Te Waihorotiu Station newsletter 🚇 February 2025

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Friday 28 February, 2025

Kia ora ,

As we turn into the home stretch here at Te Waihorotiu Station, we are pleased this month to release our 'Journey to Completion' video. Click above to come on a video journey with us, looking back over the past five years and reflecting on what we have delivered.

As always, to contact us here at Te Waihorotiu Station you can email aotea@linkalliance.co.nz or call 0800 CRL TALK (0800 275 8255 and press option 3) to speak to us.

Kind regards,

The Te Waihorotiu Station team

Your new streets are taking shape

Streetscape works continue on Albert Street, between Wyndham Street and Mayoral Drive. With many areas now complete and open to the public, Link Alliance construction is now confined to smaller areas.

Kerb and footpath works on Albert Street outside Huawei Centre and Crowne Plaza Hotel are progressing well. Entry and exit lanes to the Atrium Carpark have been adjusted to enable these works - please follow traffic signage in place.

This week, we undertook overnight enabling works outside the Wellesley Centre (44 Wellesley St W) to prepare for the final stage of streetscape reinstatement works here. Following the implementation of this new layout there will be several pedestrian diversions over the coming few months. Bus services remain operational and the Convenience Store in the Wellesley Centre remains open.

This month we made further good progress in the Mayoral Drive area with much of the footpath now complete. We also continued construction of a large tree pit on Mayoral Drive (above), where we'll plant a tulip tree later this year to grow alongside the existing boulevard of tulips.

Come on a recent drone flyover with us - much of our streetscape reinstatement work is now complete.

First test train running!

A major step in a journey that will transform travel in Auckland was completed successfully this month when a test train made its first trip through the full length of the CRL tunnels. The 3.45-km-long inaugural journey ran south from Waitematā Station (Britomart) under central Auckland past the new underground stations at Te Waihorotiu and Karanga-a-Hape to Maungawhau Station on the Western/North Auckland Line. Since the first test train, several more trains have passed through as testing continues on the CRL. Read more about CRL testing here.

Station construction update

The Wellesley Street entrance building sits proud displaying its impressive poutama façade. Made up of thousands of coloured aluminium fins, this upper façade treatment is an expression of the tears of Ranginui (Sky Father). Isn't the building looking fabulous!

Over 4000 aluminium rods are now installed as part of the Wellesley entrance building’s feature ceiling. The rods are designed to mimic the stems of harakeke (reeds) and the movement of water – creating a rippled lighting effect. In the coming few months, a kauri carving created by Paraone Luiten-Apirana will be embedded within the rods. The carving will represent the kaitiaki (guardian) of Te Waihorotiu.

Has Dr Who arrived on the new Te Waihorotiu Station platforms? Maybe the Tardis has time-travelled to 2026 and already seen CRL in action. We’re yet to unravel the wrapping to see if Dr Who pops out, but it’s more likely to be an AT HOP card machine...

'Please stand clear of the platform – your train is now approaching'. These familiar words will ring out through the station speakers when the CRL opens in 2026. With platform construction now almost complete, all that remains to be removed is our temporary protection materials and the fences separating the platform from the rail corridor -- where intensive testing will continue over the coming year.

Final wayfinding is now in place in the station. The lighter blue indicates accessible options for customers. Te Waihorotiu Station has three main public entrances/exits - one at Wellesley Street and two at Victoria Street.

A question we are often asked is where Auckland’s heritage bluestone wall blocks originate from (we are currently reinstating this historic retaining wall near Durham St West). After a bit of research, we are led to believe the stone was originally sourced from a quarry on Rangitoto Island – which had been commissioned in the late 1800s as a source of stone for roads on the mainland and even the Bean Rock lighthouse foundation!

Reinstatement of the bluestone wall blocks is now almost complete! This month, another key feature of the wall took shape – the reinstatement of the bluestone stairs. While the bluestone blocks making up the wall were able to be salvaged, the stair treads themselves were in very poor condition when the wall was deconstructed in 2020. As a result, we have sourced similar bluestone material that has been fabricated to the original stair tread design.

Auckland Council's midtown regeneration programme

Find out all the latest information about the regeneration of midtown on the ProgressAKL website.

We also recommend you subscribe to Auckland Council's midtown newsletters - use this link to keep up-to-date with other construction project info and the exciting changes happening in the area. Click here to read the most recent midtown construction newsletter.

What's happening in midtown

Midtown is starting to really hum, with monthly street parties and a range of interesting activations. Read on here about the new openings in the strand arcade, and how the multi-sensory artwork Waimahara will bring Auckland Pride Festival to a reflective close.

The last word...

School’s back for the year – and so this month we thought we’d get some ideas from the next generation of transport planners. The five-year-olds interviewed in this video are some of the most adorable members of our project whānau. Here they share some insights with us on why trains are great, where the CRL will go once its built, and how we can make rail even better. How cute!

Contact Te Waihorotiu Station at:
E: aotea@linkalliance.co.nz
P: 0800 CRL TALK (275 8255) then press 3

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Te Waihorotiu - Latest News

Your new streets are taking shape

First test train running!

Station construction update

The last word...