Great video CityMoose. As an Aucklander myself, the City Rail Link is going to be super transformative for us and it will hopefully lead to more demand for public transport. Your videos have also inspired me to make my own Urban Planning content covering Auckland so I can't thank you enough.
I’m from Wellington and visit Auckland periodically. I’m often dismayed at the negative attitude many Jafa’s give off over this tunnel, saying how they’ll never take it and how the CBD isn’t so popular now because people work from home and blah blah. This will be an evolutionary change for Auckland. Even if ridership doesn’t take off immediately; over time the CRL will become an essential part of Auckland and its functioning, no less than the harbour bridge. People will base their lives around it. Yeah it’s gone overbudget and will open 2-3 years later than was first promised, but Auckland would be so much more worse off had it never been started.
@@danieleyre8913sadly the construction is part of why 'the city isn't so popular' if that's even true. But that will clear up naturally. I've seen parts of the city really come back to life since COVID while others are still struggling, for various and different reasons. Albert Street has been struggling badly with the works and the double impact of COVID. When it should really be the second Queen Street. At least the Court house draws people in 😂
@@felaykasu That's part of the reason I've decided to make my own urbanist channel. I've been watching a lot of Urbanist channels over the last year or so and although these channels are great. None of them are from New Zealand so I decided to start a channel myself. I hope my channel will inspire more urbanist content from Auckland or other New Zealand cities.
@@TacspongeThe thing is that once construction works are entirely finished; the thing’s built and will be functioning for centuries to come. Within a decade or two: Ir will have become a shaping influence on how Auckland further develops and grows (or recedes, if that’s to be) in the future. Proximity to the stations will inevitably drive up the foot traffic and thus the commercial demand and value of nearby properties. I’m convinced that at some stage in the future: More railway tunnels will need to be dug through the volcanic fields beneath Auckland’s CBD. And most likely for metro system lines that won’t directly interface with the mainline CRL. So disruption will return, but this time the CRL will help keep businesses afloat.
Thanks for advocating for rail to Auckland's airport in your video. Having spent a number of years pushing for this in Auckland, it is nice to get more support for it from your channel!
Double track onehunga and have it run to the airport, that single line is annoying and cant run very frequent services. Would make the CRL OWL route a lot better. But this current govt only care about their stupid roading projects which just add to congestion problems like east-west link and mill road. Billions wasted on exasperating the problem. Look at the western ring route, specifically the NW, nearly double the lanes and its already back to a congested state 5-6 years later. They also failed to add the NW busway, which had some detailed designs ready to go, when it would have been far cheaper than today, but Gerry or Joyce (forget who) said no.
Why does Auckland airport especially need a railway link yet? It’s not _that_ big & busy an airport. Airport links in Brisbane & Perth are big financial drains propped up by the airport themselves. I think there are things of far greater priority for Auckland. Like a busway to the north-west, a busway to Howick, a second harbour crossing (and removal of the nippon clip-ons from the old bridge), plans to upgrade the northern busway to a light metro. I also think that a long term project to grade separate all lines and increase all network platforms to take 9 cars should be undertaken. And then extend the Onehunga line to Mangere, and possibly loop back to connect to Manukau.
@@ceasefirenow-eq9dy I would be happier if the Onehunga branch was double tracked, grade separated, extended across a bridge to Mangere… …but then DIDN’T go to the airport. But rather parallel to the motorway, and linked up with the Manukau branch.
The CRL isnt just transformational for linking rails between Waitematā/Britomart station with Maungawhau, but it was the catalyst for making improvements everywhere else in the network. Its THE reason for upgraded signalling and back end operations, KiwiRail adopting a new maintenance schedule, the 3rd main line for freight from Ōtāhuhu thru to Puhinui where the eastern and southern lines share tracks, and a even more upgrade projects down the pipeline. With Aucklands history of building roads and motorways at the expense of rail/public transit after WW2, its a bloody miracle it managed to get underway, even if its been 100 years overdue since the 1st city rail loop plan was ever proposed back in the 1920s
It is already impressive enough that Auckland went from no passenger rail in the 90s, to Diesel Multiple and Push Car Sets in the 2000s, to double-lined and electrified infrastructure with sleek modern trains and stations by the 2010s. Literally a decade of dramatic progress.
@@calmminds2065When was the last time you lived in Auckland? I’m from Wellington and visit Auckland every couple of years and it has been satisfying to see the massive progress made and undeniable increase in patronage up there.
Great vid, one thing to note about Auckland/NZs rail history is that the reason the 1930s station was moved out of the city was because all the services were regional in nature, there wasn't space in the CBD station to expand services and so the station was moved out of the CBD to increase platform capacity, people weren't commuting daily on the rail network from suburbs to the CBD in the way they are now. The 1930s station wasn't poor in concept at the time, Auckalnd was still small, and that job of commuter transport was fulfilled by the trams that covered most of Auckland 1930s uban area and also connected the 1930s station to the CBD (RIP Auckland tram network). That didn't really change until the 1990s when efforts to recover the network began and proper DMU commuter rail trains were introduced from Perth. This was done because at this point pretty much all the regional rail services had been killed off apart from the sections within Auckland now swelled urban area. Aucklands growth had now encompassed large parts of surrounding area, the only remaining regional services were acting as commuter services at this point, so they finally made the effort to properly service that need, which included bring trains back to the CBD.
The old Auckland railway station was ideal for intercity services with its close proximity to Grafton gully, Tamaki drive, and the waterfront. It was just pretty poor for an urban rail system terminus with its inconvenient distance to Queen st and most of the CBD, especially once the trams were gone. When it was begun at the end of the 1920s: The long term plan was to build the morningside deviation for urban rail and have that as the intercity terminus. If NZ ever gets its act together again for intercity rail within my lifetime: I frankly would not be in the least bit surprised if that grand old lady gets refurbished and reused for the intercity terminus, albeit it with connections to the urban rail network.
Bang on. The old station is indeed still ripe for resurrection as an Intercity terminus and bus interchange, but for one fly in the ointment - the Newmarket Branch link to the Britomart tunnel, which cuts off access between the old station and the NIMT. A light at the end of the tunnel, however - grade separation of Quay Park Junction would allow for reinstatement of terminal lines to the old station. The grim caveat - it MUST be planned for in full before some lunatic in power signs off building a stadium or port access tunnels or a hotel there. Place your bets now...
@@ashcustomworks it’s kind of crazy they set the tracks up like that, they had the whole land of east of beach road to redevelop and they didn’t make the alignment from Newmarket follow the curve of beach road into britomart, instead doing that crazy s curve that trains have to go so slowly around. I’d also love that old station to be redeveloped into an intercity hub, something to match the grandeur of wellington station at the other end.
@@finnmckenzie3024 I think they probably did that because there still needed to be functional rail and bus services for the duration of construction and a lot of buildings along that side that had to be retained or preserved. The original plans included things like light rail platforms for future use and they may not have been possible with a Beach Rd alignment. As it happens, they were never utilised, but that's not what was expected back then.
@@ashcustomworks keeping the lines operational makes sense but it hilarious that that’s the case but now they shut down Britomart every other week for maintenance, they shut down the eastern line for 8 months 😂
i feel like elevating the Onehunga Line and having be double tracked viaducts then run elevate along the motorway to the airport. Have it run every 15 minutes, still regional rail, and extend to downtown.
The easier route to the airport is a spur from the southern line near Manukau, running alongside 20B and into the domestic terminal, and then onto the international one.
The long term plan is to dig the Onehunga branch into a trench, grade separating it, replacing the current station with a 9-platform station, probably eliminate Te Papapa station, and then extend it to Mangere via a corridor built into the underside of the bridge. Personally: I would rather this extension didn’t goto the airport, and instead just continued to link with the Manukau branch. How many people in Mangere could commute to Manukau daily? For an airport connection: I would rather they just branched from the mainline near Wiri/Puhinui and ran an express shuttle to the surplus platform at Britomart.
@@philippefm I agree, and I've long wondered why this has never had the advocacy it deserves. $2B max, and connects the airport direct to all of rail-radius Auckland.
A spur off the southern line is now a dead duck. When it was still a contender there wasn't much in the way along that route, but the capacity limitations on the NIMT meant it was realistically a choice between a Manukau branch or an Airport branch. Obviously Manukau won out and rightly so, because there were other options for the airport - namely the Onehunga-Mangere route and the Roskill-Mangere route. These days there has been hundreds of millions, maybe billions in industrial and residential property development between Wiri and the airport. It's not simply going to be demolished for a rail line built on a shoestring budget with immense critical oversight by political, media and public forces. This should be a technical decision, but the aforementioned forces have made it possible for every opinionated idiot to play a part in sabotaging transport progress that doesn't personally suit them.
As a resident of the north shore we would love to have a rail link to the city . Not only to the city but also a west to north north to west connection aswell.
@@lukelukelulu The northern busway was designed to be convertible to a light rail or light metro system in the future. It was intended to run within the tunnels planned by the (Labour) government back in 2003-4 for the second harbour crossing to within the CBD and to interchange with the mainline.
Thanks for sharing another excellent video. I remember visiting Auckland back in 1970 and again in 1979. The main station was then in the Parnell area with a connecting trolley bus service to get into the city. Back then all trains terminated at that particular station. It is great seeing the progress that has happened there since.
New Zealand is about 30 years behind where they need to be. They stopped building things in the 90s and never started again, whether it was Labour or the Nationals. This might inspire them to actually do something
Doesn't help that we keep cycling between Nat and Lab all the time. Maybe if people voted either consistently or to a more radical party it would get done. But its just nat-lab-nat-lab-nat-lab for the last several decades. Consitent labour we would have finally got somewhere at this point but now a lot of what they are doing has been pulled. Greens they would have just done it. Nat just want to go back to the past with more useless roads.
NZ stopped building things in the mid-1980s. Because the country was bankrupt after 9 years of Muldoon and his mismanagement. Large scale construction didn’t begin again until the new millennium, when the Labour government under Clarke and with Cullen as finance minister got the economy back on track and there was again enough capital about to finance it.
@@ceasefirenow-eq9dyI don’t like the Nat’s one bit. But their record isn’t much worse than Labour’s. Labour was who build all of those motorways in the early years of the century. They didn’t do much the last time they were in.
@@danieleyre8913 yeah I don't disagree. But there was quite a bit locked in that was going to get delivered this year and so forth, but got canned by the nats. A lot of CERF projects for example. They did also have covid, so it was probably a bit risky to spend around that period. As for the past... I think both parties were quite in on roads because that wasn't very contended back then. But I don't think there is much excuse now with all the evidence out there these days.
@@ceasefirenow-eq9dy Yeah maybe Labour has woken up more to the potential for railways. But that last Labour government was full of ministers who were incompetent lightweights. I think they were people whom Jacinda owed favours to for getting her into power. Next time Labour gets in (hopefully next election once this Mickey-mouse coalition implodes); they need to have higher calibre people in cabinet. No more clowns like that Phil Twyford or that Kiri Allan woman.
@@gustavkierson7444 That is how everyone says it. In practise all these names will be abbreviated or referred to by all and sundry as "City" or whatever.
Good to see it will help the traffic problems on the North Shore (I jest). As a rate payer on the North Shore and there a lot of us (at least a 1/4 of the city) the lack of planning for rail or a second harbour crossing on the shore is a sham. Where is the Northern line. I was told it was on the 30 year plan which is good to know.
@@tonywood6163 I’m from Wellington and I strongly think that the second harbour crossing, two tunnels with three road lanes and one railway corridor each, and then take the nippon clip-on’s off of the old harbour bridge (and properly repair that truck collision damage), needs to be Auckland’s next big infrastructure project. And that they should be already beginning the early stages of it now, have it done and dusted by 2035. And have the Northern busway converted to a light metro.
There's a few crucial areas missing rail. Nothing out south-east either. They're currently slowly doing a bus project although funding for the last part of it has been cut. The entire region becomes a standstill if there's a car crash during rush hour. What is a 30min drive from Botany or Howick to Mt Wellington becomes a 2.5-3 hr drive. There's only 2 main arterial roads that everything else filters onto so it's mayhem if there's an accident as you literally cant go anywhere to get around it because any side roads end up back on the same 2 roads. Talk about terrible planning for growth out that way.
Adelaide south australia desperately needs this. The same issue auckland had where all the train terminate in the city with no room for throughput. But south australians don't vote for public transport because they live in an echo chamber of misinformation
I agree, Adelaide desperately needs a city rail loop but unfortunately that can't be built until all the lines are electrified (and preferably converted to standard gauge) as diesel trains can't run through underground tunnels.
@Gauger1212 if they did it just for gawler and seaford the two electrified ones it could work. Belair runs as normal not thru the tunnel and the outer harbor line group (grange, port dock) would all benefit from light rail but electrification is an alternative
@@tangiers365 true, but it's way better to do all the tunnels at once (including outer harbour and Belair) and even before that the network as a whole has so many smaller problems that need to be fixed before committing to a underground tunnel such as: lack of electrification, conversion to standard gauge, better stations, too many stations, better frequencies off-peak, level crossing removals, better feeder bus services, more transport oriented development and the Belair line as a whole (so indirect and slow).
No one needs it in Adelaide. Existing tree structure can double its capacity just by adding more cars in trains. Trains with 3 cars are not trains at all, its buses on very expensive rails. It would have sense to make something to east, covering all these eastern fat hamster nests and reducing everyday traffic jams on eastern city approach, but as it requires tunnels it is not viable financially.
@@Gauger1212double power? Diesel everywhere, network electrical in city tunnels? Especially for diesel-electric 3000? No, never heard... the problem is not with electrification but with skyhigh price tag for this hypothetical tunnel. In 1.2M poor city.
The 'new' Britomart/Waitemata station was built on the original Auckland central station site (1885 to 1930) and has 4 platforms. Platforms 1 and 4 will be used for City Rail Link (CRL) services from 2026 when the CRL officially becomes operational, leaving platforms 2 and 3 for additional peak metro services and inter-regional passenger rail services from Hamilton, Tauranga, Rotorua and Tokoroa. Electrification on the Southern Line has been extended to Pukekohe (starting from 25 January 2025) being the 'boarder' station for the Auckland and Waikato regions, allowing for additional passenger connections for Te Huia passenger train services between Hamilton and Auckland (The Strand) and Waikato regional buses to cater for rapid urban population growth in the northern areas of the Waikato region.
@@CB2C - It was in the NZ Herald when Pukekohe Station was officially opened by the Minister of Transport. Te Huia will be stopping at Pukekoke to set down/pick up passengers once Auckland Transport, Auckland One Rail and Kiwirail confirmed time slots which should be some time in October 2024, as Te Huia will be providing limited train services for Auckland Metro passengers living in the Pukekohe area until full Auckland Metro train services start in Jan 25.
@@navinthehouse4710The Kaimai tunnel is a massive bottleneck on the network as it is. It’s only single track, and yet it’s used non-stop through most days. The build up of diesel fumes inside the tunnel is horrendous. And it’s going to need a refurbishment some time in the next decade. They really need a big project to duplicate that tunnel (and get it properly ventilated, and set it up for electrification in the future) before thinking about bringing back passenger services between Tauranga and Auckland.
I look forward to seeing how this performs and whether that will then in turn allow the NZ government to do the light rail and extensions on the heavy rail network.
AT has done everything it can to slow car journeys with the hope that it will force drivers into public transport (or bikes!). Unfortunately public transport is not a viable option for many Aucklanders, plus it's completely unreliable and too expensive. There is not a big enough population to finance or maintain these pie-in-the-sky projects. Auckland is not- and will never be - London, Paris or even Melbourne.
@@Knitter-e7f what absolute rubbish. Many drive because it's the only thing that's decently catered for. AT roles out the red carpet for driving and not much else. Piecemeal cycling, PT better than it used to be but still problematic. People will generally use what is decently catered for. Roads have nearly 10 thousand KM, and parking along most of it. Surprise surprise that gets a big chunk of the mode share.
One impressive achievement of Japan's railways is that they show us that 3'6" track gauge (or 'Cape Gauge') railways can operate full electric train services which are fast enough and frequent enough to give travellers a good quality of service. In Europe, such a track gauge is seen as 'narrow gauge', suitable only for tourist and mountain railways. 'Cape gauge' started with the British engineers in the 1850s who built the Cape Colony (later Cape Province)'s railways to 3'6" gauge, and this gauge spead not only to Australia (QL and WA) and NZ, but to Japan when it began its modernisation with the Meiji Restoration of 1869. 'Cape gauge' is only 3" wider than the metre-gauge (3'3") that one finds on secondary lines in several European countries, but that extra 3" seems to make the difference between a 'narrow gauge railway' and 'main line railway' on which (fairly) high speeds are possible. NZ could do well to take much more advice from Japan on how to provide a good quality railway in the 21st Century on 3'6" gauge. (Only the Skinkansen high-speed trains in Japan operate on standard (4'8½") gauge.)
@@marc21091 Cape gauge is also used in all the former British colonies and all the former Portuguese colonies in Africa, in Honduras, in Costa Rica, in Taiwan, and in most of the Phillipines Archipelago.
As Auckland suburban is cape gauge, I wonder if it could ever operate with secondhand cape gauge trains from Japan, as has been done in some other countries, especially Indonesia.
@@Myrtone Yes, the electric multiple units used in Japan are often excellent. The Japanese 3'6" gauge network is electrified using several different systems, as it has developed over a century. See this excellent and detailed list: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Railway_electrification_in_Japan . 1500V DC was the standard when electrification started and until about 1960. Quite a number of lines are electrified at 20kV AC, and more recently electrified lines seem to have been all at 25kV. An unusual feature of Japan is that the country's national electricity supply grid is split between 50hZ (north) and 60 Hz (south) frequency, so AC electrified lines in each half operate at the relevant frequency. Conversion of 20kV units to 25kV, if bought for Auckland is probably simple, and similarly from 60Hz to 50Hz. 1500V DC units by contrast are probably not worth acquiring (except for Wellington, which has enough trains).
@@Myrtone Depends if the Japanese units also fit the loading gauge of the system. Phillipines usually gets any Japanese rolling stock that’s being retired but still has some years of service left in them.
@@marc21091 An idea would be to get refurbished secondhand units (that is refurbished during transfer of ownership), which would be converted upon refurbishment.
The Mt Eden station is progressing well. I am sure once the project is open, people will transition to using it quickly and in growing numbers. Much like what hsppened when they opened Britomart station. Pity the north shore hadnt been catered for at all. A massive population still relying on cars going over one old old bridge daily.
Same as south-east. There's nothing around Howick, Botany, Pakuranga, Flat Bush and that area has had rapid growth in the last 20 years. Weekday traffic is awful but the weekends used to be semi-alright but now it can be just as busy at the weekends too because there is just so many more people in that region now and only a couple of main roads for moving everyone around. One of the main roads between Manukau and Botany was designed with a strip down the middle for rail 25+ years ago and it's just developed into a grass verge with some giant palm trees dotted along the highway. That would've been a great transport option to at least connect to that other part of Auckland if it had actually happened.
@@Jakey4000 The Nat’s are well aware that investing in roads alone is a fool’s errand. But they are more interested in serving the lobbyists for the road transport lobby than doing the right thing for their nation. And the last labour government faffed about instead of making the slimy national’s accountable for this corruption. Stephen Joyce, Gerry Brownlee, Simon Bridges should all be in court defending charges of taking bribes.
@@navinthehouse4710 - lots of freight traffic is moved in the corridor between Auckland and Tauranga, so adding commuter trains would have required a minimum of a third line in lots a places. Not to say it can't be done, just that's a massive cost for an unknown return.
The CEO of the project recently resigned prior to the CRL's opening. The Dublin metro project poached him. Can you do a video on the Dublin project? Curious to see what they're up to!
Your pronunciations were quite good! Plenty of my fellow Kiwi do far worse. The exception is Onehunga - you need to stop seeing the word 'one' in there, it's not helping you at all. Think of the word 'on', then pronounce the e separately
The only other thing is that the A's in Māori are all pronounced as if there are 2 of them, so rather than Karanga sounding like kangaroo, it's meant to be more like "car-rung-are"
Back in 1991, the Auckland passenger rail system was almost shutdown. But everytime they've invested it since, patronage has increased. Build it or buy it and people will use it.
The problem is Mangere Bridge to the airport. They need to build a dedicated rail line from Mangere Bridge directly to the airport or rail line from Manukau directly to the airport. Then you can link Manukau. Britomart to Manukau. Manukau to Airport. So if you're in Northshore, you just have to go to Britomart to get to the airport.
We really need an airport rail link here in Melbourne Australia as well. In the long run, Auckland may even end up getting an airport rail link before us. I hope it all goes well for them.
@@RGC198 Very unlikely. Melbourne at least has plans/negotiations for an airport rail link. An Auckland one was mooted ages back but nothing further has come of it.
Hi CityMoose, Useful video with out outsider's perspective. You briefly touched on the increase in train lengths from 6 to 9 cars, which is an important step to increasing capacity, but the cost of lengthening platforms across the network isn't being much talked about. Nor is the conversion of the numerous at-grade crossings across the city to grade-separated: Another significant investment, without which, cross-suburb congestion will grow as train frequency increases: One of the failings of the system is that it doesn't adequately address the bulk of journeys in Auckland, which do not need to go via the CBD. If there is a new line to be added, the northern line would seem to make most sense, but would require a long-planned tunnel which the current mayor has thrown into question. With future city growth uncertain, focusing the available funding on getting the best out of the new CRL...which includes platform extensions and grade separations...looks like being the best medium-term use of funds alongside substantial improvements in the bus network, which are required to make the planned congestion-charging effective.
Point of correction. I love the graphics in your vid but it does get one detail wrong. The CRL is NOT a full loop but rather more of a C-section. This is because there is insufficient room for a Grand Junction at New Market where Southern & Western lines intersect. Although demolition of a building would provide enough room for a turning radius, I can't find any official indication that this is being considered. In the current scenario, Western line trains (as noted) need to first stop at New Market station before reversing up the Western line. Completion of the CRL will not change this due to the missing turning points (either to or from Britomart). Hence all train routes show Western line trains routing via the CRL before continuing onwards as Southern / Eastern Line trains or bypassing the CRL entirely and continuing onwards as Southern line trains (or visa versa)... but not towards Britomart. I can't see this situation continuing long term as it hobbles an otherwise flexible system. I'd suspect that plans may be afoot to address this but perhaps after the CRL is completed & operational.
Our planned Suburban Rail Link (SRL) from Cheltenham to Box Hill here in Melbourne is going to be a Metro like Sydney as far as I have heard. Unfortunately, it will be quite a few years before it is anywhere near running.
@@breadone_ LOL. The ignorance in this one. Given the whole downtown area has had a big makeover in the past 15 years or so with some vibrant areas of good shops and bars and cafes, and the midtown and K Rd areas are currently being renovated as well alongside the CRL project, it suggests you haven't been into the city centre for some time. Once the CRL and associated streetscape upgrade is done in both midtown and K Rd, I confidently predict the city centre will be the best it's been for decades (i.e. 1950s-60s before suburban malls were created). And btw I lived and worked there in the 90s, early 2000s and then again from late 2000s until 2020,. The 1990s for example and before Britomart Stn was opened it was a dump, especially the area behind Britomart Stn.
People tend to value trains for passenger convenience, and that is still hugely important, but ultimately the greatest value in all public transit is their contribution to climate change. Rail is more significant than EV mandates and other measures that address individual transportation. We need more buses, better bus networks, and a lot more rail. Mile for mile, and per passenger, nothing beats rail for efficient, and low CO2 emissions people-moving. Go for it Auckland! I went to Auckland in the 1990's, so I am very aware of how bad public transport used to be in that city. Fantastic to see a modern passenger rail network getting built and extended. Visitors, as well as locals, will appreciate it.
I find it funny how Auckland and Melbourne have completely opposite views on each other's airport connection projects. Melburnians look at Auckland and wonder why we don't just extend the Southern heavy rail line a few kilometres to the airport, instead of building a brand new tram line. As an Aucklander, I often wonder why Melbourne doesn't just extend its 59 tram line just a few kilometers to the airport, instead of building a brand new heavy rail line. Melbourne wants a proper rail link because trams are too slow, have too many stops and will only serve the northwestern suburbs. Auckland, funnily enough, wants exactly that, a slow tram service that serves the suburbs along the way. A heavy rail connection from the east will just pass through unusable empty swamp land. The Onehunga line extension proposal is better, but still doesn't serve the inner suburbs like light rail would.
Living in Melbourne, I completely agree with you. We have a light rail tram line going from the CBD to Airport West. It would be quite easy to extend that line on to the airport, at least within walking distance. I have no idea why this has not been considered, even as an extra alternative to the proposed rail extension.
Onehunga Branch extension is about the only viable option left now that the Public Transport Underminers Association have got their way. It remains a mystery that having helped kill off one of the most effective public transport proposals in Auckland's history, they're not exactly breaking their backs to push for reinstatement of the abandoned heavy rail plan. It's almost as if improving public transport is not their interest at all... Published CRL running patterns show that there is a need for a better full capacity terminus than Onehunga to match up to one of the other main lines. The things that made the Onehunga option "too expensive" before (grade separation, double tracking etc) are going to become essential anyway, if the Onehunga branch is going to remain open. I think it's doomed otherwise.
I genuinely think people of Auckland have NO IDEA how transformative this is going to be, just like many in Sydney didnt know what was about to hit them with the Sydney Metro. A shame that there are still many level crossings in Auckland and some of the infrastructure is not fit for purpose, which will come into focus as patronage picks up once CRL opens and the network becomes MUCH more useful.
It's crazy that there are still no plans to extend the System to Auckland airport. That light rail line to the airport (which got cancelled) would have been stupid
@@nicolasblume1046 I have to disagree, the surface light rail as it was originally planned would have been a good project, Auckland needs surface rail especially for redundancy that’s another thing that has worked so well in Sydney. It was only once they went off-piste and started trying to build a poor man’s metro that Auckland light rail began to lose all sense.
@@nicolasblume1046 The decision to go with light rail to airport came from: 1) Extending from Puhinui looks easy on a map, but wouldn't make much sense operationally speaking, because they'd have to divert some Southern Line trains to the airport, making service worse for everyone further south. 2) Extending from Onehunga makes more operational sense - and comes with more benefits, because you can have stations in Mangere and Airport Industrial Zone - but we've had studies for years telling us that Onehunga-to-Airport would be much cheaper to build with light rail than heavy. 3) _Completely unrelated to the airport,_ Auckland Transport started asking for the revival of some of our old tram routes to ease the pressure on our most congested bus routes, such as Dominion Road. Attaching an airport extension to that project was very much a case of seizing opportunity, rather than the airport being the main goal (which is why we ended up with such an indirect route). Unfortunately the airport immediately became the focus of it in the media, which resulted in all the criticism being on how well-suited the project was for airport commuters rather than what to do about the congested bus lines. And that pressure to think about the airport first - plus I think some terror among politicians that a surface route would cause too much disruption, which would be politically unpopular after the disruption CRL caused - made them decide to bury it underground in a pseudo-metro, instead of committing to either a true high-capacity metro or an affordable surface light rail. Ended up with the worst of both worlds. We're lucky that it got cancelled after goofed design like that, but unlucky that the whole idea was thrown out with no plans for replacement.
@@nicolasblume1046 They need to build it from Puhinui Station. Shortest & most central to the Airport. But like all good idea's it was trashed. AT needs to pull their finger out & make daylight happen for Auckland to move on.
@@BigBlueMan118 oh absoluty, surface rail lines are badly needed! But more for Medium distance routes to replace the most conjested bus lines. The route to the airport is quite long. It would be okay though if it would just be an additional connecting to a mainline rail connection (which would also be better suited with the far bigger trains). The mostly underground light rail proposal was really stupid though. Very expensive, but still the same capacity as the surface version. If they want to build an expensive Tunnel then they should built a full metro line possibly under the harbour to the north shore and then elevated
Denmark is building s tunnel to Germany under the sea. Auckland Harbour is not deep. Denmark is building the tunnel section on the land while a trench is built. Then the tunnel sections are placed in trench. So train could come from Takapuna to the city. Orewa to Takapuna with branch line starting at Silverdale to the bays and Albany joining at milford.
@@adsdft585 Yes but that tunnel is to link the giant economy of Germany to the economies of Denmark & Sweden, so there is a benefit many magnitudes larger. And NZ has seismic regulations not needed in Northern Europe. Having said that; I wish that a tunnelled second harbour crossing could be begun ASAP and that it would follow the plan laid out by the government back in 2004 to have a light rail corridor under 3 road lanes instead of all this faffing about with bridge proposals.
I also hope they can fix the operating hours, the 10pm finish Sunday through Thursday means getting back from shift work, events, family do's or the sort leaves you trying to find a bus, some of which may run to midnight, or potentially completely stranded and forced to get an uber or taxi back home. Apparently they are trying to extend this to 11pm post-CRL but its still a bit shy of where it should be. Midnight in the least would be great, and buses that do the same routes as rail until at least 1 or 2am would be awesome as many stations aren't covered by the late running bus routes. I am told the limited span on weekdays is due to the maintainance window by Kiwirail. But surely there must be some point at which they can get maintenance done in shorter windows? Its very frustrating as a user that since the 2000's its still 10pm-ish end time on weekdays. While buses and ferries seem to have spanned to midnight for about as long now. The early morning can be a bit limited as well, many people travel west to south for early morning jobs in the southern industrial areas, but you cant even get there for 4-5-6am shift starts which are quite common, as the western train doesnt even start until about 5:15am from Henderson, getting you there a fair bit after 6am. No bus alternatives either as they also generally start 5ish. This means you have to travel during peak to get back home in a lot of cases. There is going to be time of use charging as well, so don't see how thats fair when you don't even cater properly to shift workers. You don't need to be 24/7 but you can at least minimise the gap. Cars and cycling on the other hand are 24/7. But then cycling we barely do half decent network. So many people are forced to drive. 9-5ers are just oblivious and think we don't exist (I am also a 9-5er for many years now but I still remember my roots).
The drop to 30 min frequency after 7pm also leaves quite a lot to be desired. I hope they can make it 15-20 min frequency until at least 9ish after the CRL. It's crazy that some of our bus routes, which are meant to be supporting the rail network not outpacing it, are doing much more frequent runs at those times. In some situations they beat the train for journey time. Another thing I reckon is the western line could really drop a lot of the unnecessary stops like fruitvale, morningside and baldwin which have easy frequent bus connections to the next station alongside (such as 14, 20 and 22), needs of the many outweigh the few and all that. But it's probably a tough sell to politicians and customers, we have seen that with Te Mahia for example.
Part of that timing is actually to allow freight trains to use the network rather than just for maintenance. Absolutely agree with you though, it's ridiculous that you can't even go see a movie after work without having to take an Uber home cause the trains are off and half the buses have stopped. Happened to me last week and it was a bitter reminder of unreliable our network is.
@@ceasefirenow-eq9dyProblem there is that they'll close those stations now but in 5-10 years they'll be wishing they hadn't when those buses can no longer keep up with demand
Just image if National had built a train line from Howick to the city vai Panmure or Otahuhu. Also if Avondale to Onehunga line had been completed with a tunnel under the harbour to Mangere Bridge and one too the airport vai Mangere town centre and then onto Middlemore and the main trunk line. Plus widening the tunnel between Swanson and Waitakere . All could happen during the period 1949 to 1984 ( National were the government for 29 years).
The harbor crossing is certainly already a bottle neck. I'd love to see a true north/south line across the harbor. As someone who used to use public transport from the north many years ago, it was a nightmare. There are some solid bus lanes along the northern motorway, but I'd prefer they were used to lay train lines, so maybe there is already some ground work there. Good attempt at the Maori names, and mostly not awful - Onehunga (Oh-knee-hung-a ) was probably the main one that needs improvement ;)
I'm excited about this very necessary network of railway. Especially having recently been to Japan. Admittedly that would be a foolish notion to think about Japan and New Zealand in the same capacity but Japan is certainly an inspiration. Provided we experience a favourable societal change in Auckland culturally where our love for motor vehicles wanes over time and a safer society unlike what we're currently experiencing succeeds. We're certainly not prepared for more E vs. For these projects to materialise we're going to need a rapid increase in our population with productivity and prosperity to give leverage this utopian dream however. It doesn't come cheap. Pronunciation of names is the least of our worries but good effort.
There are lots of things about Japan than New Zealand shares but the sloppy way NZ govenrment runs projects would have people imprisoned if it was in Japan.
One impressive achievement of Japan's railways is that they show us that 3'6" track gauge (or 'Cape Gauge') can operate full electric train services which are fast enough and frequent enough to give travellers a good quality of service. In Europe, such a track gauge is seen as 'narrow gauge', suitable only for tourist and mountain railways. 'Cape gauge' started with the British engineers in the 1850s who built the Cape Colony (later Cape Province)'s railways to 3'6" gauge, and this gauge spead not only to Australia (QL and WA) and NZ, but to Japan when it began its modernisation from 1869. 'Cape gauge' is only 3" wider than the metre-gauge (3'3") that one finds on secondary lines in several European countries, but that extra 3" seems to make the difference between a 'narrow gauge railway' and 'main line railway' on which (fairly) high speeds are possible. NZ could do well to take much more advice from Japan on how to provide a good quality railway on 3'6" gauge. (Only the Skinkansen high-speed trains in Japan operate on standard (4'8½") gauge.)
Onehunga is "on-nay-hung-a" (or 'oh-nee-hung-a' if you're lazy). Sometime we joke that 'One Tree Hill' is prounced the same way - 'on-nay tree hill'. It's definitely not "wunny-hunga".
Auckland Needs a BRT system too, like Brisbane Metro. Could really work well for connecting the northern suburbs and airport. Just don’t call it metro.
In the 1980's there was a bus strike and lots of people used the trains to get to work, and I did not hear anyone complaining about having to walk from the old station
The network will still be limited by the time level crossings on the western line can be closed per hour. As it is some pretty major roads are about to be turned into car parks during peak times to achieve the journeys per hour promised for CRL.
I know right? And for the entire time the CBD has been a disaster zone. Combined with endless lockdowns over Covid, it's utterly killed the city centre.
I mean really it's taking more like 6 to put in the tunnel and 3 new stations (if it doesn't get delayed even further) but if you wanna stretch the definition a bit it's actually taken roughly 100 years to get the project from conception to completion
I am a former Onehunga line user and I can't say I am impressed. I used to be a huge fan of the onehunga line. They had limited stops in to the city so I could be in the city in 20 mins. They then changed 2-3 years ago to stop at Newmarket. This requires a transfer to then get in the city. Getting to the city is okay that way but getting home meant that when I arrived at Newmarket from the city there may not be an Onehunga bound train for 20 mins. This suddenly made the bus a better option. I have only used the train a few times in recent years and it is empty. These changes connecting Onehunga to the west via Newmarket make little sense.
@@davout71 Blame this complete cretin who works for the consultancy company that AT got to do its thinking for it under Phil Goff (MRCagney) called Nicholas Reid. He is this absolute creep who always thinks his ideas are the best and that his ideas should happen, and one day he thought of making the Onehunga line a shuttle. He was also the driving force behind Te Huia and the light rail to the airport. He has no actual credentials in railways nor engineering.
they should extend the onehunga line to the airport then out then airport to the other side linking into the manukau line then expand line from manukau to botany and then link into panmure
I'd add Howick to that. Linking to Botany would be amazing but with zero all day parking for anyone coming from howick/meadowlands area the rail system would really need to go right out there too. Even the bus system is inadequate. People park at the shopping centre to take the bus into the city but there's signs up warning against that so there's actually no proper parking for people who take the bus, they just risk not getting towed/tyre-locked or fined on a daily basis. Not sure if they ever check now but I did see a car tyrelocked years ago at Botany.
No the city rail link wouldn't help much, all it does is added two stations in the city centre. It doesn't make getting onto the trains from the suburbs any easier! And lets not mention how the taxpayers have to pay over $100m in interests each year because of the huge debts to fund this project, and the revenue from this is projected to be less than $10m each year? Who the f did the cost benefits analysis for this?! (The data was on a nzherald article somewhere)
It means they can re-route the trains to make everything faster, and it also massively reduces the bottleneck at Britomart meaning the trains can be more frequent. It's not adding a loop with its own trains (which would absolutely be a waste of money). The existing lines are what are going to be using those tracks, and it will make those lines more efficient.
Via Puhinui that's true, but via Onehunga there doesn't need to be extra capacity. It's the same services feeding through from West or wherever, just going further. No different to extending the southern line to Pukekohe.
The promised frequency will never happen until several level crossings on the western line are removed and as the Western and southern line will be linked, the tunnel will effectively slow down the southern line until perhaps a billion dollars and decades wait for the Western line upgrade which isnt even being spoken of yet.
@@sneakyc4713 London even in 1860 was many times larger and more heavily populated than Auckland now. Auckland was a village in 1960. And London was the first city to do it. Hahahaha at how you double down on this…
@@danieleyre8913 so what? in the history of public transport, many small cities of a few hundred thousand inhabitants have had metro and better public transport than AKL ... AKL just chose to suck ... you seem quite the AKL fanboi
Onehunga is Oh-knee-hung-ah and Waitemata is Why-tea-mat-ah. But the important point is this upgrade is a shortfall of what is really required to solve transport in Auckland
Sorry those pronunciation guides are wrong - it's prnounced exactly as spelled, phonetically: Ō-ne-hu-nga and Wai-te-ma-tā, no need to have weird spelling indicating the wrong way to say it
@@oatsnpeaches420 I'm aware this is not how they are taught. I was trying to explain it to someone not familiar with Māori vowels sounds. He had obviously seen the correct spelling and got the pronunciation wrong the first time
@@mattgthor Ok fair enough. But you're still teaching someone the wrong pronunciation regardless... I think you probably mean Awe-*neh-who-nga and Why-teh-mah-*taa. Again this is a terrible way to teach someone unfamiliar with any language - to reduce it to English 'sounding' words. It's not done with other languages, only ever te reo, and it's just strange. Te reo is phonetic. Easy. No spelling lessons required!
Why is there no rail network that goes to the airport as most countries in the modem world do ?? NZ trains are a complete and overlooked joke !! To get from Henderson to the airport one must take a train to Britomart and then two or three buses to the airport.
Sounds like pretty much anywhere in Auckland. Where I am I'd have to walk, bus and bus or walk, bus train, bus. One of the options finishes at domestic so i'd then have to walk or take the connector bus if i was flying international... and that's with me living near a big shopping centre where you'd think there's surely a somewhat efficient option 😂
The tunnel machine we should of bought 40 years ago, surely would have dug all the tunnels by now even in the suburbs as well as the hills north of auckland?
Your obsession with Airport link with city is real strange ie because if one is wishing to go south you would have to go north first ... it would be far better to have a recipical loop ie manukau then train station would between the new and original runways ... Additionally either having a dedicated line to the port or relocating the port facilities ... else where ... In the mean time the central city has lost its attraction to Malls spread around the Greater region and now even those are being down graded a vicious circle ...
Dont worry about the language police, most cant speak English without mangling it so for those its a bit much to be preaching. Youve done well. Very good overview and detail.
A good City Moose film about the plans for an intercity link involving new construction in Queensland shows what can be done - the plan is for a partly new line from Brisbane to Sunshine Coast in time for the 2032 Olympics. Cape gauge is showing what it can do in QL as it has done for 150 years in Japan! Kiwi Rail can learn from QR. See: ua-cam.com/video/r2l8POMz9BU/v-deo.html
Auckland spent almost half a billion dollars on a busway that has no busses operating during the night so aucklands lowest paid highly exploited hospitality workers have no access to public transport to get home after work and have to spend their entire pay check on ubers, disgusting
@pro-storm4951 No one owes you anything. Build a better situation for yourself like millions before you. I'd say it's you that's not too bright if all you have is excuses and blame as to why your life is not to your liking. No one's forcing you to work a low paid job in hospo.
@pro-storm4951 if you think there isn't any other way to succeed in life, I don't think it's my intelligence that's in question here. Difference is, I don't demand others fix my life issues with every excuse under the sun why I can't take responsibility for my own life choices.
@@Timetofly8888 What are you talking about? We need hospitality workers. Someone needs to do that job. It’s a great job for people who’re studying to get themselves highly qualified. Why should they be deprived public transport that could be offered? The level of noddy you must be to think along lines so stupid…
The digging started almost a decade and destroyed the businesses in the city and still a long way from the finishing . It a total mess. Change its name from City of Sails to City of Cones. Maybe another decade but the CBD will be in tatters by then. Good Luck Auckland
Correction. The CRL was foisted upon us with a grossly understated projected cost and with a lack of alternative options being considered. We didn't need this tunneled rail system at all. All we needed was increased surface rail lines between Newmarket and downtown Auckland. It is not difficult to change trains at a station such as Newmarket if there are sufficient trains running. London commutes often mean passengers change trains at several stations in the course of their journey. The CRL really only provides a rail link from K Road down to Britomart as an additional benefit, which can easily be achieved by express buses running between these destinations. The cost of dual tracking Newmarket to Britomart would have been minimal certainly not 6 billion.
Why are New Zealanders so scared of investing in quality? The City Rail Link isn't just about adding a few extra stations it's about increasing the capacity of the entire rail network by 50%. The additional stops are simply a bonus. CRL means more trains, faster services, and improved public transport for EVERYONE on the entire rail network from Swanson to Pakakura. By the early 2030s, Auckland could have around two million residents. Buses and what ever you are proposing simply can't compete with these numbers. They are a bandaid, not a fix. The CRL is a long-term investment which means it does cost money. The benefits it will provide to businesses, productivity, and even just the experience of commuting are incalcuable. The CRL means sorely needed vibrancy urban renewal for the city centre. For instance Te Waihorotiu Station is set to become the busiest in New Zealand, with an additional 154,000 pedestrians passing through Wellesly street each day (AT website). Have some civic pride, they are about to complete what is literally the biggest infrastructure project in the countries history, this is a phenomenal achievement that will make auckland a city worth living in and visisitng. Forget about the cost of the project for a moment and consider the vast benfits ecconomic and otherwise to the ENTIRE city.
@@rickhanover6267 Yes yes because Rick Hanover knows everything unlike those career civic planners and railway staff. Britomart was at capacity, now it is a trough station, its capacity has increased many magnitudes. Newmarket to Britomart was already double-tracked! Quad-tracking would have meant massive demolitions through Parnell, another tunnel, another viaduct near the strand, more demolitions near the old station, and demolition of the Spark Arena and all this other buildings build over the existing tracks and where the new tracks would need to go. And capacity would have been barely increased. Stop deluding yourself that you have a clue.
Auckland is decade to late building it! Auckland should have an city ring and trains sout-north east long times. Millions and more in agglomeration ...all planed on streets to 99% is creepy. Auckland decades ago and christchurch, wellington, rest of country would follow after forerunner example.
@@4evaavfc The airport does not. The North shore does though. They really should plan converting the northern busway to a light metro and tie it in with the second harbour crossing.
The most baffling part of this development is to rename the major station in Auckland from Britomart to "Waitemata", it's been called Britomart station for over two decades and absolutely no-one is going to start calling it Waitemata now so it's just going to create a lot of confusion for tourists and visitors. Given the massive amount of change and complexity involved in the CRL project, I can't understand adding a totally unnecessary change like this into the mix as well.
It's totally necessary to restore the original, true Māori names to these landmarks as it should have always been. Never should have been called "Britomart" because nobody know who the hell the guy is anyway! Not even from Aotearoa!!
It makes more sense in the long run once people get used to it since it's at the Waitematā Harbour, whereas the station isn't even in the same place as Point Britomart which physically doesn't exist anymore.
And the adjacent area is called Britomart place... go figure. I do think it will phase out to Waitemata and people will eventually get used to it just like Spark Arena when it was previously called Vector Arena (I was always just calling it Vector and then suddenly found myself calling it Spark one time and never went back) and Mt Smart that is now whatever it is called. People do eventually just get used to it and move on so even though lots of us will keep thinking/calling it Britomart there will come a time when that switch just happens.
Transport infrastructure is very integral to a city's continued growth. Without it a city is immobilised. Looking forward to Auckland growing into the future. It's projected to reach 2 million within this decade alone and 3 million in a couple of short decades later. By 2050 Oceania will look very different. With cities like Sydney and Melbourne reaching 8 to 9 million each, Perth and Brisbane reaching 5 to 6 million respectively and even Adelaide and Auckland surpassing the 3 million mark. To put things in perspective, Sydney was 3 million people in the 80s 90s and already considered quite a mid to large sized city.
Great video CityMoose. As an Aucklander myself, the City Rail Link is going to be super transformative for us and it will hopefully lead to more demand for public transport.
Your videos have also inspired me to make my own Urban Planning content covering Auckland so I can't thank you enough.
I’m from Wellington and visit Auckland periodically. I’m often dismayed at the negative attitude many Jafa’s give off over this tunnel, saying how they’ll never take it and how the CBD isn’t so popular now because people work from home and blah blah.
This will be an evolutionary change for Auckland. Even if ridership doesn’t take off immediately; over time the CRL will become an essential part of Auckland and its functioning, no less than the harbour bridge. People will base their lives around it. Yeah it’s gone overbudget and will open 2-3 years later than was first promised, but Auckland would be so much more worse off had it never been started.
That’s great to hear!! As a jafa myself Ive been keenly waiting on a fellow aucklander to make an urbanist UA-cam channel!
@@danieleyre8913sadly the construction is part of why 'the city isn't so popular' if that's even true. But that will clear up naturally. I've seen parts of the city really come back to life since COVID while others are still struggling, for various and different reasons.
Albert Street has been struggling badly with the works and the double impact of COVID. When it should really be the second Queen Street. At least the Court house draws people in 😂
@@felaykasu That's part of the reason I've decided to make my own urbanist channel. I've been watching a lot of Urbanist channels over the last year or so and although these channels are great. None of them are from New Zealand so I decided to start a channel myself. I hope my channel will inspire more urbanist content from Auckland or other New Zealand cities.
@@TacspongeThe thing is that once construction works are entirely finished; the thing’s built and will be functioning for centuries to come. Within a decade or two: Ir will have become a shaping influence on how Auckland further develops and grows (or recedes, if that’s to be) in the future. Proximity to the stations will inevitably drive up the foot traffic and thus the commercial demand and value of nearby properties.
I’m convinced that at some stage in the future: More railway tunnels will need to be dug through the volcanic fields beneath Auckland’s CBD. And most likely for metro system lines that won’t directly interface with the mainline CRL. So disruption will return, but this time the CRL will help keep businesses afloat.
Thanks for advocating for rail to Auckland's airport in your video. Having spent a number of years pushing for this in Auckland, it is nice to get more support for it from your channel!
After recent travel to Sydney, Airport rail is a no brainer!
Auckland will get it before Melbourne does
Double track onehunga and have it run to the airport, that single line is annoying and cant run very frequent services. Would make the CRL OWL route a lot better.
But this current govt only care about their stupid roading projects which just add to congestion problems like east-west link and mill road. Billions wasted on exasperating the problem. Look at the western ring route, specifically the NW, nearly double the lanes and its already back to a congested state 5-6 years later. They also failed to add the NW busway, which had some detailed designs ready to go, when it would have been far cheaper than today, but Gerry or Joyce (forget who) said no.
Why does Auckland airport especially need a railway link yet?
It’s not _that_ big & busy an airport. Airport links in Brisbane & Perth are big financial drains propped up by the airport themselves.
I think there are things of far greater priority for Auckland. Like a busway to the north-west, a busway to Howick, a second harbour crossing (and removal of the nippon clip-ons from the old bridge), plans to upgrade the northern busway to a light metro.
I also think that a long term project to grade separate all lines and increase all network platforms to take 9 cars should be undertaken. And then extend the Onehunga line to Mangere, and possibly loop back to connect to Manukau.
@@ceasefirenow-eq9dy I would be happier if the Onehunga branch was double tracked, grade separated, extended across a bridge to Mangere…
…but then DIDN’T go to the airport. But rather parallel to the motorway, and linked up with the Manukau branch.
The CRL isnt just transformational for linking rails between Waitematā/Britomart station with Maungawhau, but it was the catalyst for making improvements everywhere else in the network. Its THE reason for upgraded signalling and back end operations, KiwiRail adopting a new maintenance schedule, the 3rd main line for freight from Ōtāhuhu thru to Puhinui where the eastern and southern lines share tracks, and a even more upgrade projects down the pipeline.
With Aucklands history of building roads and motorways at the expense of rail/public transit after WW2, its a bloody miracle it managed to get underway, even if its been 100 years overdue since the 1st city rail loop plan was ever proposed back in the 1920s
It was ready to go in the seventies, my friends father worked on the plans. He was an engineer who helped design the light rail for Auckland.
It is already impressive enough that Auckland went from no passenger rail in the 90s, to Diesel Multiple and Push Car Sets in the 2000s, to double-lined and electrified infrastructure with sleek modern trains and stations by the 2010s. Literally a decade of dramatic progress.
Yes , but with very limited expansion of the rail network until now. I think it’s going to be great!
Is this sarcasm? Aucklands transport system is known to be terrible and years behind where we should be.
@@calmminds2065When was the last time you lived in Auckland?
I’m from Wellington and visit Auckland every couple of years and it has been satisfying to see the massive progress made and undeniable increase in patronage up there.
No Britomart was finished in 2004😂
It was a tunnel to a dead end.
Useless people in power with no plan until now ..
What a joke
😂 easily impressed @@danieleyre8913
Great vid, one thing to note about Auckland/NZs rail history is that the reason the 1930s station was moved out of the city was because all the services were regional in nature, there wasn't space in the CBD station to expand services and so the station was moved out of the CBD to increase platform capacity, people weren't commuting daily on the rail network from suburbs to the CBD in the way they are now. The 1930s station wasn't poor in concept at the time, Auckalnd was still small, and that job of commuter transport was fulfilled by the trams that covered most of Auckland 1930s uban area and also connected the 1930s station to the CBD (RIP Auckland tram network).
That didn't really change until the 1990s when efforts to recover the network began and proper DMU commuter rail trains were introduced from Perth. This was done because at this point pretty much all the regional rail services had been killed off apart from the sections within Auckland now swelled urban area. Aucklands growth had now encompassed large parts of surrounding area, the only remaining regional services were acting as commuter services at this point, so they finally made the effort to properly service that need, which included bring trains back to the CBD.
The old Auckland railway station was ideal for intercity services with its close proximity to Grafton gully, Tamaki drive, and the waterfront. It was just pretty poor for an urban rail system terminus with its inconvenient distance to Queen st and most of the CBD, especially once the trams were gone. When it was begun at the end of the 1920s: The long term plan was to build the morningside deviation for urban rail and have that as the intercity terminus.
If NZ ever gets its act together again for intercity rail within my lifetime: I frankly would not be in the least bit surprised if that grand old lady gets refurbished and reused for the intercity terminus, albeit it with connections to the urban rail network.
Bang on. The old station is indeed still ripe for resurrection as an Intercity terminus and bus interchange, but for one fly in the ointment - the Newmarket Branch link to the Britomart tunnel, which cuts off access between the old station and the NIMT. A light at the end of the tunnel, however - grade separation of Quay Park Junction would allow for reinstatement of terminal lines to the old station. The grim caveat - it MUST be planned for in full before some lunatic in power signs off building a stadium or port access tunnels or a hotel there. Place your bets now...
@@ashcustomworks it’s kind of crazy they set the tracks up like that, they had the whole land of east of beach road to redevelop and they didn’t make the alignment from Newmarket follow the curve of beach road into britomart, instead doing that crazy s curve that trains have to go so slowly around.
I’d also love that old station to be redeveloped into an intercity hub, something to match the grandeur of wellington station at the other end.
@@finnmckenzie3024 I think they probably did that because there still needed to be functional rail and bus services for the duration of construction and a lot of buildings along that side that had to be retained or preserved. The original plans included things like light rail platforms for future use and they may not have been possible with a Beach Rd alignment. As it happens, they were never utilised, but that's not what was expected back then.
@@ashcustomworks keeping the lines operational makes sense but it hilarious that that’s the case but now they shut down Britomart every other week for maintenance, they shut down the eastern line for 8 months 😂
Incredibly informative video citymoose. Thanks a lot for covering a NZ project.
i feel like elevating the Onehunga Line and having be double tracked viaducts then run elevate along the motorway to the airport. Have it run every 15 minutes, still regional rail, and extend to downtown.
Downtown will have regional services! platform 2 & 3 will host im pretty sure
The easier route to the airport is a spur from the southern line near Manukau, running alongside 20B and into the domestic terminal, and then onto the international one.
The long term plan is to dig the Onehunga branch into a trench, grade separating it, replacing the current station with a 9-platform station, probably eliminate Te Papapa station, and then extend it to Mangere via a corridor built into the underside of the bridge.
Personally: I would rather this extension didn’t goto the airport, and instead just continued to link with the Manukau branch. How many people in Mangere could commute to Manukau daily?
For an airport connection: I would rather they just branched from the mainline near Wiri/Puhinui and ran an express shuttle to the surplus platform at Britomart.
@@philippefm I agree, and I've long wondered why this has never had the advocacy it deserves. $2B max, and connects the airport direct to all of rail-radius Auckland.
A spur off the southern line is now a dead duck. When it was still a contender there wasn't much in the way along that route, but the capacity limitations on the NIMT meant it was realistically a choice between a Manukau branch or an Airport branch. Obviously Manukau won out and rightly so, because there were other options for the airport - namely the Onehunga-Mangere route and the Roskill-Mangere route. These days there has been hundreds of millions, maybe billions in industrial and residential property development between Wiri and the airport. It's not simply going to be demolished for a rail line built on a shoestring budget with immense critical oversight by political, media and public forces. This should be a technical decision, but the aforementioned forces have made it possible for every opinionated idiot to play a part in sabotaging transport progress that doesn't personally suit them.
Lovely work mate. Can’t wait for this new rail way line, it will truly transform the way the public transport system works and operates.
As a resident of the north shore we would love to have a rail link to the city . Not only to the city but also a west to north north to west connection aswell.
@@lukelukelulu The northern busway was designed to be convertible to a light rail or light metro system in the future. It was intended to run within the tunnels planned by the (Labour) government back in 2003-4 for the second harbour crossing to within the CBD and to interchange with the mainline.
Thanks for sharing another excellent video. I remember visiting Auckland back in 1970 and again in 1979. The main station was then in the Parnell area with a connecting trolley bus service to get into the city. Back then all trains terminated at that particular station. It is great seeing the progress that has happened there since.
New Zealand is about 30 years behind where they need to be. They stopped building things in the 90s and never started again, whether it was Labour or the Nationals. This might inspire them to actually do something
Doesn't help that we keep cycling between Nat and Lab all the time. Maybe if people voted either consistently or to a more radical party it would get done. But its just nat-lab-nat-lab-nat-lab for the last several decades.
Consitent labour we would have finally got somewhere at this point but now a lot of what they are doing has been pulled. Greens they would have just done it.
Nat just want to go back to the past with more useless roads.
NZ stopped building things in the mid-1980s. Because the country was bankrupt after 9 years of Muldoon and his mismanagement.
Large scale construction didn’t begin again until the new millennium, when the Labour government under Clarke and with Cullen as finance minister got the economy back on track and there was again enough capital about to finance it.
@@ceasefirenow-eq9dyI don’t like the Nat’s one bit.
But their record isn’t much worse than Labour’s. Labour was who build all of those motorways in the early years of the century. They didn’t do much the last time they were in.
@@danieleyre8913 yeah I don't disagree. But there was quite a bit locked in that was going to get delivered this year and so forth, but got canned by the nats. A lot of CERF projects for example.
They did also have covid, so it was probably a bit risky to spend around that period.
As for the past... I think both parties were quite in on roads because that wasn't very contended back then. But I don't think there is much excuse now with all the evidence out there these days.
@@ceasefirenow-eq9dy Yeah maybe Labour has woken up more to the potential for railways.
But that last Labour government was full of ministers who were incompetent lightweights. I think they were people whom Jacinda owed favours to for getting her into power. Next time Labour gets in (hopefully next election once this Mickey-mouse coalition implodes); they need to have higher calibre people in cabinet. No more clowns like that Phil Twyford or that Kiri Allan woman.
One of the only videos I’ve seen where the names of the locations are correctly pronounced. Caught me off guard with “Waitemata” Respect ✊
"One-e-hunga" was the only wonky one.
I thought it was pronounced Why-Ta-Matter.
@@gustavkierson7444 That is how everyone says it. In practise all these names will be abbreviated or referred to by all and sundry as "City" or whatever.
definitely a solid effort but there were still some wonky ones in there haha
As a maori, he pronounced all those names wrong. However, he gave it a solid effort for someone who isn't familiar with Maori.
Good to see it will help the traffic problems on the North Shore (I jest). As a rate payer on the North Shore and there a lot of us (at least a 1/4 of the city) the lack of planning for rail or a second harbour crossing on the shore is a sham. Where is the Northern line. I was told it was on the 30 year plan which is good to know.
@@tonywood6163 I’m from Wellington and I strongly think that the second harbour crossing, two tunnels with three road lanes and one railway corridor each, and then take the nippon clip-on’s off of the old harbour bridge (and properly repair that truck collision damage), needs to be Auckland’s next big infrastructure project. And that they should be already beginning the early stages of it now, have it done and dusted by 2035. And have the Northern busway converted to a light metro.
There's a few crucial areas missing rail. Nothing out south-east either. They're currently slowly doing a bus project although funding for the last part of it has been cut. The entire region becomes a standstill if there's a car crash during rush hour. What is a 30min drive from Botany or Howick to Mt Wellington becomes a 2.5-3 hr drive. There's only 2 main arterial roads that everything else filters onto so it's mayhem if there's an accident as you literally cant go anywhere to get around it because any side roads end up back on the same 2 roads. Talk about terrible planning for growth out that way.
you genuinely deserve so many more subscribers, your production value and consistency is so good!
Great video! Thanks for making an effort with the Māori names!
Adelaide south australia desperately needs this. The same issue auckland had where all the train terminate in the city with no room for throughput. But south australians don't vote for public transport because they live in an echo chamber of misinformation
I agree, Adelaide desperately needs a city rail loop but unfortunately that can't be built until all the lines are electrified (and preferably converted to standard gauge) as diesel trains can't run through underground tunnels.
@Gauger1212 if they did it just for gawler and seaford the two electrified ones it could work. Belair runs as normal not thru the tunnel and the outer harbor line group (grange, port dock) would all benefit from light rail but electrification is an alternative
@@tangiers365 true, but it's way better to do all the tunnels at once (including outer harbour and Belair) and even before that the network as a whole has so many smaller problems that need to be fixed before committing to a underground tunnel such as: lack of electrification, conversion to standard gauge, better stations, too many stations, better frequencies off-peak, level crossing removals, better feeder bus services, more transport oriented development and the Belair line as a whole (so indirect and slow).
No one needs it in Adelaide. Existing tree structure can double its capacity just by adding more cars in trains. Trains with 3 cars are not trains at all, its buses on very expensive rails.
It would have sense to make something to east, covering all these eastern fat hamster nests and reducing everyday traffic jams on eastern city approach, but as it requires tunnels it is not viable financially.
@@Gauger1212double power? Diesel everywhere, network electrical in city tunnels? Especially for diesel-electric 3000? No, never heard...
the problem is not with electrification but with skyhigh price tag for this hypothetical tunnel. In 1.2M poor city.
The 'new' Britomart/Waitemata station was built on the original Auckland central station site (1885 to 1930) and has 4 platforms. Platforms 1 and 4 will be used for City Rail Link (CRL) services from 2026 when the CRL officially becomes operational, leaving platforms 2 and 3 for additional peak metro services and inter-regional passenger rail services from Hamilton, Tauranga, Rotorua and Tokoroa. Electrification on the Southern Line has been extended to Pukekohe (starting from 25 January 2025) being the 'boarder' station for the Auckland and Waikato regions, allowing for additional passenger connections for Te Huia passenger train services between Hamilton and Auckland (The Strand) and Waikato regional buses to cater for rapid urban population growth in the northern areas of the Waikato region.
How did you get the exact opening date for pukekohe electrification?? I knew it would open in Jan but not the exact date
@@CB2C - It was in the NZ Herald when Pukekohe Station was officially opened by the Minister of Transport. Te Huia will be stopping at Pukekoke to set down/pick up passengers once Auckland Transport, Auckland One Rail and Kiwirail confirmed time slots which should be some time in October 2024, as Te Huia will be providing limited train services for Auckland Metro passengers living in the Pukekohe area until full Auckland Metro train services start in Jan 25.
There's no concrete talk from the govt on Passenger rail to Rotorua/Tauranga unfortunately
@@navinthehouse4710 The previous government did a study on it and the study proved that it would be economically viable
@@navinthehouse4710The Kaimai tunnel is a massive bottleneck on the network as it is.
It’s only single track, and yet it’s used non-stop through most days. The build up of diesel fumes inside the tunnel is horrendous. And it’s going to need a refurbishment some time in the next decade.
They really need a big project to duplicate that tunnel (and get it properly ventilated, and set it up for electrification in the future) before thinking about bringing back passenger services between Tauranga and Auckland.
I look forward to seeing how this performs and whether that will then in turn allow the NZ government to do the light rail and extensions on the heavy rail network.
Thank you. Traffic is awful here in Auckland
Current govt just want to add to it with more useless roading projects. Shift congestion further down the road whilst worsening it at the same time.
Doesn't help when half the people on the road can't drive
AT has done everything it can to slow car journeys with the hope that it will force drivers into public transport (or bikes!). Unfortunately public transport is not a viable option for many Aucklanders, plus it's completely unreliable and too expensive. There is not a big enough population to finance or maintain these pie-in-the-sky projects. Auckland is not- and will never be - London, Paris or even Melbourne.
@@Knitter-e7f what absolute rubbish. Many drive because it's the only thing that's decently catered for. AT roles out the red carpet for driving and not much else. Piecemeal cycling, PT better than it used to be but still problematic. People will generally use what is decently catered for. Roads have nearly 10 thousand KM, and parking along most of it. Surprise surprise that gets a big chunk of the mode share.
I bet its worst in other countries
One impressive achievement of Japan's railways is that they show us that 3'6" track gauge (or 'Cape Gauge') railways can operate full electric train services which are fast enough and frequent enough to give travellers a good quality of service. In Europe, such a track gauge is seen as 'narrow gauge', suitable only for tourist and mountain railways. 'Cape gauge' started with the British engineers in the 1850s who built the Cape Colony (later Cape Province)'s railways to 3'6" gauge, and this gauge spead not only to Australia (QL and WA) and NZ, but to Japan when it began its modernisation with the Meiji Restoration of 1869. 'Cape gauge' is only 3" wider than the metre-gauge (3'3") that one finds on secondary lines in several European countries, but that extra 3" seems to make the difference between a 'narrow gauge railway' and 'main line railway' on which (fairly) high speeds are possible. NZ could do well to take much more advice from Japan on how to provide a good quality railway in the 21st Century on 3'6" gauge. (Only the Skinkansen high-speed trains in Japan operate on standard (4'8½") gauge.)
@@marc21091 Cape gauge is also used in all the former British colonies and all the former Portuguese colonies in Africa, in Honduras, in Costa Rica, in Taiwan, and in most of the Phillipines Archipelago.
As Auckland suburban is cape gauge, I wonder if it could ever operate with secondhand cape gauge trains from Japan, as has been done in some other countries, especially Indonesia.
@@Myrtone Yes, the electric multiple units used in Japan are often excellent. The Japanese 3'6" gauge network is electrified using several different systems, as it has developed over a century. See this excellent and detailed list: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Railway_electrification_in_Japan . 1500V DC was the standard when electrification started and until about 1960. Quite a number of lines are electrified at 20kV AC, and more recently electrified lines seem to have been all at 25kV. An unusual feature of Japan is that the country's national electricity supply grid is split between 50hZ (north) and 60 Hz (south) frequency, so AC electrified lines in each half operate at the relevant frequency.
Conversion of 20kV units to 25kV, if bought for Auckland is probably simple, and similarly from 60Hz to 50Hz. 1500V DC units by contrast are probably not worth acquiring (except for Wellington, which has enough trains).
@@Myrtone Depends if the Japanese units also fit the loading gauge of the system.
Phillipines usually gets any Japanese rolling stock that’s being retired but still has some years of service left in them.
@@marc21091 An idea would be to get refurbished secondhand units (that is refurbished during transfer of ownership), which would be converted upon refurbishment.
The Mt Eden station is progressing well. I am sure once the project is open, people will transition to using it quickly and in growing numbers. Much like what hsppened when they opened Britomart station. Pity the north shore hadnt been catered for at all. A massive population still relying on cars going over one old old bridge daily.
Same as south-east. There's nothing around Howick, Botany, Pakuranga, Flat Bush and that area has had rapid growth in the last 20 years. Weekday traffic is awful but the weekends used to be semi-alright but now it can be just as busy at the weekends too because there is just so many more people in that region now and only a couple of main roads for moving everyone around. One of the main roads between Manukau and Botany was designed with a strip down the middle for rail 25+ years ago and it's just developed into a grass verge with some giant palm trees dotted along the highway. That would've been a great transport option to at least connect to that other part of Auckland if it had actually happened.
Very well explained with proper facts mate ! Subscribed
Lets hope the national coalition govt wont cut too much of the funding to spend on abother fucking lane thinking that would solve anything
Hard agree there. More roads =/= less traffic. I've actually just made a video detailing this problem in Auckland.
@@Jakey4000 The Nat’s are well aware that investing in roads alone is a fool’s errand.
But they are more interested in serving the lobbyists for the road transport lobby than doing the right thing for their nation. And the last labour government faffed about instead of making the slimy national’s accountable for this corruption. Stephen Joyce, Gerry Brownlee, Simon Bridges should all be in court defending charges of taking bribes.
@@danieleyre8913Also Labour could've gone big with Auck Hamilton Tauranga Passenger rail, chose AKL HAM on a trial that national might cut
@@navinthehouse4710 They probably couldn’t have. Such a project would have required lengthy and costly works that wouldn’t be half finished by now.
@@navinthehouse4710 - lots of freight traffic is moved in the corridor between Auckland and Tauranga, so adding commuter trains would have required a minimum of a third line in lots a places. Not to say it can't be done, just that's a massive cost for an unknown return.
The CEO of the project recently resigned prior to the CRL's opening. The Dublin metro project poached him. Can you do a video on the Dublin project? Curious to see what they're up to!
Your pronunciations were quite good! Plenty of my fellow Kiwi do far worse. The exception is Onehunga - you need to stop seeing the word 'one' in there, it's not helping you at all. Think of the word 'on', then pronounce the e separately
As an Ozzie we'll allow you OH-KNEE-HUNGER.
@@LloydWeeber Pretty much what everyone calls it here anyway lol
The only other thing is that the A's in Māori are all pronounced as if there are 2 of them, so rather than Karanga sounding like kangaroo, it's meant to be more like "car-rung-are"
Better video than governance in NZ could put together on the subject
This is the best video I've seen about the CRL. Thank you!
Reach out if you ever need a hand with the pronunciation of the Kiwi place names :P
Back in 1991, the Auckland passenger rail system was almost shutdown. But everytime they've invested it since, patronage has increased. Build it or buy it and people will use it.
The problem is Mangere Bridge to the airport.
They need to build a dedicated rail line from Mangere Bridge directly to the airport or rail line from Manukau directly to the airport. Then you can link Manukau. Britomart to Manukau. Manukau to Airport.
So if you're in Northshore, you just have to go to Britomart to get to the airport.
Auckland certainly needs a train link to its airport.
We really need an airport rail link here in Melbourne Australia as well. In the long run, Auckland may even end up getting an airport rail link before us. I hope it all goes well for them.
@@robertthomson1587 But why?
It’s not a very big nor busy airport.
@@RGC198 Very unlikely. Melbourne at least has plans/negotiations for an airport rail link. An Auckland one was mooted ages back but nothing further has come of it.
@@danieleyre8913 My most recent use of Auckland airport was in May. I spent an hour and a half each way stuck in motorway traffic. Very inefficient.
@@robertthomson1587 Did you try the shuttle bus to Puhinui station!?
Hi CityMoose, Useful video with out outsider's perspective. You briefly touched on the increase in train lengths from 6 to 9 cars, which is an important step to increasing capacity, but the cost of lengthening platforms across the network isn't being much talked about. Nor is the conversion of the numerous at-grade crossings across the city to grade-separated: Another significant investment, without which, cross-suburb congestion will grow as train frequency increases: One of the failings of the system is that it doesn't adequately address the bulk of journeys in Auckland, which do not need to go via the CBD. If there is a new line to be added, the northern line would seem to make most sense, but would require a long-planned tunnel which the current mayor has thrown into question. With future city growth uncertain, focusing the available funding on getting the best out of the new CRL...which includes platform extensions and grade separations...looks like being the best medium-term use of funds alongside substantial improvements in the bus network, which are required to make the planned congestion-charging effective.
Just a note to help with pronunciation, the r is rolled and macrons (lines) above letters are pronouced with a longer sound.
Except that [l] and [r] are actually interchangeable in Maori, so for example in that language 'te leo' sounds just as good as 'te reo'.
Point of correction. I love the graphics in your vid but it does get one detail wrong.
The CRL is NOT a full loop but rather more of a C-section. This is because there is insufficient room for a Grand Junction at New Market where Southern & Western lines intersect. Although demolition of a building would provide enough room for a turning radius, I can't find any official indication that this is being considered.
In the current scenario, Western line trains (as noted) need to first stop at New Market station before reversing up the Western line. Completion of the CRL will not change this due to the missing turning points (either to or from Britomart). Hence all train routes show Western line trains routing via the CRL before continuing onwards as Southern / Eastern Line trains or bypassing the CRL entirely and continuing onwards as Southern line trains (or visa versa)... but not towards Britomart.
I can't see this situation continuing long term as it hobbles an otherwise flexible system. I'd suspect that plans may be afoot to address this but perhaps after the CRL is completed & operational.
the sydney metro is an actual metro with all new trains but brisbane and melbournes is just new tunnels and lines
Our planned Suburban Rail Link (SRL) from Cheltenham to Box Hill here in Melbourne is going to be a Metro like Sydney as far as I have heard. Unfortunately, it will be quite a few years before it is anywhere near running.
Very good. Thank you sir.
Pronunciation tip: Onehunga is On e hunga, not one hunga. Believe me I struggled with the names when I moved here. Good, informative video. Thanks.
sucks that there is no reason other than work to ever go into the CBD though
you work on k road? what are you, a stripper?
Tell me you don't go outside without telling me you don't go outside
@@don_dogs so many other places in auckland to go lol, only reason you’d go to the cbd is for work or if you’re a crackhead
@@don_dogs plenty of other places to go that aren’t sad half-dead streets with nothing to do
@@breadone_ LOL. The ignorance in this one. Given the whole downtown area has had a big makeover in the past 15 years or so with some vibrant areas of good shops and bars and cafes, and the midtown and K Rd areas are currently being renovated as well alongside the CRL project, it suggests you haven't been into the city centre for some time.
Once the CRL and associated streetscape upgrade is done in both midtown and K Rd, I confidently predict the city centre will be the best it's been for decades (i.e. 1950s-60s before suburban malls were created). And btw I lived and worked there in the 90s, early 2000s and then again from late 2000s until 2020,. The 1990s for example and before Britomart Stn was opened it was a dump, especially the area behind Britomart Stn.
This will be the only investment in the network for another 30 years. That's how it works. Governments just hate spending money
People tend to value trains for passenger convenience, and that is still hugely important, but ultimately the greatest value in all public transit is their contribution to climate change. Rail is more significant than EV mandates and other measures that address individual transportation. We need more buses, better bus networks, and a lot more rail. Mile for mile, and per passenger, nothing beats rail for efficient, and low CO2 emissions people-moving.
Go for it Auckland! I went to Auckland in the 1990's, so I am very aware of how bad public transport used to be in that city. Fantastic to see a modern passenger rail network getting built and extended. Visitors, as well as locals, will appreciate it.
I find it funny how Auckland and Melbourne have completely opposite views on each other's airport connection projects.
Melburnians look at Auckland and wonder why we don't just extend the Southern heavy rail line a few kilometres to the airport, instead of building a brand new tram line.
As an Aucklander, I often wonder why Melbourne doesn't just extend its 59 tram line just a few kilometers to the airport, instead of building a brand new heavy rail line.
Melbourne wants a proper rail link because trams are too slow, have too many stops and will only serve the northwestern suburbs.
Auckland, funnily enough, wants exactly that, a slow tram service that serves the suburbs along the way. A heavy rail connection from the east will just pass through unusable empty swamp land. The Onehunga line extension proposal is better, but still doesn't serve the inner suburbs like light rail would.
Living in Melbourne, I completely agree with you. We have a light rail tram line going from the CBD to Airport West. It would be quite easy to extend that line on to the airport, at least within walking distance. I have no idea why this has not been considered, even as an extra alternative to the proposed rail extension.
Onehunga Branch extension is about the only viable option left now that the Public Transport Underminers Association have got their way. It remains a mystery that having helped kill off one of the most effective public transport proposals in Auckland's history, they're not exactly breaking their backs to push for reinstatement of the abandoned heavy rail plan. It's almost as if improving public transport is not their interest at all...
Published CRL running patterns show that there is a need for a better full capacity terminus than Onehunga to match up to one of the other main lines. The things that made the Onehunga option "too expensive" before (grade separation, double tracking etc) are going to become essential anyway, if the Onehunga branch is going to remain open. I think it's doomed otherwise.
@@nickplosiveli4927 I doubt many people in Melbourne ever think of Auckland…
@@danieleyre8913 Isn't CityMoose from Melbourne and has made two videos on Auckland?
@@nickplosiveli4927 And he’s typical of Melburnians is he?
Technically he’s from South Africa anyway…
Great video, and it takes an Auzzie to give us a good over view of whats coming.
Actually a Canadian Urban Transit expert YTuber, RM Transit, did a thorough overview of it about 2 years ago.
I genuinely think people of Auckland have NO IDEA how transformative this is going to be, just like many in Sydney didnt know what was about to hit them with the Sydney Metro. A shame that there are still many level crossings in Auckland and some of the infrastructure is not fit for purpose, which will come into focus as patronage picks up once CRL opens and the network becomes MUCH more useful.
It's crazy that there are still no plans to extend the System to Auckland airport.
That light rail line to the airport (which got cancelled) would have been stupid
@@nicolasblume1046 I have to disagree, the surface light rail as it was originally planned would have been a good project, Auckland needs surface rail especially for redundancy that’s another thing that has worked so well in Sydney. It was only once they went off-piste and started trying to build a poor man’s metro that Auckland light rail began to lose all sense.
@@nicolasblume1046 The decision to go with light rail to airport came from:
1) Extending from Puhinui looks easy on a map, but wouldn't make much sense operationally speaking, because they'd have to divert some Southern Line trains to the airport, making service worse for everyone further south.
2) Extending from Onehunga makes more operational sense - and comes with more benefits, because you can have stations in Mangere and Airport Industrial Zone - but we've had studies for years telling us that Onehunga-to-Airport would be much cheaper to build with light rail than heavy.
3) _Completely unrelated to the airport,_ Auckland Transport started asking for the revival of some of our old tram routes to ease the pressure on our most congested bus routes, such as Dominion Road. Attaching an airport extension to that project was very much a case of seizing opportunity, rather than the airport being the main goal (which is why we ended up with such an indirect route).
Unfortunately the airport immediately became the focus of it in the media, which resulted in all the criticism being on how well-suited the project was for airport commuters rather than what to do about the congested bus lines.
And that pressure to think about the airport first - plus I think some terror among politicians that a surface route would cause too much disruption, which would be politically unpopular after the disruption CRL caused - made them decide to bury it underground in a pseudo-metro, instead of committing to either a true high-capacity metro or an affordable surface light rail. Ended up with the worst of both worlds.
We're lucky that it got cancelled after goofed design like that, but unlucky that the whole idea was thrown out with no plans for replacement.
@@nicolasblume1046 They need to build it from Puhinui Station. Shortest & most central to the Airport. But like all good idea's it was trashed. AT needs to pull their finger out & make daylight happen for Auckland to move on.
@@BigBlueMan118 oh absoluty, surface rail lines are badly needed! But more for Medium distance routes to replace the most conjested bus lines.
The route to the airport is quite long.
It would be okay though if it would just be an additional connecting to a mainline rail connection (which would also be better suited with the far bigger trains).
The mostly underground light rail proposal was really stupid though. Very expensive, but still the same capacity as the surface version.
If they want to build an expensive Tunnel then they should built a full metro line possibly under the harbour to the north shore and then elevated
Denmark is building s tunnel to Germany under the sea. Auckland Harbour is not deep. Denmark is building the tunnel section on the land while a trench is built. Then the tunnel sections are placed in trench. So train could come from Takapuna to the city. Orewa to Takapuna with branch line starting at Silverdale to the bays and Albany joining at milford.
@@adsdft585 Yes but that tunnel is to link the giant economy of Germany to the economies of Denmark & Sweden, so there is a benefit many magnitudes larger. And NZ has seismic regulations not needed in Northern Europe.
Having said that; I wish that a tunnelled second harbour crossing could be begun ASAP and that it would follow the plan laid out by the government back in 2004 to have a light rail corridor under 3 road lanes instead of all this faffing about with bridge proposals.
I also hope they can fix the operating hours, the 10pm finish Sunday through Thursday means getting back from shift work, events, family do's or the sort leaves you trying to find a bus, some of which may run to midnight, or potentially completely stranded and forced to get an uber or taxi back home.
Apparently they are trying to extend this to 11pm post-CRL but its still a bit shy of where it should be. Midnight in the least would be great, and buses that do the same routes as rail until at least 1 or 2am would be awesome as many stations aren't covered by the late running bus routes.
I am told the limited span on weekdays is due to the maintainance window by Kiwirail. But surely there must be some point at which they can get maintenance done in shorter windows?
Its very frustrating as a user that since the 2000's its still 10pm-ish end time on weekdays. While buses and ferries seem to have spanned to midnight for about as long now.
The early morning can be a bit limited as well, many people travel west to south for early morning jobs in the southern industrial areas, but you cant even get there for 4-5-6am shift starts which are quite common, as the western train doesnt even start until about 5:15am from Henderson, getting you there a fair bit after 6am. No bus alternatives either as they also generally start 5ish. This means you have to travel during peak to get back home in a lot of cases. There is going to be time of use charging as well, so don't see how thats fair when you don't even cater properly to shift workers. You don't need to be 24/7 but you can at least minimise the gap.
Cars and cycling on the other hand are 24/7. But then cycling we barely do half decent network. So many people are forced to drive. 9-5ers are just oblivious and think we don't exist (I am also a 9-5er for many years now but I still remember my roots).
The drop to 30 min frequency after 7pm also leaves quite a lot to be desired. I hope they can make it 15-20 min frequency until at least 9ish after the CRL.
It's crazy that some of our bus routes, which are meant to be supporting the rail network not outpacing it, are doing much more frequent runs at those times. In some situations they beat the train for journey time.
Another thing I reckon is the western line could really drop a lot of the unnecessary stops like fruitvale, morningside and baldwin which have easy frequent bus connections to the next station alongside (such as 14, 20 and 22), needs of the many outweigh the few and all that. But it's probably a tough sell to politicians and customers, we have seen that with Te Mahia for example.
Part of that timing is actually to allow freight trains to use the network rather than just for maintenance.
Absolutely agree with you though, it's ridiculous that you can't even go see a movie after work without having to take an Uber home cause the trains are off and half the buses have stopped.
Happened to me last week and it was a bitter reminder of unreliable our network is.
@@ceasefirenow-eq9dyProblem there is that they'll close those stations now but in 5-10 years they'll be wishing they hadn't when those buses can no longer keep up with demand
Just image if National had built a train line from Howick to the city vai Panmure or Otahuhu. Also if Avondale to Onehunga line had been completed with a tunnel under the harbour to Mangere Bridge and one too the airport vai Mangere town centre and then onto Middlemore and the main trunk line. Plus widening the tunnel between Swanson and Waitakere . All could happen during the period 1949 to 1984 ( National were the government for 29 years).
The harbor crossing is certainly already a bottle neck. I'd love to see a true north/south line across the harbor. As someone who used to use public transport from the north many years ago, it was a nightmare. There are some solid bus lanes along the northern motorway, but I'd prefer they were used to lay train lines, so maybe there is already some ground work there.
Good attempt at the Maori names, and mostly not awful - Onehunga (Oh-knee-hung-a ) was probably the main one that needs improvement ;)
We used to be able to take a train, a reliable train to most places in NZ. Now we can't even get a reliable city rail service
I'm excited about this very necessary network of railway. Especially having recently been to Japan. Admittedly that would be a foolish notion to think about Japan and New Zealand in the same capacity but Japan is certainly an inspiration. Provided we experience a favourable societal change in Auckland culturally where our love for motor vehicles wanes over time and a safer society unlike what we're currently experiencing succeeds. We're certainly not prepared for more E vs. For these projects to materialise we're going to need a rapid increase in our population with productivity and prosperity to give leverage this utopian dream however. It doesn't come cheap. Pronunciation of names is the least of our worries but good effort.
There are lots of things about Japan than New Zealand shares but the sloppy way NZ govenrment runs projects would have people imprisoned if it was in Japan.
One impressive achievement of Japan's railways is that they show us that 3'6" track gauge (or 'Cape Gauge') can operate full electric train services which are fast enough and frequent enough to give travellers a good quality of service. In Europe, such a track gauge is seen as 'narrow gauge', suitable only for tourist and mountain railways. 'Cape gauge' started with the British engineers in the 1850s who built the Cape Colony (later Cape Province)'s railways to 3'6" gauge, and this gauge spead not only to Australia (QL and WA) and NZ, but to Japan when it began its modernisation from 1869. 'Cape gauge' is only 3" wider than the metre-gauge (3'3") that one finds on secondary lines in several European countries, but that extra 3" seems to make the difference between a 'narrow gauge railway' and 'main line railway' on which (fairly) high speeds are possible. NZ could do well to take much more advice from Japan on how to provide a good quality railway on 3'6" gauge. (Only the Skinkansen high-speed trains in Japan operate on standard (4'8½") gauge.)
This is very cool. Hopefully it's not cancelled
Melbournes rail network is also largely the system it had in 1900
What an opportunity to widen the track width.
Wait, airport link from the west end of the loop? Why? Isn't the airport to the south of Onehunga?
Onehunga is "on-nay-hung-a" (or 'oh-nee-hung-a' if you're lazy). Sometime we joke that 'One Tree Hill' is prounced the same way - 'on-nay tree hill'. It's definitely not "wunny-hunga".
"on-eh-hung-ah"* There's no "nay" sound, just "neh"
@@francois9747 Yep.. Maori has vowel sounds that are very similar to Spanish.
Auckland Needs a BRT system too, like Brisbane Metro. Could really work well for connecting the northern suburbs and airport. Just don’t call it metro.
In the 1980's there was a bus strike and lots of people used the trains to get to work, and I did not hear anyone complaining about having to walk from the old station
@@JL-jr9gk Things have changed in 40 years.
The network will still be limited by the time level crossings on the western line can be closed per hour. As it is some pretty major roads are about to be turned into car parks during peak times to achieve the journeys per hour promised for CRL.
Can't believe how they tool 10 years to build just 3km of tunnels
I know right? And for the entire time the CBD has been a disaster zone. Combined with endless lockdowns over Covid, it's utterly killed the city centre.
It's going to take at least 30 years to extend the lines to airport or north shore and beyond, Auckland city is a transport disaster.
I mean really it's taking more like 6 to put in the tunnel and 3 new stations (if it doesn't get delayed even further) but if you wanna stretch the definition a bit it's actually taken roughly 100 years to get the project from conception to completion
I am a former Onehunga line user and I can't say I am impressed. I used to be a huge fan of the onehunga line. They had limited stops in to the city so I could be in the city in 20 mins. They then changed 2-3 years ago to stop at Newmarket. This requires a transfer to then get in the city. Getting to the city is okay that way but getting home meant that when I arrived at Newmarket from the city there may not be an Onehunga bound train for 20 mins. This suddenly made the bus a better option. I have only used the train a few times in recent years and it is empty. These changes connecting Onehunga to the west via Newmarket make little sense.
@@davout71 Blame this complete cretin who works for the consultancy company that AT got to do its thinking for it under Phil Goff (MRCagney) called Nicholas Reid. He is this absolute creep who always thinks his ideas are the best and that his ideas should happen, and one day he thought of making the Onehunga line a shuttle. He was also the driving force behind Te Huia and the light rail to the airport. He has no actual credentials in railways nor engineering.
Love your video mate How about you make a video on Thessaloniki Metro system The one that's going to be built
they should extend the onehunga line to the airport then out then airport to the other side linking into the manukau line then expand line from manukau to botany and then link into panmure
I'd add Howick to that. Linking to Botany would be amazing but with zero all day parking for anyone coming from howick/meadowlands area the rail system would really need to go right out there too. Even the bus system is inadequate. People park at the shopping centre to take the bus into the city but there's signs up warning against that so there's actually no proper parking for people who take the bus, they just risk not getting towed/tyre-locked or fined on a daily basis. Not sure if they ever check now but I did see a car tyrelocked years ago at Botany.
New moose vid? Yes please!
You mean reshape part of auckland,a huge part of auckland has zero acess to the rail lines or even bus lanes.
No the city rail link wouldn't help much, all it does is added two stations in the city centre. It doesn't make getting onto the trains from the suburbs any easier!
And lets not mention how the taxpayers have to pay over $100m in interests each year because of the huge debts to fund this project, and the revenue from this is projected to be less than $10m each year? Who the f did the cost benefits analysis for this?! (The data was on a nzherald article somewhere)
@@jamescheung3258 It also greatly increases network capacity, allowing far more frequent train services.
It means they can re-route the trains to make everything faster, and it also massively reduces the bottleneck at Britomart meaning the trains can be more frequent. It's not adding a loop with its own trains (which would absolutely be a waste of money). The existing lines are what are going to be using those tracks, and it will make those lines more efficient.
@@Cameron4263 yes but it still doesn't make getting onto the trains from the suburbs any easier, assuming the trains are actually running normally...
This is a good summary but it’s not hard to research and find there will be no surplus capacity to use for new lines like to the airport
Really? That's crazy
@@urbanistfromwhk7682 That makes no sense. Turning any railway terminus into a through station always results in more network capacity.
Via Puhinui that's true, but via Onehunga there doesn't need to be extra capacity. It's the same services feeding through from West or wherever, just going further. No different to extending the southern line to Pukekohe.
The promised frequency will never happen until several level crossings on the western line are removed and as the Western and southern line will be linked, the tunnel will effectively slow down the southern line until perhaps a billion dollars and decades wait for the Western line upgrade which isnt even being spoken of yet.
There used to be trams going up and down Queens street the main road and central road in the CBD
No North Shore rail . No rail to the airport . It is a third world rail service
centuries after London, Auckland's finally getting a subway ... really impressive how long it stayed into the middle of age of public transport ....
@@sneakyc4713 This isn’t a metro. And London began its underground in the 1860s, not exactly “centuries ago”.
@@danieleyre8913 more than 1 century ago. yea. Still really impressive how long it stayed in the middle age of public transport.
@@sneakyc4713 London even in 1860 was many times larger and more heavily populated than Auckland now. Auckland was a village in 1960. And London was the first city to do it.
Hahahaha at how you double down on this…
@@danieleyre8913 so what? in the history of public transport, many small cities of a few hundred thousand inhabitants have had metro and better public transport than AKL ... AKL just chose to suck ... you seem quite the AKL fanboi
@@sneakyc4713 Are you 13 years old or something?
I always turn up and go for trains in Auckland and seldom have an issue.
You need to do more videos on Brisbane
I would of thought the best way to connect to the airport would be to extend the Onehunga line then potentially connect it to the southern line
Onehunga is Oh-knee-hung-ah and Waitemata is Why-tea-mat-ah. But the important point is this upgrade is a shortfall of what is really required to solve transport in Auckland
Sorry those pronunciation guides are wrong - it's prnounced exactly as spelled, phonetically: Ō-ne-hu-nga and Wai-te-ma-tā, no need to have weird spelling indicating the wrong way to say it
@@oatsnpeaches420 I'm aware this is not how they are taught. I was trying to explain it to someone not familiar with Māori vowels sounds. He had obviously seen the correct spelling and got the pronunciation wrong the first time
@@mattgthor Ok fair enough. But you're still teaching someone the wrong pronunciation regardless... I think you probably mean Awe-*neh-who-nga and Why-teh-mah-*taa. Again this is a terrible way to teach someone unfamiliar with any language - to reduce it to English 'sounding' words. It's not done with other languages, only ever te reo, and it's just strange. Te reo is phonetic. Easy. No spelling lessons required!
Why is there no rail network that goes to the airport as most countries in the modem world do ?? NZ trains are a complete and overlooked joke !! To get from Henderson to the airport one must take a train to Britomart and then two or three buses to the airport.
Sounds like pretty much anywhere in Auckland. Where I am I'd have to walk, bus and bus or walk, bus train, bus. One of the options finishes at domestic so i'd then have to walk or take the connector bus if i was flying international... and that's with me living near a big shopping centre where you'd think there's surely a somewhat efficient option 😂
The airport line will likely be a continuation of the onehunga line
Auckland need a metro from the North Shore, under the harbour and down Dominion road to the airport using Alstom Metropolis 4 car sets like Montreal.
The tunnel machine we should of bought 40 years ago, surely would have dug all the tunnels by now even in the suburbs as well as the hills north of auckland?
Yea and the trains don’t show up half the time or are delayed
Your obsession with Airport link with city is real strange ie because if one is wishing to go south you would have to go north first ... it would be far better to have a recipical loop ie manukau then train station would between the new and original runways ...
Additionally either having a dedicated line to the port or relocating the port facilities ... else where ...
In the mean time the central city has lost its attraction to Malls spread around the Greater region and now even those are being down graded a vicious circle ...
Unfortunately the trains will hardly ever work under the current management.
The maintenance and running cost of crl is horrendous. 250 million a year
@@iainfenwick2433 That sounds like BS.
Whangarei needs a 4 lane hiway between whangarei and auckland
Dont worry about the language police, most cant speak English without mangling it so for those its a bit much to be preaching. Youve done well. Very good overview and detail.
fantasic!! But mr brown whats a corolla bridge. Will other cities like wellington send money to auckland for this or will wellington fix its PIPES!!
What about Yamanote line
3:09 - Britomart and Mt.Eden are to be replaced by Moari names?
Do you know you've got a caterpillar on your lip?
A good City Moose film about the plans for an intercity link involving new construction in Queensland shows what can be done - the plan is for a partly new line from Brisbane to Sunshine Coast in time for the 2032 Olympics. Cape gauge is showing what it can do in QL as it has done for 150 years in Japan! Kiwi Rail can learn from QR. See: ua-cam.com/video/r2l8POMz9BU/v-deo.html
Great video....em....Onehunga is pronounced. o-na-hunga
You proved in this vid why changing the names to obscure Maori names is a bad idea.
Auckland spent almost half a billion dollars on a busway that has no busses operating during the night so aucklands lowest paid highly exploited hospitality workers have no access to public transport to get home after work and have to spend their entire pay check on ubers, disgusting
So go get educated, build a better skill set, earn a better paid job, problem solved.
@@Timetofly8888 Not the brightest are ya
@pro-storm4951 No one owes you anything. Build a better situation for yourself like millions before you. I'd say it's you that's not too bright if all you have is excuses and blame as to why your life is not to your liking. No one's forcing you to work a low paid job in hospo.
@pro-storm4951 if you think there isn't any other way to succeed in life, I don't think it's my intelligence that's in question here. Difference is, I don't demand others fix my life issues with every excuse under the sun why I can't take responsibility for my own life choices.
@@Timetofly8888 What are you talking about?
We need hospitality workers. Someone needs to do that job. It’s a great job for people who’re studying to get themselves highly qualified. Why should they be deprived public transport that could be offered?
The level of noddy you must be to think along lines so stupid…
The digging started almost a decade and destroyed the businesses in the city and still a long way from the finishing . It a total mess. Change its name from City of Sails to City of Cones. Maybe another decade but the CBD will be in tatters by then. Good Luck Auckland
Correction. The CRL was foisted upon us with a grossly understated projected cost and with a lack of alternative options being considered. We didn't need this tunneled rail system at all. All we needed was increased surface rail lines between Newmarket and downtown Auckland. It is not difficult to change trains at a station such as Newmarket if there are sufficient trains running. London commutes often mean passengers change trains at several stations in the course of their journey. The CRL really only provides a rail link from K Road down to Britomart as an additional benefit, which can easily be achieved by express buses running between these destinations. The cost of dual tracking Newmarket to Britomart would have been minimal certainly not 6 billion.
Yes it is a lesson in how city staff can push through a really expensive project that will only benefit a few of those paying for it.
First sensible comment I've seen here
Why are New Zealanders so scared of investing in quality? The City Rail Link isn't just about adding a few extra stations it's about increasing the capacity of the entire rail network by 50%. The additional stops are simply a bonus. CRL means more trains, faster services, and improved public transport for EVERYONE on the entire rail network from Swanson to Pakakura. By the early 2030s, Auckland could have around two million residents. Buses and what ever you are proposing simply can't compete with these numbers. They are a bandaid, not a fix.
The CRL is a long-term investment which means it does cost money. The benefits it will provide to businesses, productivity, and even just the experience of commuting are incalcuable. The CRL means sorely needed vibrancy urban renewal for the city centre. For instance Te Waihorotiu Station is set to become the busiest in New Zealand, with an additional 154,000 pedestrians passing through Wellesly street each day (AT website).
Have some civic pride, they are about to complete what is literally the biggest infrastructure project in the countries history, this is a phenomenal achievement that will make auckland a city worth living in and visisitng. Forget about the cost of the project for a moment and consider the vast benfits ecconomic and otherwise to the ENTIRE city.
@@rickhanover6267 Yes yes because Rick Hanover knows everything unlike those career civic planners and railway staff.
Britomart was at capacity, now it is a trough station, its capacity has increased many magnitudes. Newmarket to Britomart was already double-tracked! Quad-tracking would have meant massive demolitions through Parnell, another tunnel, another viaduct near the strand, more demolitions near the old station, and demolition of the Spark Arena and all this other buildings build over the existing tracks and where the new tracks would need to go. And capacity would have been barely increased.
Stop deluding yourself that you have a clue.
Auckland is decade to late building it!
Auckland should have an city ring and trains sout-north east long times.
Millions and more in agglomeration ...all planed on streets to 99% is creepy.
Auckland decades ago and christchurch, wellington, rest of country would follow after forerunner example.
Onehunga is pronounced "Oh-nee-hunga"
Good video. The North Shore (Te Rakipaewhenua) and airport out Manukau need rail lines. Thank you.
@@4evaavfc The airport does not.
The North shore does though. They really should plan converting the northern busway to a light metro and tie it in with the second harbour crossing.
Auckland railway hasn't improved much when I first rode it 12 years ago
Francois is making good money …. Those who know , know
The most baffling part of this development is to rename the major station in Auckland from Britomart to "Waitemata", it's been called Britomart station for over two decades and absolutely no-one is going to start calling it Waitemata now so it's just going to create a lot of confusion for tourists and visitors. Given the massive amount of change and complexity involved in the CRL project, I can't understand adding a totally unnecessary change like this into the mix as well.
Orc Central would work fine 👍
Britomart sounds kind of lame though ... Waitemata doesnt
It's totally necessary to restore the original, true Māori names to these landmarks as it should have always been. Never should have been called "Britomart" because nobody know who the hell the guy is anyway! Not even from Aotearoa!!
It makes more sense in the long run once people get used to it since it's at the Waitematā Harbour, whereas the station isn't even in the same place as Point Britomart which physically doesn't exist anymore.
And the adjacent area is called Britomart place... go figure. I do think it will phase out to Waitemata and people will eventually get used to it just like Spark Arena when it was previously called Vector Arena (I was always just calling it Vector and then suddenly found myself calling it Spark one time and never went back) and Mt Smart that is now whatever it is called. People do eventually just get used to it and move on so even though lots of us will keep thinking/calling it Britomart there will come a time when that switch just happens.
Transport infrastructure is very integral to a city's continued growth. Without it a city is immobilised. Looking forward to Auckland growing into the future. It's projected to reach 2 million within this decade alone and 3 million in a couple of short decades later.
By 2050 Oceania will look very different. With cities like Sydney and Melbourne reaching 8 to 9 million each, Perth and Brisbane reaching 5 to 6 million respectively and even Adelaide and Auckland surpassing the 3 million mark.
To put things in perspective, Sydney was 3 million people in the 80s 90s and already considered quite a mid to large sized city.
Really? With birth rates and populations in decline world-wide, where do you see this growth coming from?
@@Knitter-e7f From the hordes of people abroad with skills and professions to offer but lacking the quality of life NZ and Australia enjoy
Implausible, and Australia doesn't have enough water to support cities of that size.
@@marc21091 If Saudi Arabia has enough water through desalination and renewable energy, then Australia has that in spades.
This is an AI avatar right?