so far away from the commercial heart of Auckland. Even now that eastern Quay St area is really not a thriving area. Ah well at least we have Britomart now!
Thank you for the compliments! You’re right, it’s really not in the right place. It would cost a lot of money to upgrade it to a boutique hotel or the like. It’s stuck in limbo, but at least it’s preserved!
It's a real shame that such a beautiful heritage building as Auckland Railway Station wasn't able to continue to be used for its designed purpose like its counterpart station building in Wellington, especially when you see the nearby Strand "station" built out of shipping containers. I guess at least Auckland Station is still being used and looked after as accommodation as opposed to being left abandoned to fall into disrepair.
I started work in 1970 and had a flat on Parnell Rise. I would walk to the station to catch the trolleybus into Queen Street, to work. There used to be this grotty tearoom where the Heritage Dining Room is, and they still used those old white railway cups and saucers. It looked like it was still stuck in the 50's. The food never looked appetizing, mainly tea, sandwiches, and pies. The atmosphere of the place hasn't changed.
@@francisheperi4180 That’s a great story! Thank you for sharing. My earliest memory is from the late ‘80s, I believe - and like you I remember the atmosphere being very sparse even then. I’m just so glad that it has been frozen in time.
I remember catching the train to Wellington with my family back in 1984 when I was a little kid. The frustrating thing is that this was built in this location not in the city centre, it took almost 70 years for a proper Auckland central station to be rebuilt.
It’s only about 500m from Britomart.
My friend lived in there 22 years ago, we would jimmy the door to a storage area on the top floor which led to the inside of the roof u could walk on top of the ornate roof looking thru to people below was a cool place interesting building for sure
yes its a great place to see I went there some years ago, would love to see a look thou the whole place how
That's so interesting I actually had no idea we had a different station before Britomart
If you to where the Stabling Yards are now you can where the old Platforms were , But the Tunnels from the Old Station Building to the Platforms are long gone .
Shame we not still using our original old railway station like Wellington is . The old railway station was brilliant I was catching the train into the old station daily .
I remember it being an amazing experience when my mum took me there to catch trains in the late ‘80s.
It's not central , downtown etc . Inconvenient. I have no idea how town planners chose us location. Maybe Auckland city grew in an unplanned manner and left the railway station isolated away from the hub etc
@@Evan-j7m that’s true central Auckland was planned well at all .
@@Evan-j7m The truth is; it’s about the same distance from more of Auckland’s CBD as the Wellington terminus is to most of Wellington’s CBD.
The key differences are; most of Wellington’s CBD is not cut off from the station by a big busy wide road like beach road, and it’s on the flat part, and it’s well served by buses. This great old station just wasn’t in any ideal spot for an urban rail terminus, if you worked on (say) Symonds street, you would have to take a long bus trip or just hike up a hill after getting off of the train. The Britomart location has proven much more ideal as it’s integrated with the buses.
But I think it is an ideal spot for an intercity railway terminus. I have long dreamed of a day that could make a comeback.
@danieleyre8913 great evaluation thanks. On another 'what if' , if Auckland Council had taken up , mayor Sir Dove Meyer Robinsons plan begin investing in light rail service , then continue investing, Auckland would by now have a state of the art transport service .
If only the station was near the end of queen street it would still be a station today
I think it's a crying shame that such a grand building with a Heritage 1 status has been so neglected, the outside of the building looks terrible and obviously has not had a pressure wash in years but that is typical of the way we treat buildings like that. As for the use of the station as such it was built away from the downtown area of Auckland but the local authorities there did nothing to see how it could become the new main station, it seemed to me they were fixated on having the new station underground and ignoring the future issues that have now become reality as there is no connection at all for the actual trains that work from the Strand and on the few trips I have made up from Wellington it's a long miserable walk to the city and by curving the track down from the Parnell Rise and selling of land where the shunting yards used to be the Strand Container platform looks set to be the future of rail into Auckland. I'm so glad our station here in Wellington is still the way it was intended and is fully utilized as both commuter and long distance trains literally at the northern end of the city.
@@JohnR-NZ I am very fond of Wellington Station, having travelled to and from there numerous times. Ironically new sidings are being laid in Auckland near the Strand - presumably for EMUs to be stabled.
The Wellington station is actually about the same distance from the CBD as this grand old lady is.
The differences are that most of the Wellington CBD is on flat land, there’s buses galore between the station and points in the Wellington CBD, and there’s no big wide busy road cutting the station off like, there is with Beach road.
Call me a dreamer but I think that this grand old station, while not ideal for urban rail like Britomart, is still in a good location for intercity trains with its proximity to Grafton gully and the motorway, making it easy to access for Taxis, coaches, urban buses private automobiles, etc. I think that it could make a comeback for that role in the future, it could also be connected to the urban rail system with a set of platforms on the eastern line. Keep Britomart for the urban rail, system, with its terminating platform for a future AirPort Express (and maybe an express to Hamilton), but use this grand old lady for services to Tauranga, Whangarei, Wellington, Rotorua, etc.
Question was this filmed on a Saturday as it looked like the Te Huia was coming from Otahuhu Yards .
And inside there is a set of Stairs that were not there when I use to go in there to the Dining area to get a bite before getting the Road Service Bus North . And there use to be a aka in there also .
It was filmed on Friday afternoon. I believe in its first appearance Te Huia was arriving from Hamilton, having travelled up via the Southern Line. The stairs in the old station provide access to upper floor apartments. There are also some old lifts, which seem to be refurbished originals that might have provided access to NZR clerical offices.
Why was this station closed? When I took the trip to Wellington in 2011 we left from Britomart? Is that correct? I believe that is not used now either for the long distance trains. Great video! Cheers from Wagga, NSW.
Auckland Railway Station was closed because almost all the platforms were decommissioned when Britomart opened in 2003. Auckland Station was too far from the city centre to be a good commuter station. When electric trains started running into Britomart in 2014, the diesel extraction fans were removed from Britomart, so long-distance diesel-hauled services were moved out to The Strand Station. So yes, you did board in Britomart. Cheers!
@ cheers mate, much appreciated! Would love to do that trip again one day, it was magic!
Is 11:08 filmed at The Strand station? I cant quite place the location
It is looking over towards the Strand Station from Quay Street.
when was this video recorded was it in 2020?
25 October 2024
@@AotearoaRail i lived in the room with black plastic on the window , guess who every moved in after me left it there
I really liked the idea of putting a rugby stadium behind it and redeveloping the area around it and putting platforms underneth to serve as a long distance station. Shame it not realistic money wise.
Why oh why do Aucklanders have this obsession with building a rugby stadium? Nobody goes to live events at Eden park anymore, stadiums are expensive white elephants. Look at that turd in Albany!
Honestly; your city could make many more improvements to its infrastructure that could assist its economic boom, and make sporting bodies fund their own stadia.
This isnt the main station, for anyone wondering. Thats why its so empty!
The building is NOT empty, it is used as apartments. the trouble is Artificial Intelligence is making us dumb, like do people understand "Ignoring Road Code Rules and inciting accidents is Inflationary"
@@virtually2124 I mean empty of people (compared to what a main railway station should be like)
this use to be the main station for Auckland when I was going up
Where is the dialogue for those of us who have never been there?
@@daddybob6096 I plan on eventually making a short documentary film with narration, and interviews with historical experts. This was just having a nosey around.
Don't go there if you want to watch your favorite sports game, the television system is hopeless, it is always freezing up every minute or so for a brief second
The TV there is definitely budget. A mate and I ended up streaming the game on his phone once when we were staying there!
@@AotearoaRailThe word "rubbish" would describe the TV reception better, It is like reading a second handbook, a previous reader has cut the bottom of the page they have read to use as a bookmark, so every dozen or so pages you miss a sentence of the story.
Strand Railway Station - What a joke!
Surely it would be a simple job to return the Auckland Station back to its designed purpose. The Strand station is a joke and impossible to get to. No wonder Aucklander take their cars when travelling.
@@bizzlebasil1 If KiwiRail had more money to spare, and more intercity trains running out of Auckland, I could imagine them being able to put an underpass from the station building to the isolated platform, from which long distance trains could depart. But as things are, it’d be cost prohibitive, unfortunately.
@@AotearoaRail When the old trains station closed and everything went to underground Britomart, trains did stop at the old stations for a while, but it looks like not many passengers got on/off as they preferred to use the underground Britomart being closer to "everything" passengers wanted, so the service was discontinued from the newer train timetables.
Who every made this video really needs to get there facts correct. Misleading information.