Years of dust and detours: The businesses clinging on for the City Rail Link
Sunday, 28 June 2026
Nearly a decade of road closures, dust and lost foot traffic has pushed Auckland's city-centre and K Rd businesses to the brink. As the City Rail Link finally nears opening, the owners who survived are divided on whether it will be worth the wait. Amelia Wade and Stewart Sowman-Lund report.
It’s 10.30am on a very wet Wednesday and a man with nowhere else to go is in Shobhana Ranchhodji’s flower shop on the doorstep of SkyCity.
He’s yelling at her. He’s not menacing, but it certainly feels unpleasant.
“Go tell it to the City Mission,” Ranchhodji tells him.
“I try but they give me a cup of tea and don’t give me anywhere to stay,” he replies.
He gives up and presses on while Ranchhodji seems unfazed. Not 10 minutes later, another rough sleeper - this time a woman - comes in and slowly moves around the shop.
“Let me know if I can help you,” Ranchhodji calls out.
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This is their new normal and Ranchhodji piles the blame on what’s been built many metres below her shop floor.
Roma Blooms, on Auckland’s Victoria St West, has survived nearly a decade of disruption caused by the construction of the $5.5 billion City Rail Link (CRL) and Ranchhodji is still angry - that its disruption has seen Aucklanders avoid the city. In its place she’s observed antisocial behaviour proliferate.
Small businesses near the stations have been on the brink as they’ve endured road and footpath closures, sustained underground tunnelling, noise, dust and sewer smells which have turned people off visiting their stores and restaurants.
Even though the CRL is still likely months away from opening, with its station doors open and lights on this week, businesses are struggling to hold on.
Earlier this month, the Mexican Cafe - one of the city’s longest-running eateries - was put up for sale by its owner of 43 years, Bruce Glover, who is looking to retire.
He said the cafe had endured significant downturns in revenue, stress and staff burnout but nonetheless keeping it afloat as the CRL opening was delayed - first in 2021 then in 2024.
“I’m getting a little bit tired of waiting, basically. I want to get on with life,” he said.
Glover hopes the new owners will have a roaring business.
The diner is just 30m from Te Waihorotiu Station, which is projected to be the country’s busiest train station when it opens later this year.
Ranchhodji is sceptical of Auckland Transport’s projections that the CRL will bring more than 18,000 passengers per hour into the city centre during peak times and that they’ll see any of the benefits.
“Where are the extra people coming from? There’s going to be the same amount of people, but where are the extras coming from? They’re just going to be distributed to the different stations, so a little bit here, a little bit there, a little bit here.”
She says city planners have had minimal engagement with affected businesses and questioned a number of their decisions - including why the Te Waihorotiu station needed three entrances.
She also didn’t agree with dimming the Sky Tower and Harbour Bridge light displays, which is being done over autumn months to prevent juvenile seabirds crash-landing inland and becoming grounded.
Ranchhodji wanted the CBD to be bustling.
“We need it to be vibrant, we need it to be loud, we need it to be full of the hustle and bustle. We need people to make noise. We can't have a quiet city, we can't have a dull city. We need it bright. We need people walking at night. We need the cars moving at night. We need so much happening in the city.”
A new bugbear is the cycleway which crosses Queen St and heads up Victoria St, past Roma Blooms.
It’s cut them off from loading zone access, meaning Ranchhodji has to lug their flowers down from near SkyCity and their rubbish up. It’s also seen food businesses nearby suffer because it’s made it tough for delivery drivers to pick up from their restaurants, amputating them from a key source of revenue while foot traffic is down, Ranchhodji says.
“You count how many delivery bays there are around here.”
The Sunday Star-Times couldn’t spot any.
“I'm for bicycles, but put them in a better place. This is right in the heart of retail business.”
The Fiddler Irish Bar owner Colm Cummins questioned whether the removal of parking and access could have been delayed until the CRL was fully operational and people had a genuine alternative to accessing the city centre.
Further work needed to be done in the city if the train stations were to be successful, he said.
“We’ve built world-class train stations, but people need a world-class city around them. Trains alone won’t bring people back if they don’t feel safe or if getting into town is too difficult or expensive,” he said.
Jenny Larking, head of growth and regeneration delivery at Auckland Council, said the cycleway was designed to be separated from traffic because it is two-way and provision was made for loading and services for local businesses in other nearby areas.
“Auckland’s city centre is on the cusp of a very exciting phase.”
PJ Singh owns the Coffee Club franchise a few doors up from Roma Blooms. He bought it in 2023 from the previous owner who was over the construction disruption to the business.
When Singh bought it, at the time the CRL opening date was 2024 - the next year. But soon after he took the keys, that opening was pushed out with the blame put on Covid.
It’s significantly altered his business plan.
He bought the business because he was an engineer at Beca and so knew the potential of the site once the CRL opens and thousands of commuters and tourists pass his cafe’s door every week.
“I'm always optimistic about the new developments, but sometimes I had few issues as well regarding the developments.”
Singh also likes the cycleway because during his time at Beca, he saw how popular they can become.
“When the City Rail Link’s open, when the Albert St and the empty buildings fill up and the offices come, then people tend to come by bike but it’s going to take a bit of a time.”
But for now, he’s doing it tough.
“It’s in a loss now, maybe I’ll break even in one or two years and after that it’s going to get better.”
Singh is ineligible for the $12 million Targeted Hardship Fund because it’s only available to businesses who were there before construction and he’s technically a new owner, despite the franchise being open long before tunnelling started.
Ranchhodji says they also haven’t seen any of the money from the fund.
With the CRL opening now in sight, she’s hoping agencies will include the affected businesses in the opening ceremonies after all they’ve been through - Auckland Transport says it is planning for local businesses and communities to be included.
Ranchhodji says it’s the least they could do.
“We gave up 11 years of our lives in front of this fricking thing.”
Karangahape Road
Auckland’s popular Karangahape Rd has also been in the spotlight for business closures, with one - record store Flying Out - describing a “perfect storm” of conditions that included the pandemic, a broader economic downturn, ongoing roadworks and construction of the CRL.
The vinyl shop is in liquidation, selling off remaining stock as it prepares to close its doors for the last time.
Meanwhile, down the road, beloved music venue Neck of the Woods also announced it would be closing - though a last-ditch Givealittle campaign has seen it raise $150,000 in an effort to keep the lights on.
Earlier this year, another popular music venue and bar Verona also went into liquidation.
One business that has managed to hold on is pounamu carving studio Oronegro Jewellery.
Jeweller Vicente Ovalle said he had considered closing 100 times over the past decade and described being on “the last legs of survival”.
But he was clinging on in the hopes of leaving “a legacy” for his children.
“I have a dream … [but] I’ve found it really difficult in the last 10 years, particularly in the last two years. I’ve deprived all my accounts, all my savings, all my credit cards. And it's really difficult, but hey, you know, at the end of the day if they say they're going to open the train station, OK, it's something to look forward to.”
With a detectable note of sarcasm in his voice, Ovalle, who has previously spoken out over antisocial behaviour around his store, said it had “only” been “10 years of waiting” for the CRL to open.
With the nearby Karanga-a-Hape Station now completed, the final countdown is on for the CRL to start carrying passengers. But Ovalle has his own theory on the wait, suggesting the opening had been held up by politicians waiting for a “perfect political mood” closer to the November election - an assertion rejected by the Government.
“In my humble opinion, it's just political now,” Ovalle said. “Either way, we hold on for another week, two weeks, three weeks, two months until it's the perfect photo opportunity to be able to open it. What is going on?”
Transport Minister Chris Bishop denied there was any political reason for the delay, telling the Sunday Star-Times: “Utter nonsense. We want it as open as much as anyone. We also want it to open safely and smoothly on day one.”
The CRL is expected to significantly increase the number of people moving through areas like K Rd and Albert St and increased foot traffic and improved connectivity is expected to support local businesses, he said.
Asked who he held responsible for the ongoing disruption, Ovalle said it was “hard to point fingers in one direction” but ultimately believed the Government had not been doing enough to support businesses to survive.
Jamey Holloway from the K Road Business Association said it was “really heartbreaking” to hear of businesses being forced to shut their doors.
“Trading conditions are really tough,” he said. “Karangahape is a place where Aucklanders come to connect, and so it's kind of a place for discretionary spending, and so when things tighten up it hits businesses hard, because you can't do without your staples, but people feel like they can do without their night out with a few drinks.”
He said there had been a range of challenges for local businesses, but that disruption from the CRL had compounded this.
“You have a situation where businesses are kind of on borrowed time. There are a lot of businesses doing it extremely tough,” he said.
Holloway said the CRL had been disruptive in various ways. Partly, that had been from construction, but also from changing the way the “city flows”.
“You have an old way that things function in terms of you've got your predictable parking and your traffic patterns and accessibility and then you remove those to be ready for new infrastructure and a new way of doing things,” he said.
“If you don't stage the timing of that correctly then you get what we're seeing now, which is people having to suffer a six [or] seven year gap between the old way of moving and the new way of moving, and for businesses that's incredibly damaging.”
Asked what support he had received from Auckland Council while there was disruption outside his store, Ovalle said: “Support… that’s a funny word to hear.”
“I [have] never seen anyone in the council coming to us and say, 'Hey, you know how you feel about this improvement?’”
Larking said a comprehensive engagement programme with businesses took place prior to and during construction and that businesses had several opportunities to give feedback on proposed designs, which led to enhancements to the project.
There was also a dedicated Small Business Support Programme, which included independent advisory services and grants, she said.
Along with disruption from construction, business owners told the Star-Times that antisocial behaviour had also been an issue, especially during the pandemic period.
One business owner, who did not wish to be named, said drugs were commonly being dealt in broad daylight - they were recently offered drugs at 2pm. Their concern was this may now be embedded in the community.
They claimed methamphetamine was brazenly being used by rough sleepers on K Rd, in full view of the public, like they were “having a coffee”.
Mark Lambert, Auckland Transport’s group manager rail services, said CRL stations would have dedicated security staff who would work alongside others to ensure everyone feels safe while using public transport.
CCTV cameras inside stations and in surrounding streets would be monitored through AT’s operations centre which would notify police of any incidents, he said.
Oronegro Jewellery’s Ovalle was hopeful things might improve this side of Christmas, but isn’t holding his breath. His concern is that it will take time for people to use the new infrastructure and change their behaviour.
“Only God knows what the future holds for us. It might be [a] really insignificant change, and then we’ll end up closing the business,” he said.
Others are more optimistic.
Whammy Bar owner Lucy MacRae, who also sits on the K Road Business Association board, acknowledged times have been tough, but believed the CRL was exciting for not just Auckland but the whole country.
“I think what we're going to need to do is teach people how to use public transport. We haven't had this before. I have done a walk through it - it feels like you're living in a proper city, and it's really exciting, so we just now need to utilise it,” she said.
MacRae said she was hoping the CRL would also be available for late night transport to support restaurants, venues and bars - not just 9-5 commuters.
Mathew Lark, owner of vintage retailer Smoove, said it had been challenging but that “you’ve just got to keep trucking along and adapting”.
While he had “definitely noticed a downturn” and businesses in the area closing, he described himself as “very upbeat” about the future of the iconic street.
He said there was a lot of optimism about what the CRL would mean for the precinct, but did not believe it would be a “golden bullet”.
“I mean, you've still got to have a reason to want to come to the street, you know. Like, ‘Oh, they got an extra 10,000 people available’. I'm not holding my breath. I'm not trading my business on that being the case.”