Why is Auckland’s City Rail Link taking so long to open?
Wednesday, 18 June 2025
The tunnels were completed more than two years ago, trains are running through them already, and the stations have branding installed - so why won’t it be open until some time in 2026? Explainer Editor Lloyd Burr heads underground to find some answers.
When John Key, Simon Bridges, and Len Brown pushed down on a faux dynamite detonator on June 2, 2016, it triggered a glitter bomb to mark the beginning of the City Rail Link’s construction.
The former prime minster, former transport minister, and former Auckland mayor respectively said the project would cost $2.5 billion and be open to the public in 2022.
But just like many other major infrastructure projects around the world, the budget and finish line would move numerous times. The first came just a few months after the glitter exploded, with the government revising the cost to between $2.8b-$3.4 and the timeframe to 2023.
In 2019, the cost of the project ballooned to $4.42b after the length of the underground platforms were increased, and an extra entrance added to the Karanga-A-Hape station. The opening date became 2024.
By 2023, the cost had shot up to $5.4b due to the delays and associated cost spikes of the Covid lockdowns. The opening date was moved to November 2025.
Then, by the end of last year, more concerns about progress were outlined in an internal letter with a completion date of sometime in 2026, a vague timeframe that has remained to this day.
But given the tunnels were completed more than two years ago, the tracks have long been installed, and test trains have been going up and down the route, why is the opening still so far away?
The answer: There are a lot of moving parts that have to work together. Let’s look at them.
The stations
The route has two brand new stations: Karanga-A-Hape (also known as K Rd) and Te Waihorotiu (also known as Aotea) but also a completely rebuilt one at Maungawhau (Mt Eden). Some changes have been made to Waitemata (Britomart) too.
Given they are the first completely underground stations in New Zealand, the construction, fit out, and commissioning of the very complex systems in them is taking a long time.
There’s cladding, electrical, signage, glazing, flooring, ticketing infrastructure, toilets, shop infrastructure, hearing loops in the floor, air conditioning, power supplies, cell towers and 5G, water, waste water, emergency egresses, smoke suppression systems, escalators, elevators, and stairwells.
In areas the public will never go, there are staff areas, pump and sump rooms, giant fans, and a myriad of other plant equipment.
City Rail Link CEO Patrick Brockie says all of these need to be installed, tested, and tested again in each of the three new stations, which takes a lot of time.
“There are over 16,000 tests that we have to run during the testing commissioning phase. We're about just under a quarter of the way through that, so we've still got a fair way to go,” he says.
“We're about 95% complete with the station fit out. That's the interior of the stations. And it's like building your own home - the last 5% tends to take a bit longer than 5% of the time.”
Then there’s outside the stations. There are major roadworks at both Karanga-A-Hape and Te Waihorotiu. Roads, footpaths, cycleways, and landscaping is still being done, as well as some of the exterior cladding.
In six months, all this work - both internal and external - should be complete: “We're hoping to finish works across the three stations by the end of 2025,” Brockie says.
The tunnels
Work on building the dual tunnels finished at the beginning of 2023, followed by the installation of rail tracks, overhead electrification, cable trays, access walkways, and emergency exits.
The first test train crawled through the tunnel at 5km/h in February this year, followed by hundreds of further test trains at increased speeds. KiwiRail’s CRL Programme Director Bevan Assink says there’s still a fair bit of testing to go.
“We've had to go through the whole certification of the rail systems: the track network, the overhead lines, the signalling system, the comms and radios and systems and everything. And now we're right into the dynamic testing,” he says.
The dynamic testing is done in stages and involves numerous scenarios with trains in that part of the network.
“The first stage of that is called ‘5A’ which is the interface between the train and the physical assets. It’s making sure the tracks perform as they should, the signalling system performs as it should, the overhead power performs as it should. So we're validating the train and the physical infrastructure interfaces.
“We’re now moving into ‘5B’ which is now looking at degraded mode. So what happens when we have an incident? How do we manage those events? We start doing desktops then live simulations, and then running with more trains.
“Stage six is the emergency scenarios where we’ll have simulations for a train on fire. How does that get managed within the network? Given this is our first deep underground metro station and tunnel system, we've got all these new procedures that need to be validated, new people who need to be brought in and trained and deemed competent.”
The final seventh stage will see the link stress tested with peak passenger numbers to see how the trains, stations, and systems handle it.
All of these need to be done before they can take passengers.
The partnerships
Adding the CRL to the existing network has meant the current partnership of entities that run Auckland’s metro rail network needs to be supercharged.
It’s essentially a coalition between three players, once the project has been handed over by City Rail Link Ltd:
KiwiRail will own and manage the actual rail network infrastructure, including the tunnels. It also controls the trains on the tracks.
Auckland Transport is the operator of the metro system and owns the trains - called ‘rolling stock’ - as well as the stations. It runs the timetable (of which there will be big changes to both bus and train services) and payment systems.
Auckland One Rail has been contracted by Auckland Transport to manage the stations and is responsible for training and employing most of the train drivers.
“It's a collaboration,” says Assink. “There are three partners all working together and that has to work hand-in-glove, essentially”.
To make this easier, the three entities have built a new base: AROC.
AROC - Auckland Rail Operations Centre
Off Great South Road in Ellerslie is the new Auckland Rail Operations Centre, or AROC. This is the control room for Auckland’s rail network and each of the three partners is based here to ensure it runs smoothly.
“Before this, Auckland’s metro network used to be run out of Wellington,” says Assink. “Now we’re all under one roof, in a building that’s at maximum earthquake code, and we have a setup here with lots of redundancy.”
AROC has different pods where each entity is based. All of them have big screens to monitor stations, the status of the network, and to ensure things run smoothly.
There are a handful of empty desks and screens which are staffed when there are major sporting or cultural events or when there’s a major accident. There’s also space to allow Wellington’s metro network to be controlled from Auckland if it goes offline.
“The CRL has actually triggered a whole-of-network change to allow us to keep an eye on all the train movements around the new network and run through the testing of that. So it's actually been quite a wider scale work than just the project itself,” Assink says.
The state of the existing network
Auckland commuters will be well aware of the ongoing closures to existing lines within the network. The CRL is to thank/blame for this.
“The CRL has been designed as a high performance network, and it allows us to run a lot more frequency of trains. But the wider network was never designed for that - it was designed in the 1800s for freight,” Assink says.
“That's where we've had to put a lot more time, effort and investment in lifting the whole standard of the wider network to make sure we don't strand the City Rail Link.”
The upgrade started a few years ago and has seen large portions of track ripped up and re-installed with stronger foundations to cope with higher train frequency.
It’s seen the whole network close over numerous long weekends and holiday periods and Assink says that will continue into next year.
There’s also the problems more frequent passenger services will cause for freight train movements.
“Part of that was looking at de-conflicting some of the freight movements from the passenger movements. So we looked at adding a third main line through Auckland from our major port through to Wiri. There's been lots of different projects that have needed to feed into the overall CRL package to unlock the network,” Assink says.
New trains and training new drivers
Auckland Transport has 23 new Mexico-built three-car trains on order, of which nine are in use already and three are in testing. The addition of these will take the fleet to 95 units, which is a 27% increase.
The 72 existing trains are also in the process of being upgraded with new lights, door sensors, internet routers, and USB ports.
More trains allows for more frequent services. But it also means there’s a need for more drivers so Auckland Transport’s installed a simulator at its Wiri office and that’s where Auckland One Rail is putting recruits through their paces.
“Approximately 160 new train and station staff are being recruited to manage the new Network,” says Mark Lambert, Auckland Transport’s Group Manager of Rail Services.
“This includes around 55 new train drivers and managers, 15 customer service staff, and 56 maintenance staff to clean and ensure the longevity of the stations and assets”.
Given the City Rail Link is underground, Lambert says all existing and new drivers are being trained in various specific emergency scenarios too like fires, breakdowns, and other emergencies.
The next dilemma: Removing 42 level crossings
Level crossings won’t hold back the opening of the CRL, but they’ll become problematic for Auckland Transport once that part of the network is open.
Why? Because there will be such an increase in train frequency.
Ten will close before the link opens - nearly all pedestrian crossings - but a further 42 are flagged for removal or upgrade after the CRL opens. Auckland Transport’s looking at how to deal with these.
“Level crossings increase safety risk and make travel time longer,” Lambert says. “If we don’t remove level crossings, people may take more risks and barrier arms will be down more often, increasing congestion and impacting economic productivity.”
Caution over locking in an opening date
Both Assink and Brockie are cautious about having a specific date they want the CRL up and running by. The reason: they don’t want to open it before it’s ready.
So all they’re saying is: It’ll be ready some time in 2026.
“You don't want to deliver something that's half baked,” Assink says. “You don't want to go to all this expense and effort and all that to then deliver something which is undercooked and not worthy.
“A lot of people have spent a lot of time and effort trying to get this right, and we want to make sure we nail it,” he says.
Brockie says people’s patience will be rewarded: “Look, it'll be worth it. It's going to transform Auckland”.