CRL Milestones in Photos
Photos 2024
Click on any photo to get a larger view.
November 2024
NOVEMBER 2024: The sign is up. This is the Albert Street (near Victoria St) entrance to our new midtown Te Waihorotiu Station – one of three public entrances for future train passengers.
October 2024
OCTOBER 2024: With teams from KiwiRail and Speno, we've finished grinding the rails to make a smooth ride for our test trains.
OCTOBER 2024: With some of the scaffolding removed, we’re starting to get a clear view along our 40-metre escalator at Karanga-a-Hape Station’s Beresford Square entrance.
OCTOBER 2024: Overhead line equipment and the switch room at the eastern end of Waitematā Station (Britomart) has now been commissioned.
August 2024
AUGUST 2024: A dawn karakia in Mercury Lane to unveil the distinctive panels that wrap around the upper levels of our new Karanga-a-Hape Station.
AUGUST 2024: At Te Waihorotiu Station the installation of the first of several large station name signs.
AUGUST 2024: At the Karanga-a-Hape Mercury Lane entrance building, the façade there has been revealed and is for all to see.
AUGUST 2024: A large batch of aluminum rods at Te Waihorotiu Station ready to be installed as part of the Wellesley St entrance building’s feature ceiling.
AUGUST 2024: This is taken from the second underground level at Beresford Square where ceiling battens are being installed above the 40-metre escalator.
AUGUST 2024: The concourse and platform at Te Waihorotiu.
July 2024
JULY 2024: The ambassador of France to New Zealand, Laurence Beau, commemorated the re-planting of the Harvey Tree and the reinstatement of its original plinth as part of the streetscape upgrade works at Te Waihorotiu Station.
The Harvey Tree, an oriental plane tree originally located outside 93 Albert Street, was nurtured from a seed brought from Paris in the 1960s by businessman and Auckland icon Les Harvey.
JULY 2024: The second high voltage permanent power source for Karanga-a-Hape Station was livened, this time in the form of a 1.2km long 22kV power cable running through one of the tunnels from Maungawhau Station.
JULY 2024: Tunnels now display lights, switches and signals.
JULY 2024: Fire and Emergency team members tested the feasibility of extending their handheld radio coverage from street level down into the CRL tunnels.
JULY 2024: The first of a batch of 23 new electric passenger trains for Auckland's railway network, being built in Mexico .They will help support the level of service needed for CRL from day 1.
June 2024
JUNE 2024: The permanent Maungawhau exterior strip lighting was installed, illuminating the dramatic ‘sky element’ façade by artist Tessa Harris (Ngāi Tai Ki Tāmaki).
May 2024
JUNE 2024: Pavers are laid at the Karanga-a-Hape platform.
MAY 2024: The Harvey Tree, an oriental plane tree growing outside 93 Albert Street, is back. Cuttings from the tree were cultivated in a nursery.
MAY 2024: Our mana whenua partners provided karakia to mark the recent completion of the "sky element" feature on our midtown Auckland Te Waihorotiu Wellesley Street entrance building.
MAY 2024: We switched on lights on CRL’s striking new stations midtown at Te Waihorotiu (above) and Maungawhau.
MAY 2024: The four corners of the Te Waihorotiu Station now with completed train tracks, cable trays and the overhead line equipment.
April 2024
APRIL 2024: How the tunnel portal area at the Maungawhau Station construction site looks as backfill finished. It’s the end of work to shift one massive pile of dirt and then replace it with another at our site.
APRIL 2024: A first-ever never to be repeated performance. To help launch NZ Music Month Aotearoa singer and beatmaker Geneva AM became the first ever artist to perform on the City Rail Link underground platforms.
APRIL 2024: At Te Waihorotiu Station. ultra-thick glazing is now fully installed across the station’s seven skylights, representing the Matariki constellation.
APRIL 2024: Minister of Transport, Simeon Brown and Auckland Council Deputy Mayor Desley Simpson tour our construction to get an updated look of the progress.
APRIL 2024: Installation of overhead line equipment (OHLE) is well underway and will supply power to trains when they’re travelling inside the tunnels.
APRIL 2024: We ran a training session recently with the KiwiRail track maintenance team on how to maintain track inside the CRL tunnels,
APRIL 2024: The Karanga-a-Hape Station team has finished the installation of the escalators in the Beresford Square entrance that will take commuters from street level to the concourse level.
March 2024
MARCH 2024: At Te Waihorotiu Station, the first two 22 kilovolt transformers have been livened along with the first two low voltage main switchboards. These help distribute power where needed within the station once operational.
MARCH 2024: CRL’s CEO Sean Sweeney hosted senior representatives from Fire and Emergency NZ and New Zealand Police on a walkthrough of the developing stations and the underground tunnels.
MARCH 2024: The CRL Mana Whenua Forum and Link Alliance on site at Maungawhau Station celebrate the first completed and revealed sky element on the new CRL stations.
February 2024
FEBRUARY 2024: We’ve finished completed installation of the second and final railway line below the central city.
The newly laid 3.4 kilometres of track will carry trains underground north from Maungawhau Station at Eden Terrace and connect with the two new central city ones – Karanga-a-Hape and Te Waihorotiu – and downtown’s Waitematā Station (Britomart). CRL’s southbound line was installed last year.
It gives the green light for testing trains through the tunnels.