Explainer: How City Rail Link will redraw Auckland's train lines

1News

2 days ago

A new map shows how Auckland's train lines will be redrawn when the City Rail Link opens in 2026, but an exact opening date for the project remains elusive.
Questions remain about the $5.5 billion project after Auckland Transport (AT) revealed a finalised rapid rail and bus network diagram yesterday, showing how train lines would change with the new 3.5km CRL tunnel and two underground stations.
Speaking at a media conference, AT chief executive Dean Kimpton wouldn't give an opening date more specific than sometime in 2026, but which was a "commitment".
The three new rail lines will carry geographic names and two-letter codes. (Source: 1News/Justin Hu)
"A dollar for every time that question is asked," he said, adding, "we don't want to promise a date until we're ready, but you can be sure, when we know, you will know."
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Construction work was still finishing on the new CRL stations along with KiwiRail track rebuild work across rail lines, Kimpton said, while 165 new staff were being trained up.
Next year's expected completion will also come after five years of disruption to Auckland trains due to planned efforts to renew rail foundations and other major track issues.
The first test train travels through Auckland's City Rail Link at Karanga-a-Hape station. (Source: City Rail Link)
When will we know the opening date?
So, when will Aucklanders know a date for the opening of the city's biggest infrastructure project? "We won't be in a position to confirm anything until next year," Kimpton said.
While officials were previously known to have been targeting early 2026, bosses have been reluctant to give a specific date in public, sticking to a broad timeframe instead.
Dean Kimpton speaks to media in August 2025. (Source: 1News/Justin Hu)
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An AT retail leasing document from earlier this year indicated an opening between February and April 2026, but comments from officials at a council meeting two months ago suggested the new system would probably be opening closer to autumn.
Covid-era lockdown delays were blamed after a publicised opening was delayed two years from 2024, with the budget also ballooning to over $5 billion.
KiwiRail programme director Bobby Fischer said 1600 test runs had been made through the tunnels already. "There's a significant amount of testing that goes on, before it will be open to the public, just to make sure it is safe and ready to go."
KiwiRail programme director Bobby Fischer (Source: 1News)
Where will the new lines go via the CRL?
Existing train lines — Eastern, Western, Southern and Onehunga — will give way to new cross-city routes that route through the underground CRL tunnels and no longer terminate at the downtown Britomart station, which has been re-named to Waitematā.
A new station in the midtown area, Te Waihorotiu, will be close to the Sky Tower, Civic Centre and the universities. The other new underground station, Karanga-a-Hape, will be located just off Karangahape Road, towards the south of the city centre.
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A render of a train platform at the future Karanga-a-Hape station. (Source: City Rail Link)
A fully rebuilt Mt Eden station, renamed Maungwhau, in Eden Terrace on the city fringe, is also opening along with the other CRL stations.
'East-West line'
The biggest line change will merge existing Eastern and Western lines into a single "East-West line", allowing direct travel from Swanson to Manukau without changing trains.
The route will sweep from West Auckland stations through the central isthmus, pass through the CRL, then continue via Ōrākei to Ōtāhuhu, before terminating in Manukau.
"You could be shopping at Lynn Mall, and if they don't have what you want, jump on an East-West train straight to Sylvia Park to see if they do," Kimpton said.
Train at Ōrākei station, Auckland in 2017 (file image) (Source: istock.com)
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Trains from the west will no longer reverse out of Newmarket station to reach the city, saving commuters nearly 10 minutes. But the more direct CRL route into the city means they'll now skip Grafton — near Auckland Hospital — and Newmarket itself. This means some passengers will need to change trains when they don't have to today.
'South-City line'
Those currently using the Southern line will see changes too, with the new "South-City line" looping around the underground stations before returning south to terminate at Ōtāhuhu. Passengers will likely want to check the destination boards, as some trains will go clockwise and others go counter-clockwise around city stations.
Interior of an Auckland passenger train (file image). (Source: Unsplash/Nguyen)
Three new rural stations south of Papakura also remain under construction.
The third line, the "Onehunga-West line", will connect Henderson and Onehunga without going through the city centre. It will run less frequently than the other two main lines, and initially will only operate between Henderson and Maungawhau outside of rush hour.
How often will the trains run?
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During rush hour, most lines will see trains at least every eight minutes or better — up from ten minutes today — with shorter intervals where multiple lines overlap, such as inside the CRL tunnels, where gaps between trains are as short as every four minutes.
The new map. (Source: Supplied)
Exceptions include the half-hourly Onehunga line and some "counterpeak" trains on the western section of the new East-West line, which will become slightly less frequent than they are now, affecting people travelling in the opposite direction to peak commuter flows.
For example, heading out of the CBD towards the western suburbs in the morning rush hour, or vice versa, heading from the west towards the city in the afternoon peak.
Outside of rush hour, trains will run every 15 minutes during the day and at weekends, compared to the existing 20-minute intervals. After 8pm, rail lines will remain every 30 minutes, with officials pointing to a need for continued rail maintenance windows at night.
A finalised timetable was expected in the next few months, officials said.
What are the new lines called?
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The three new rail lines will carry geographic names and two-letter codes.
AT said the letter codes — "E-W' for East-West, "O-W" for Onehunga-West, and "S-C" for South-City — will be prominently displayed on maps and station signage.
A floor print-out of the new Auckland network map. (Source: 1News/Justin Hu)
Several different ideas were considered in the process for naming the new train lines, including the geographic names, a simple numbering system — similar to the ones used in Sydney or New York — and two which would have incorporated te reo.
Under one suggestion, lines would have been named after native New Zealand birds, while another would have used bilingual colour coding, with English shorthand codes followed by te reo names, such as "Kākāriki/Green Line" or "Whero/Red Line".
An internal briefing showing other naming conventions considered for Auckland's train lines. (Source: The Research Agency/Auckland Transport)
Kimpton said the final line names were chosen after research.
'A lot of thought has been put into the names, and I've sat in on some of the customer workshops where we've tested naming,' he said.
"There were quite a few options put up, but we felt that East-West, South-City, Onehunga-West were naming conventions, along with the colours that best communicated intuitively what line people were on, or what line they needed to catch."