Auckland rail closures: What's happening, why it matters and who'll be affected
Tuesday, 4 October 2022
Auckland’s public transport users are facing their biggest disruption ever after Auckland Transport and KiwiRail announced long shutdowns of three rail lines for essential work.
Why it matters
Thousands of Auckland train riders will be put out as three rail lines will be closed for extended periods in 2023.
The Eastern line is facing a nearly one-year shutdown between March and December next year.
Buses will replace the cancelled services, but Auckland Transport is already under pressure due to bus driver shortages.
**READ MORE:
* Auckland train users face year-long disruption due to major track upgrades
* South Auckland rail line critical to prevent overloading of train network – KiwiRail
**
The breakdown
KiwiRail is replacing the rock foundations below the tracks to make sure the tracks will be able to deal with an expected growing number of people on trains.
Some foundations haven’t been renewed since they were first laid in the 1870s and are in desperate need of upgrades.
Auckland’s under-maintained rail network has been the subject of a series of reports commissioned over the past years, which highlighted a $200 million catch-up was needed and that disruption could last for years.
The work will cost $330 million and last for several years. It will move progressively across the rail network, with the Southern Line first off the rank.
Following the usual Christmas/New Year network-wide closure, that line, between Ōtāhuhu and Newmarket, will remain closed until late March – as will the Onehunga Line.
Work will then move to the Eastern Line, which will be closed for most of 2023.
KiwiRail and Auckland Transport said they were still working through the schedule for the next sections of work, in 2024.
Who said what?
KiwiRail capital projects chief operating officer David Gordon said he appreciated the work would frustrate commuters, but needed to be done to provide more reliable train services.
He said the shutdown needed to happen given the scale of the work, as using evening, weekend and holiday line closures would see the project take decades to finish.
Darek Koper, Auckland Transport’s group manager for metro services, said trains had huge capacity when full, which buses didn’t have. He said the agency would have to adapt as the project worked its way through various stages.
“This will be devastating for confidence in the rail network and in the wider public transport system,” Matt Lowrie, from urban advocacy group Greater Auckland, said.
In other news
Bus cancellations in Auckland remain at record levels, with a shortage of up to 500 drivers replacing Covid-19 as the main cause.
Auckland Transport estimated the city’s driver shortage had risen from 120 pre-Covid-19 to around 500.
Cancellations reached a record 2185 on August 19 and remain at about 1800 a day.
It has got so bad a trade union is calling on bus companies contracted to provide the city’s public transport services to be penalised for failing to meet their obligations and to improve driver conditions and pay.