THE prime minister of New Zealand, Christopher Luxon, joined the mayor of Auckland, Wayne Brown, as well as government ministers, civic leaders and project partners on August 8 to travel by train through the twin 3.45km tunnels of the City Rail Link (CRL), which is due to enter service next year.

The train travelled beneath the city centre from the new Maungawhau station, passing through the underground stations at Karanga-a-Hape and Te Waihorotiu as well as Waitematā (formerly Britomart), before returning to Maungawhau.

Commissioning and testing of tunnel and station systems is continuing alongside train testing. Since the first test train ran in February, over 1600 individual test runs have been made through the tunnels, according to project delivery company City Rail Link Ltd (CRLL).

CRLL is overseeing the $NZ 5.5bn ($US 3.3bn) project funded by Auckland Council and the New Zealand government, where the main works contractor is the Link Alliance.

Upon completion, national railway KiwiRail will own and operate the new rail infrastructure. Auckland Transport will operate the stations on behalf of Auckland Council.

Network upgrade

KiwiRail has been undertaking a major upgrade of the Auckland commuter network to accommodate the additional services that will be introduced with the opening of CRL. The Rail Network Rebuild (RNR) programme to renew and upgrade the highest-priority sections of the network began in 2021 and is now in its final stages, according to KiwiRail.

Work to electrify the 19km section from Papakura to Pukekohe at 25kV 50Hz ac was completed last year, as well as upgrading track and station refurbishment at Pukekohe. An additional power feed on the Western Line to improve resilience is in the testing and commissioning phase, and a second additional power feed to increase network capacity will be commissioned on the Southern Line.

A third track has been provided on the busiest section of the network between Wiri and Quay Park, segregating passenger service form freight trains and providing the latter with better access the Port of Auckland. The track layout has been modified at Waitematā, Otahuhu, Henderson, Strand and Newmarket to prepare for CRL.

Three new stations have been built in south Auckland, all with large park and ride facilities. Drury and Paerātā are due to open in 2026 and Ngākōroa in 2028.

A new Auckland Rail Operations Centre has been built to bring KiwiRail, Auckland Transport and commuter operator Auckland One Rail together in one location and improve cooperation.

“In Auckland we are carrying out work which would normally take a decade but is being delivered in three to four years,” says KiwiRail chief executive, Peter Reidy.

“While working closely with our partners to ensure rigorous testing and commissioning of the City Rail Link, KiwiRail is also modernising our older rail assets so they can support significantly more trains and passengers.”

“There’s still a long to-do list before we can open in 2026, and together with our partners we are working hard to be ready for day one,” says Auckland Transport chief executive, Dean Kimpton.

“We’re hiring frontline staff, procuring new trains, and removing level crossings from our rail network.”

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