‘Horrified’: Overhead rail option to slice apart Auckland suburb

Several residents in Auckland's Onehunga are "horrified" at the prospect that a four-track railway viaduct could cut through kilometres of their neighbourhood under a proposal that's only seen four weeks of consultation. Transport Minister Michael Wood met with several community groups earlier this week amid community disquiet over the plans released by Auckland Light Rail. Meanwhile, official feedback results showed a "strong preference" to stop the option.

Last month, the Crown entity tasked with delivering the light rail project proposed two options for how trains would move through Onehunga -- one of which suggested reviving an 80-year-old designation previously intended only for heavy rail. The planned line between Avondale and Southdown has been on maps since the 1940s, with a green belt left through Central Auckland, where few homes have since been built. ADVERTISEMENT

While most of the KiwiRail-owned corridor runs alongside the Southwestern Motorway, parts of the existing designation would cut through residential Onehunga along around a dozen neighbourhood streets. More on this topic Onehunga resident Stephen Lasham lives just up the road from the railway designation and told 1News that some nearby neighbours weren't aware of the consultation.

A rough approximation of the route provided by Auckland Light Rail of the option utilising the Avondale to Southdown corridor. (Source: Google Maps)

"You've got noise, dust, and disruption coming to your life on a regular basis," he said. "The ones we spoke to are really horrified. They were coming out and talking to us and saying: 'We didn't even know this was going on'."

Maungakiekie-Tamaki Local Board deputy chair Debbie Burrows said the community hadn't had enough time or information to understand the options pitched. "We're talking about a primary school and a high school that are going to sit right on a freight line... schools, a retirement village, several properties, 15 roads. Like, four weeks is just not enough time.

ADVERTISEMENT "A four-line track is actually about the length of a netball court. So it's huge.

"I spent the first two weeks telling people about it, and people actually thought I was crazy. It was finally probably about the third or fourth week before, you know, a larger chunk of the community was even aware of it," she said. Auckland Light Rail's proposed options in Onehunga

Option A. (Source: Auckland Light Rail) Both options slated during consultation would have seen light rail share a corridor with heavy rail. Trains would travel on either a quad-track elevated bridge or a shallow trench, which would support light rail, freight trains and the city's existing heavy rail passenger trains.

Speaking to 1News, Burrows said: "There should be an option that says no heavy rail, so that the community are able to absorb that. She said previous proposals, like the scrapped East-West Link motorway, that went through the suburb had been extensively detailed over many months or years, alongside computer-generated renders. ADVERTISEMENT

Lasham said the proposed route would also hit the "People's Garden" -- a community space along the designation. The resident is part of the Onehunga Enhancement Society, a local group that has leafletted over 800 houses to cover for what he said was a "superficial" consultation.

Volunteers at an Onehunga People's Garden working bee. (Source: Auckland Council) The other option suggested in last month's consultation could have seen a quad-track viaduct run along the edge of the Onehunga Bay Lagoon - another contentious issue.

Burrows said she would potentially support light rail taking a route on surface streets instead. The local board has officially supported undergrounding the entire route like it was already planned to run through Mt Roskill. Before central government took over the project, Auckland Transport (AT) had commissioned its own light rail plans in 2016, which showed a two-track viaduct running alongside the town's lagoon before entering the town centre at street level.

"It feels like anything to do transport related is done to us and not for us," Burrows said. ADVERTISEMENT "We've always tried to look at this on the bright side.

"There was a real sense originally with light rail that this could actually be a really good connection to Onehunga and our neighbours over the bridge."

Renders of street-running light rail on Dominion Road. The surface option in the area has since been ditched in favour of an underground tunnel. (Source: Auckland Transport)

Consultation 'in line with standard timing'

Auckland Light Rail chief executive Tommy Parker told 1News in a statement that no decisions had yet been made about the route that light rail would take through Onehunga. "More than 50% of the people we heard from were from the Onehunga community or gave us feedback about the two Onehunga options," he said.

"Feedback showed a strong preference not to pursue the heavy rail corridor option." ADVERTISEMENT Parker defended the four-week consultation window suggesting: "This engagement period is in line with standard timing used by other agencies such as AT and Waka Kotahi.

"The engagement and communications campaign was extensive. It included briefings with elected community officials and local boards, a specific workshop with the project's Neighbourhood Liaison Group. "Four community events were run in the Onehunga and Mt Roskill area on weekdays and weekends to reach as many people as possible.

Hard copy brochures, flyers and fact sheets were available - these included material available in te reo Maori, Samoan and Tongan. Digital tools and an online survey were also used." He added: "Auckland Light Rail Limited will continue to work with the Onehunga and Mangere communities and will be back in touch next month to advise them of any decisions regarding route options and to share the key themes heard.

"The team will also progress more detailed work on the design of the options and assess any impacts on neighbouring properties, the environment and landscape." KiwiRail capital planning officer David Gordon said it had provided Auckland Light Rail with "very high-level potential future plans" about their plans to use the Avondale-Southdown corridor. ADVERTISEMENT

He said his organisation's plans were "not yet developed or detailed enough to share".

"We will be sharing potential options with the public as soon as we have enough detail to share something meaningful," he said in a statement.