Drury railway station
Drury railway station (formerly under the placeholder name Drury Central railway station) is a railway station under construction in Auckland, New Zealand. It is due to open in 2025 as part of the Auckland railway electrification project. It will serve the Drury area in south Auckland. The station will be located on the existing North Island Main Trunk railway line, south of Waihoehoe Road, between Flanagan Rd and Great South Rd.[1] In 2023 KiwiRail won a court case about objections from a developer to the location of the station.[2]
Drury | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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 Drury railway station 1905 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| General information | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Location | Drury, Auckland New Zealand | |||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Coordinates | 37.104°S 174.952°E | |||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Owned by | Auckland Transport | |||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Line(s) | Southern Line | |||||||||||||||||||||||||
| History | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Opened | October 1874 original | |||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Opening | Early 2025 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Closed | 21 May 1972 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Services | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Between 1874 and 1972, it was a station on the North Island Main Trunk line in New Zealand. It was a stop for southern services on the Auckland railway network.[3][4]
History
The Auckland and Drury Railway Act 1863 was passed by Parliament "to enable the Superintendent of the Province of Auckland to construct a Railway between the Towns of Auckland and Drury with a Branch to Onehunga in the said Province."[5]
The station was opened in October 1874.[6] On 8 December 1918, the existing station was replaced by a new Drury station building on a new site which also replaced the Runciman railway station. On 21 May 1972, the station was closed.[6]
New train stations for Drury West and Paerata are included in a July 2017 proposal for Auckland infrastructure spending of $600 million to support new housing announced by the government. They will be built and owned by a new Crown Infrastructure Partners body, as the Auckland Council has reached its borrowing limit.[7] In 2020, the government announced $247 million in funding for new stations at Drury West and Drury East,[8] to be started in 2023.[9]
As part of the New Zealand Upgrade Programme, 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.[10]
The new stations have attracted criticism from public transport advocates, who say that they are too designed for auto-dependency.[11]
In May 2022, KiwiRail 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 order to restore the original te reo Māori names of the area.[12] 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.[13]
In August 2022, the New Zealand Geographic Board 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. The Board's recommended name was approved by the Land Information Minister Damien O'Connor in March 2023.
References
- "Southern station locations announced". KiwiRail. 11 February 2021. Retrieved 27 May 2022.
- "KiwiRail wins legal fight to build Drury train station 6 minutes walk out-of-town". Stuff/Fairfax. 2023.
- New Zealand Railway and Tramway Atlas (First ed.). Quail Map Co. 1965. pp. 3 & 4.
- Pierre, Bill (1981). North Island Main Trunk. Wellington: A.H&A.W Reed. pp. 289–290. ISBN 0589013165.
- "Auckland and Drury Railway Act 1863 (Local) (27 Victoriae 1863 No 2)". New Zealand Legal Information Institute – nzlii.org. Retrieved 8 May 2017.
- Scoble, Juliet (2010). "Names & Opening & Closing Dates of Railway Stations" (PDF). Rail Heritage Trust of New Zealand. Archived from the original (PDF) on 24 January 2018. Retrieved 10 October 2019.
- "Government setting up new housing infrastructure company will invest $600m". Stuff (Fairfax). 17 August 2017.
- Jane Paterson (29 January 2020). "Govt's $12b infrastructure spend: Rail, roads and DHBs the big winners". Radio New Zealand. Retrieved 29 January 2020.
- "Auckland rail – supporting urban and economic growth | NZ Transport Agency". www.nzta.govt.nz. Retrieved 29 January 2020.
- "Approval For Two Stations In Southern Auckland". Scoop. 3 February 2022. Retrieved 27 May 2022.
- "The Papakura to Pukekohe upgrade". Greater Auckland. 11 November 2021. Retrieved 27 May 2022.
- Auckland Transport [@AklTransport] (19 May 2022). "Today Kiwirail and AT are announcing the proposed names for the three new stations to be constructed between Papakura & Pukekohe. – Maketuu, – Ngaakooroa – Paeraataa. We are honoured to have been gifted these names by Mana Whenua, which restore the original Māori place names" (Tweet) – via Twitter.
- Auckland Transport [@AklTransport] (19 May 2022). "Maketuu Station (for Drury Central) - The name Maketuu gives tribute to the traditional name for the Maketuu stream and the historic name's sake of the ancient Te Maketuu Pā (The Pratts Road Historic Reserve) all located within the area" (Tweet) – via Twitter.