Railroaded: CRL snub ‘lacked grace’

Friday, 8 August 2025

Staff say 'tough decisions' had to be made about who to invite to the historic CRL passenger reveal, with Auckland councillor Mike Lee evidently not making the cut.

What was supposed to be a historic occasion has instead been mired in “petty politics”, according to a councillor, who claims he was snubbed from a grand reveal of Auckland’s City Rail Link (CRL) after expressing critical views around its long-delayed opening.

Cabinet ministers, boffins of all stripes from Treasury, Ministry of Transport, council agencies, mana whenua and the mayor’s office all got the first ride on the supercity’s new $5.5 billion train set on Friday - but there was a notable absence.

Waitematā councillor Mike Lee told The Post the first he heard of the event was from the council’s infrastructure director Barry Potter, after the fact.

Auckland’s $5.5 billion city rail link rolled out a test run with 70 passengers including top politicians. The new underground stations impress, but delays and unfinished business remain before the public can ride next year.

Odd he thought, given the years of disruption his city centre ward had endured in service of the promised “game changer” infrastructure project.

“They cut me out, but that’s the least of my problems and the problems we are facing in Auckland today,” Lee said.

On the eve of the event, public relations staff from Auckland Transport (AT) told The Post that for “health and safety reasons” there was a firm limit on the number of attendees.

“Tough” decisions were having to be made - although Prime Minister Chris Luxon told TV crews his wife, Amanda, would have certainly been there, if not for a nasty infected finger.

Prime Minister Christopher Luxon says his wife Amanda would have loved to attend, but an infected finger prevented her from doing so.

For Lee, AT’s selectivity was a bit rich given he had initiated the business case in 2010, long before AT even existed.

“You think they would have invited the local councillor, … [But], that’s the type of people who run Auckland right now and you couldn’t say it was particularly a golden age for the city.”

Lee said it was not the first time he’d been left off the guest list, having previously had to “gatecrash” openings in his own ward. He suspected it was more to do with the influence of politics than head counts.

It was all laughs for those lucky enough to attend CRL’s first passenger train ride on Friday.

“The mayor [Wayne Brown] lacks grace and unfortunately that’s not all he lacks.”

An excited Brown said on social media: “To be honest, you’d have had a better chance of winning Lotto than landing a seat!”

Long-standing cafe Midnight Express closed its door earlier in 2025 blaming disruption caused by CRL.

A spokesperson said there was no direction from Brown or his office to snub Lee, while a statement from CRL said the guest list was a group effort with the council, AT and KiwiRail.

Lee said was a “lack of generosity of spirit there”: “This is supposed to be something for all of Auckland, putting aside personalities and petty politics. It should have been for all the players to be invited.”

Even more galling, he said, was CRL’s refusal to open the lines to Aucklanders, after he had lobbied to bring it forward amid a “hollowing out” of the CBD.

Only a carefully selected guestlist was able to attend City Rail Link's first passenger train ride due to 'healthy and safety' concerns.

A series of high profile closures of businesses, including the Smith and Caughey’s department store, have attributed their demise to disruption caused by CRL works, with those remaining holding on for thousands of promised passengers and patrons.

“It’s already years behind schedule … they should be trying to get it open before the city centre dies and the potential patronage melts away,” Lee said.

Winston Peters refusing to wear a hi-vis vest, arguing with CRL boss Patrick Brockie.

Lee said his understanding was that CRL and AT were aiming opening in April 2026 - long past the original 2024 date - but even that’s looking unlikely.

“We’ll be lucky to get it by the end of 2026 from what I’m hearing,” he said.

At Friday’s event, CRL chief executive Patrick Brockie told dignitaries “more work was needed to ensure safety and reliability” on top of the 1600 test train journeys to date.

“Getting this right for Aucklanders is our utmost priority,” he said, adding that crews were working “as quickly as possible”.

But, Lee isn’t buying that: “If the Prime Minister and the parliamentarians and the mayor can ride up and down, so should the people of Auckland who are paying for it.”

And the councillor wasn’t the only dignitary dubious of the safety message with Rail Minister Winston Peters refusing to put on a high vis when asked to by Brockie.

“No mate. I’m going on a train ride. I’m not putting on stuff I don’t need,” Peters said.

“What’s wrong with our society? Everyone just falls into place, we’ve got yellow cones over all the roads, no one is benefiting from it, everyone’s being delayed, and everybody accepts it.”