uneventful journey

It's typical, but on the morning of my first entry about riding the Western Line to work, nothing of consequence happened. The train arrived in Glen Eden on-time (7:05am), was not over-crowded (I managed to get a window seat which is rare) and even the conductor seemed to be enjoying himself.

I'll mention we had a brief stop for a few minutes, parked a little before New Lynn as we waited for another train heading West to go by. This is tolerable considering the amount of work going on with New Lynn's station upgrade and double tracking project.

Seeing as there is not too much to report this morning, I'll give a bit of background on the Double Tracking project. It means more reliable train services and more trains at peak times. Once completed, it will enable the train frequency to increase from what used to be two per hour, to the current four, and eventually six trains per hour at peak times.

These aerial photos show the progress being made in New Lynn - before and after development started.Construction began in 2007 and is intending to be completed by the end of 2009 for a cost of a $120 million (not much). In Budget 06 the government allocated $600 million over three years to ONTRACK for Project DART – a series of infrastructure improvements to enable better rail services in Auckland. $120million makes it the biggest investment New Lynn has ever had from the government.

The plan is for one kilometre of track to be "trenched" to depths of between five and eight metres below the existing ground level between Portage Rd and Titirangi Rd. They say trenching the line will enable the rail station to integrate into the town centre, opening up more opportunities for future development.

With all this work happening, I can sit for a few minutes just outside New Lynn, tuned into my ipod or a good book without getting worked up or frustrated about the standard of Auckland's rail service.

I arrived at Britomart on time, having had a good opportunity to listen to a new album I recently bought. Keep up the good work!