Seventeen ambitious designs by senior students of Unitec's architecture school for a new railway station off Onehunga Mall were put on public display by the town's business association.

Ontrack and the Auckland Regional Transport Authority are to reopen the line to scheduled half-hourly passenger services for the first time since 1973. The freight train line should be reopened this year and passenger trains – December 2009.

"We asked the students to go for what they felt would be the gold standard," said Onehunga Business Association manager Amanda Kinzett. Students were asked not only to design a multi-use centre around and above the station - to include shops, offices, apartments and park and ride spaces - but also to "future-proof" it for rail links to the airport and to Avondale via tunnels which the regional transport authority has proposed between Onehunga and Hillsborough.

"We want to make sure the site is as useable as possible and adds value to the area," Kinzett said. "This will help us get feedback from the community on what they like and don’t like and what their expectations are."

Sign in with a social network: