The City Rail Link (CRL) is an underground rapid transit system that forms an integrated part of the overground Auckland commuter railway network. It consists of pair of tunnels underneath Auckland's city centre, extending the North Island Main Trunk railway line from its former terminus at Waitematā Station (formerly Britomart) to a junction with the North Auckland Line at Maungawhau Station.
Planned since 2013, construction began and included two underground stations serving the city centre: Te Waihorotiu near Aotea Square and Karanga-a-Hape near Karangahape Road. Waitematā Station was converted from a terminus station into a through station, and Mount Eden station was replaced by Maungawhau Station, a station with four platforms to serve as an interchange between the CRL line and the Western Line.
The CRL is an adapted version of previous proposals to improve rail access to Auckland's city centre with the first proposals dating back to the 1920s. The increase in rail patronage in Auckland during the early 21st century, particularly after the opening of Britomart Transport Centre in 2003, led to renewed interest in the scheme. The 2012 Auckland Spatial Plan highlighted the CRL as the most important transport investment for Auckland and the project has enjoyed strong public support. Its planning and funding have also been the subject of controversy.
In June 2013, the central government announced its support for the project with a construction commencement date of 2020, four years later than Auckland Council's preferred start date of 2016. Prime Minister John Key announced in January 2016 that central government funding for the project had been confirmed, allowing Auckland Council to start construction of the main works from 2018, with central funds guaranteed to flow from 2020.
Preliminary stages of construction, including the relocation of stormwater infrastructure and tunnelling in the vicinity of the Commercial Bay redevelopment, began in 2016. Contracts for tunnel boring and construction of the CRL stations were awarded in July 2019, with major works beginning soon after.
Test trains commenced on 13 February 2025. In June 2026, the completed City Rail Link infrastructure was officially handed over from the Link Alliance to Auckland Transport and KiwiRail. It opened to the public on 13 September 2026.
Initial proposals 1920s Morningside Deviation An early version of the City Rail Link emerged in 1918 when the New Lynn Town Board proposed a tunnel to Morningside. Serious planning schemes occurred as early as 1924.History of Auckland City – Chapter 4 (from the Auckland City Council website. Accessed 7 June 2008.) The route was to be graded at 1 in 100 to 1 in 80 and the tunnel was initially estimated at length and at £0.6 million. The plan was abandoned in 1930, when it was costed at £1 million. In 1936, Dan Sullivan the Minister of Railways argued that the scheme – then known as the 'Morningside Tunnel' or the 'Morningside Deviation', after the proposed southern portal location – would cost approximately £1 million, with another £1 million required for the electrification of the network. He expressed doubts that the tunnel would ever pay purely from a rail point of view, though he acknowledged that there might be other benefits and wider aspects to take into account. The Halcrow report in 1950 proposed a tube sized tunnel to Morningside.
1970s rapid rail system A 1965 proposal resulted in a June 1969 plan for a $12m single line loop, to run from Beach Road to stations near the Town Hall, a Hobson Street bus interchange and in Shortland Street. It was referred by the Minister of Works for further study. The 1970s plans envisaged a loop connecting with Newmarket as part of a major rapid transit scheme proposed by Dove-Myer Robinson, mayor of Auckland City at the time. Two main stations were proposed: one downtown in the vicinity of the Queen Street/Shortland Street intersection, and a second midtown between Queen Street and Mayoral Drive, about halfway between Aotea Square and Albert Park. A third city station was to be built at Karangahape Road, but this would have been a stop on the Western Line only. The plan was undermined by Council staff, criticised by academics and opposed by the New Zealand Town Planning Institute, before finally being rejected in 1976 by the Muldoon National government, which considered it to be too costly.Chapter 2 – City Takes Control 1959–1995 (from the Britomart Transport Centre website. Accessed 6 September 2008.)
An alternative plan was put forward by Auckland City Council planners in 1979, involving an overhead railway from the then Beach Road railway station to the Britomart bus station (today, site of Waitematā railway station). Auckland Mayor Sir Dove-Myer Robinson noted the central government had just spent $33 million for new Wellington suburban trains (the EM class Ganz-Mavag units) and the overhead railway scheme would "cost considerably less while providing a far greater potential." The Auckland Regional Authority supported the plan, although wanted to see more work done on a ground option as well.
History
2000s rail revival / Britomart In 2004, Auckland City Council prepared preliminary plans for an underground railway connecting Britomart Transport Centre to the Western Line in the vicinity of Mount Eden railway stationAuckland’s rail network tomorrow: 2016 to 2030 (from the ARTA, August 2006) and incorporating three new stations: near Aotea Square, Karangahape Road and the top of Symonds Street. The project would bring most of the city centre within a short walk of a station and increase the number of people living within a 30-minute train trip of the city centre by around 370,000.
The decision to electrify Auckland's rail network brought the tunnel back into focus as the key next step for developing Auckland's rail network. Estimates for the project's cost were around NZ$1.5billion (or up to $2.4 billion according to other estimates), taking 12–16 years to plan and build.Following the money – e.nz magazine, IPENZ, January/February 2007
On 5 March 2008, Auckland Regional Transport Authority (ARTA) announced preliminary planning for a tunnel between Britomart and Mount Eden, beneath Albert Street and including underground stations near Wellesley Street and Karangahape Road, with the Wellesley Street station, under the surface, potentially being larger and seeing more passengers than Britomart (projections of up to 7,700 per peak hour).Huge underground rail station in mid-town plan – The New Zealand Herald, Friday 1 August 2008 By October 2008 ONTRACK said that it had reached an agreement in principle with the owners of Westfield Downtown (later rebranded as Downtown Shopping Centre) to allow the tunnel route to thread through the foundations of a proposed redevelopment of the site.Tunnel deal brings rail loop step closer – The New Zealand Herald, 14 October 2008
In 2009 and 2010, the discussion on the future tunnel gained much more prominence, with both candidates for the Mayoralty of the new Auckland Council, John Banks and Len Brown, making the tunnel part of their election platforms. Banks noted that it attracted cost-benefit returns much higher than many similar-sized roading projects, and would provide much enhanced, integrated access to the city centre. Brown also strongly supported the tunnel, and further, a rail connection to Auckland Airport, as part of a package of measures to double public transport patronage within 15 years. New Zealand's transport minister in 2010, Steven Joyce, warned Aucklanders not to engage in wishful thinking. The Minister's comments regarding the City Rail Link (and other rail investment), set in the context of the government's focus on delivering Roads of National Significance, has been considered politically risky – going against widespread opinion in Auckland that was in favour of better public transport. After ongoing and sustained lobbying by Brown to get central government support, the nickname "Len's loop" developed.
2010s designation and design In March 2010, KiwiRail/ARTA selected a preferred route with three stations: "Aotea" (beneath Albert Street between Victoria Street and Wellesley St), "K Road" (beneath Pitt Street adjacent to Karangahape Road) and "Newton" (beneath upper Symonds Street between the Khyber Pass Road/Newton Road intersection and the New North Road/Mt Eden Road intersection), at an estimated cost range of $1 billion to $1.5 billion. In May 2011 the Government noted that after reviewing an initial business case for the project, it was unconvinced of the economic benefits of the tunnel. Minister of Transport Steven Joyce noted that he would not stand in the way of Auckland continuing planning and route designation work – if Auckland paid for it. In June 2011 Auckland Council voted to approve $2 million for planning and route protection for the tunnel, with Auckland Transport, rather than KiwiRail, undertaking the process.
In March 2012, Auckland Council decided to bring forward spending from the 2012–2013 budget, in order to continue progress protecting the eventual route. $6.3 million was spent on work including geotechnical surveys, utility and building assessments, contaminated site reports and rail operations modelling and $1.7m towards providing a revised business case, requested by the government.Auckland Council Media release, Progress on City Rail Link welcomed
In July 2012, as part of the works around designating the route, Auckland Council released footprints for four stations. This included designation space for a not previously considered station on the current Western Line, just west of Dominion Road. This station would serve as an interchange station for passengers wanting to travel east in the Newmarket direction, in case the tunnel was built without an "Eastern Link" at the southern end that would allow trains exiting it to turn east. The station was later dropped by Auckland Transport and the "Eastern Link" retained in the route protection documents.
In June 2013, the central government announced its support for the project, albeit with a later construction start date of 2020 rather than 2015. The government stated it would consider an earlier start date if Auckland's CBD employment and rail patronage growth hit thresholds faster than projected rates of growth.
On 8 July 2013, following the 10-year anniversary of the opening of the Britomart Transport Centre, it was announced that Auckland Council and the new owners of the Downtown Shopping Centre had agreed to discuss building a section of tunnel under the mall during a redevelopment planned for 2016–17. The section would be up to 100 metres long.
On 1 August 2014, Auckland Transport announced a significant design change to the project, dropping the underground Newton Station in favour of a significant upgrade to Mount Eden Station. This change would save construction costs of $124 million, require fewer properties to be bought by Auckland Transport and in the long term save operational costs, with total savings being over $150 million. In addition, the change would allow Mount Eden Station to be connected to the CRL, which previously bypassed it, and would separate the east–west junctions, meaning that rail lines would not need to cross each other. The Mount Eden CRL platforms would now be built in an open-air trench, similar to that at New Lynn Station.