I remember having to do the big hike up from Avondale College to the train station a few times when I’d miss the bus from school. I hated it. Not only because I had to walk up the stupid hill and I was super lazy, but when you got there and had to wait for the train(which was always late), there was just nothing there. A few seats in tin shed things on concrete and nothing else but the grim Avondale backdrop. Since then they have moved the station down a tiny way and made it look a bit better, but I still think it’s a place the train shouldn’t stop at and just keep going for life. I think it’s a fine place when there’s lots of people around, but I’m sure kids would feel uneasy hanging around here by themselves, and I still wouldn’t want to be hanging around at night waiting for my train home. Sorry Avondale.
Eddie D.
Rating des Ortes: 3 Auckland, New Zealand
A few years ago they renovated this train station; by renovated I mean moved a few hundred metres down the tracks and started again completely. This was a good strategy because the old station was awful in every way a train station can be, with the possible exception of sarin nerve gas attacks. The new one is much better in nearly all respects — cleaner, better lit, safer feeling, better looking, and no rickety ramps that I worry are going to collapse under my weight. The only downside is that it’s further away from Rosebank Road, which makes it slightly less convenient, and a bit more isolated so you have to walk slightly further before you get to the(relative) security of Great North Road. Not that I’m going as far as saying Avondale’s not safe, just that I don’t know how happy I’d be about my kids, partner or self walking home from the train after dark. That’s not the train station’s fault though.
Melanie M.
Rating des Ortes: 2 Auckland, New Zealand
Well, it is a train station, it is pretty clean and I feel safe enough there(although there is two train tracks and I have been crossing over once when the arm barrier starting coming down, I ran fast but it wouldn’t have been an easy feat for someone with a pram, wheelchair or elderly; plus, before anyone gets on their ‘high horse’, there were no trains in site when I started crossing). It also feels pretty safe from the human-not-so-kind, as it is well lit and open. They have the new HOP and ticket card machines — unfortunately the latter are often out of change which is the predominant reason I am only giving this station two stars, a problem I have passed on to the Maxx transport team. The trains are pretty regular here and there is a quiet one way street behind the school where you can park and catch the train, I think it is called Layard Street.
