Auckland's City Rail Link expansion plans agreed

Thursday, 26 July 2018

The proposed underground stations would have longer platforms for nine carriage trains in plans being considered.

Auckland's future train system will be far bigger than first planned - catering for the super-city's rocketing population growth.

The changes to the current plans are set to include longer platforms to accommodate nine carriage trains, rather than six carriage trains, along with more stations and wider tunnels.

Auckland Council and the Government agreed to increase investment into the City Rail Link on Thursday.

The decision comes after new estimates predicted CRL stations needed to cope with a capacity of 54,000 passengers an hour at peak times, rather than original estimates of 36,000.

Auckland Mayor Phil Goff said the city's growth in rail travel was a success story, but he wanted to stay ahead of the curve.

'Last year we achieved the milestone of 20 million passenger trips a year, four years ahead of schedule.

He said the popularity of rail travel in Auckland required the council to take action, and made the decision to 'expand new rail stations to cater for the huge number of people who will be commuting by rail in the next 10 years'.

He said getting the work done while CRL was still under construction would avoid retrofitting the system later, which would double the cost and require the tunnels to be closed for two years for widening.

Transport Minister Phil Twyford said another push behind the decision was that they didn't want a repeat of what happened with the Auckland Harbour Bridge.

'Within 10 years of opening the Auckland Harbour Bridge it had to be expanded from four lanes to eight.'

'Today's decision has allowed us to avoid repeating the mistakes of the past,' Twyford said.

Costs associated with expanding the scope of work for CRL are confidential while the tender process to procure the work is underway.

Exact costs would be known more precisely early next year once tenders were received, the council said.

City Rail Link costs are shared equally between Government and Auckland Council.

Twyford said increasing investment would ensure that when CRL opens in 2024, Aucklanders would get a modern and efficient rail service that benefited the entire transport network for decades to come.