Is the $5.5 billion City Rail Link opening in September?
Friday, 22 May 2026
ANALYSIS: When will the City Rail Link open?
It is the question that has been on the lips of Aucklanders and transport aficionados nationwide for years, and has become more frequent as 2026 continues to roll on.
That’s because Transport Minister Chris Bishop’s answer to the question has been that the $5.5 billion rail project will open in the “second half of this year”.
For some this has not sufficed.
City Rail Link (CRL) is New Zealand’s largest infrastructure project featuring two underground stations, shortening travel times and increasing capacity on Auckland’s train network.
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The Spinoff recently wrote that the opening could be sooner than people think, while sports commentator Martin Devlin posted on X that people had noticed posters in the underground stations which suggested CRL will be open in time for the All Blacks vs Ireland game at Eden Park on July 18.
At The Post we have been searching the political tea leaves for more clues and detail on the date.
In the course of those investigations, a document that could shed some light was released by the Ministry of Transport under the Official Information Act (OIA).
The note from late February shows scheduled monthly meetings between the Transport Minister, Finance Minister, Auckland Mayor and Deputy Auckland Mayor about the CRL. The document shows those scheduled meetings abruptly ending in September.
Parts of the document were redacted under the provisions of free and frank expression, privacy and commercial sensitivity under the OIA.
Transport minister responses to the September question
On the back of this, on Thursday afternoon The Post asked Bishop “does September sound like an appropriate month for the CRL opening?”
The minister paused for five seconds, taking a large breath before tisk tisking and saying “goodness me … second half of the year is the time we’re tracking to and uh, we’re on track for that as I understand it … second half of the year”.
That answer was followed by another question. “Do you think September sounds about right?”
“I think the second half of the year sounds like a good time to open the CRL and that’s what we are tracking towards, and we will soon, hopefully soon be able to have a little bit more clarity around um, around exactly when.”
He said the apprehension about telling the public the official date was because he did not “want to get it wrong”.
“I am not saying this is what it is but imagine if I said you know it’s going to open on like you know October 18 or something then it wasn’t you’d be all on at me saying ‘you got it wrong, you were too premature’.”
In an effort to find out more The Post also went to Auckland Mayor Wayne Brown’s office who said “the mayor has been advised that the City Rail Link will open in the second half of 2026”.
While it’s not fully clear when the CRL will open, given time continues to march on we will literally have to get some more details on it “soon”.
But September is looking a pretty good bet.