The City Rail Link's twin tunnels and two new underground stations are set to open to passengers in 2026. Photo / Michael Craig
The City Rail Link's twin tunnels and two new underground stations are set to open to passengers in 2026. Photo / Michael Craig
Auckland’s $5.5 billion City Rail Link aims for the first passenger trains in 2026, with significant fit-out completed.
New CRL boss Patrick Brockie targets a test train running before Christmas and project handover in November 2025.
The CRL will feature two new underground stations and new trains, improving city travel times.
Auckland’s $5.5 billion City Rail Link is tracking toward the first passenger trains in 2026, with much of the fit-out completed and critical technical challenges partially completed.
At the Wellesley St entrance to the new Te Waihorotiu station — named after a stream that once ran down Queen St — an undulating pattern of aluminium rods hanging from the ceiling to mimic the movement of water shows a glimpse of what’s to come.
Further along the twin underground tunnels at Karanga-a-Hape station, a labyrinth of control rooms over 10 levels and hundreds of kilometres of electrical and communication cables show there’s still much to be done.
The Cit Rail Link has twin tunnels and two new underground stations set to open to passengers in 2026. Photo / Michael Craig
It’s challenging, says new CRL boss Patrick Brockie, who has been in the job for two months after his predecessor Dr Sean Sweeney headed to Dublin to lead Ireland’s $20b Metro Link.
Once CRL Ltd and its Link Alliance contractors have installed, tested, and can show the system works, AT and KiwiRail must undertake a new series of tests and train 270 train drivers before it opens to the public. The aim is to open the CRL in 2026 — a decade after work started in June 2016. So far, work has taken 3053 days.
City Rail Link chief executive Patrick Brockie. Photo / Michael Craig
The first of 23 new trains built in Mexico have been shipped to Auckland for extra services once the CRL opens, and about 60 new drivers will be hired.
On a tour of the Karanga-a-Hape and Te Waihorotiu stations this week, the complexity and scale of the mega transport project with its two new underground stations and 200-metre platforms is breathtaking.
“You could get lost,” said health and safety boss Duayne Cloke before entering Karanga-a-Hape station at Beresford Square, where a heritage toilet block-turned nightclub previously stood.
The walk down 44 metres to the deepest point of the CRL is a rabbit warren of cramped spaces with rooms for technical equipment, backup power supplies, a 22,000-volt power feed, five jumbo ventilation fans, 550kms of cabling, emergency stairs, separate access for emergency services, and a main control room.
The Karanga-a-Hape Station is a labyrinth of cables and control rooms. Photo / Michael Craig
Barring an emergency, these facilities will be closed to the public, but what will impress people is the second-longest escalator in Australasia leading down to the twin platforms. A second entrance to the station is being built at Mercury Lane on the southern side of K Rd.
Brockie said Karanga-a-Hape is about 85% fitted out, and Te Waihorotiu about 92%, but the “most challenging and the most complex” issue is the testing and commissioning phase.
“There are a lot of complexities with that and overseas experience tells us that’s the most difficult part of the project.”
Karanga-a-Hape Station will have the second longest escalator in Australasia. Photo / Miachael Craig
Brockie said CRL Ltd was working with its main contractor Link Alliance, global firm Honeywell, and subcontractors to ensure the commissioning phase was successful “but you can have the unknown, unknowns that can occur”.
The CRL boss says the CRL budget is tracking okay, saying there’s a little under $1b in the pot left to spend.
“I’m confident we can stay within our allocated budget,” says the former chief financial officer of the project, former banker, and chair of Infrastructure NZ.
The picture at Te Waihorotiu station, the new 15m-deep, 300m-long station below Albert St with entrances on Victoria and Wellesley Sts, is of far more space and further along in the fit-out stage.
The 200m long platform at Karanga-a-Hape Station. Photos / Michael Craig
At tplatform level, a wide-open atrium rises to a concourse. Overhead are seven skylights punctured into Albert St, representing the seven stars of Matariki.
The view from the platform features more cultural elements of Tāmaki Makaurau engraved into black panels, and a huge x-shaped cross beam suspended over a set of escalators.
On the concourse, a team of mostly Vietnamese tilers is laying terrazzo tiles and the long, wide view from the Wellesley St entrance has the look and feel of an international airport terminal.
Te Waihorotiu Station has the look and feel of an international airport terminal. Photo / Michael Craig
The tilers, Chinese builders, Filipino electrical workers, and Pacific Island civil workers are part of an international workforce numbering 1300 at the closing stages of the project. At the peak, 2000 workers were on site.
Hundreds of 10cm by 10cm ceramic tiles decorate a wall at the Victoria St end, showcasing images drawn by children aged 5 to 11. The theme of the 2020 art project was “journeys”, be it taking the train, walking to the dairy, or heading off to outer space.
Hundreds of ceramic tiles of images drawn by children decorate a wall at the Victoria St end of Te Waihorotiu Station. Photo / Michael Craig
When the CRL finally opens, it will offer faster journeys across the city. For example, Aucklanders will whizz from the central city to Mt Eden, via Karangahape Rd, in about six minutes.
A further spin-off will be the 10-hectare site at Mt Eden where trains will emerge from the tunnels to a new station, Maungawhau. The land has been levelled and sold in parcels for apartments and commercial development, along the masterplan lines at Wynyard Quarter.
Meanwhile, work begins at Labour Weekend on a third platform and additional tracks at Henderson station to allow for more train services when the CRL opens.
The third platform will allow trains to be turned around when they reach Henderson while retaining two tracks for trains travelling to and from Swanson.
The undulating artwork of aluminum rods hanging from the ceiling to mimic the movement of water at Te Waihorotiu Station. Photo / Michael Craig
KiwiRail’s CRL programme director Bevan Assink said the third platform was one of several infrastructure projects to improve the rail network for more reliable and frequent trains.
“We’ve been carrying out a decade’s worth of work in just three to four years — to prepare the network for the faster, more frequent trains that City Rail Link will bring to Aucklanders in 2026,” he said.
Bernard Orsman is an award-winning reporter who has been covering Auckland’s local politics and transport since 1998. Before that, he worked in the parliamentary press gallery for six years.
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