City Rail Link
The City Rail Link is the largest infrastructure project ever to be undertaken in New Zealand
- The City Rail Link is the largest infrastructure project ever to be undertaken in New Zealand
- The CRL is a 3.45km twin-tunnel underground rail link up to 42 metres below the city centre transforming the downtown Britomart Transport Centre into a two-way through-station that better connects the Auckland rail network
- It includes a redeveloped Mount Eden Station, where the CRL connects with the North Auckland (Western Line) and two new underground stations - one mid-town at Wellesley and Victoria Streets provisionally named Aotea and one uptown at Mercury Lane, off Karangahape Road.
- It will extend the existing rail line underground through Britomart, to Albert, Vincent and Pitt Streets, and then cross beneath Karangahape Road and the Central Motorway Junction to Symonds Street before rising to join the western line at Eden Terrace where the Mount Eden Station is. Mount Eden Station will be significantly re-developed
- In May 2022, CRL announced the names for the new stations as gifted by its Mana Whenua Forum. The names are Maungawhau (currently Mt Eden) Karanga a Hape (presently Karangahape), Te Wai Horotiu (Aotea) and Waitematā (currently Britomart, New Zealand Geographic Board Ngā Pou Taunaha o Aotearoa is the national place naming authority responsible for adopting official place names. It is also the correct authority to name New Zealand’s train stations and will consider the request from Auckland Transport and CRLL Ltd,
- The downtown station, presently called Britomart, in the previous heritage Chief Post Office building, re-opened on 6 April 2021 after being closed for four years. This was to create twin rail tunnels 14 metres beneath the Chief Post Office extending from the existing Britomart train platform and under lower Queen Street
- The project’s tunnel boring machine (TBM) building the underground railway has completed its first of the twin tunnels between Mt Eden and midtown Auckland. It has now begun building the second tunnel, setting out from Mt Eden.This should be completed sometime spring 2022.
- The TBM is named after Dame Whina Cooper is a multi-tasker. The 130-metre-long TBM completes three jobs: cutting the spoil, removing the spoil by conveyor built to the surface, and installing the concrete segments - 14,735 in total – that will line the twin rail tunnels. There is a crew of 12 working each shift on the TBM, supported by another team of around 12 above ground
- The CRL is jointly funded by the Government and Auckland Council
- City Rail Link Ltd which came into being on 1 July 2017, has full governance, operational and financial responsibility for the CRL, with clear delivery targets and performance expectations. The project 's total cost will be within a funding envelope of $3.4b
