Capacity and Rail Connections
The station is designed to serve up to 10,500 passengers during the peak hour in its current configuration as a terminus. Capacity increases will probably not be possible without turning Britomart into a through station, with a tunnel underneath Auckland CBD (see below).
The station has five platforms, and is constrained by the 9.3 m width of the 426 m long access tunnel, which allows only two tracks. Early forecasts predicted that while double-tracking of the surrounding rail network would improve peak time train congestion, the capacity of the corridor would only be reached by around 2020. The recent growth in train patronage and increased services has meant that from 2011 the tunnel will be at maximum capacity, almost 10 years earlier than predicted. Because of the capacity restrictions, a proposed Hamilton-Auckland commuter train service will for the interim only go to the 'The Strand' station some 1.5km to the east.
Read more about this topic: Britomart Transport Centre
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