The Auckland Airport Line was a proposed heavy rail line in Auckland, New Zealand, that would have linked Auckland Airport with the Auckland central business district via central isthmus suburbs.
As of 2022, the plan is to implement the connection via a new light rail line.
The main barrier to a rail link was the crossing of the Manukau Harbour between Onehunga and the suburb Māngere Bridge. Transit New Zealand announced in 2007 that a new motorway bridge duplicating, and alongside, the existing 1983 Māngere Bridge would be designed to accommodate a rail link. [1] In September 2007, Auckland Regional Transport Authority announced that it was willing to pay Transit $2.5 million to "future-proof" the duplication of the bridge in order "to accommodate a passenger rail connection".
The duplication of the bridge was completed in 2010. [2] The new bridge can technically accommodate a rail link, however this is a curved, single-track alignment with a design speed of 20 km/h. The successor to Transit New Zealand, NZ Transport Agency, provided for a rail corridor near the motorway as far as Walmsley Road. The proposed heavy rail line was the most popular with the public of the three Auckland rail proposals of Mayor Len Brown, although the number of trains would be limited without the City Rail Link to Britomart Transport Centre. [3] Brown had promised a rail link to the Airport during his 2010 election campaign as part of a package of measures to double public transport patronage within 15 years. [4]
The official name for the airport link in the Long-term Plan 2012–2022 is the South Western Airport Multi Modal Corridor Project. [5]
The Airport rail link planning study commenced in 2010. [6]
The Auckland Airport company asked for a decision by mid-2016 whether a rail or bus station would be needed at the airport, as it was planning a new domestic terminal, with construction to start in 2021. [7]
Escalating costs (estimated at $1.63b) for the heavy rail line to the Airport prompted some to raise the possibility of the route being served by light rail between Onehunga and the airport as an alternative to heavy rail. This option would make use of existing infrastructure where possible to reduce expenses and would involve an interchange with the existing heavy rail services at Onehunga. [8]
The line was initially conceived as an extension of the Onehunga Branch line over the Māngere Bridge and via the suburbs of Māngere Bridge and Māngere. However the 2016 study identified this as an expensive option:
These made an extension of Auckland's heavy rail network an expensive option. This heavy rail option would add three new stations (at Māngere Bridge, Māngere and the airport terminal) and require airport trains to run via the already-congested tracks and junctions of the inner Southern Line.
The heavy rail option would result in a journey time of 39 minutes from the airport to Britomart Transport Centre in Auckland CBD, at an estimated cost of NZ$2.2 billion. [10]
The choice of mode and alignment for the Airport Line remained contentious. In the 2017 general election campaign, promises of light rail to the airport were made by the Labour Party, which established the Sixth Labour Government with a coalition agreement. [11] [12] [13] One coalition partner, the Green Party, also favoured light rail although the other partner, New Zealand First, favoured the earlier heavy rail scheme. [14] The previous (National Party) government said that light rail would be eventually required, but would not happen for thirty years. [15]
On 28 January 2022, Transport Minister Michael Wood announced that the New Zealand Government has approved a NZ$14.6 billion project to establish a partially tunnelled light rail network between Auckland Airport and the Wynyard Quarter via the Auckland CBD. While the Green Party's Ricardo Menéndez welcomed the planned rail link, the ACT Party's transport spokesperson Simon Court claimed the project would be wasteful in terms of tax revenue. [16] [17]
Auckland Airport is the largest and busiest airport in New Zealand, with over 16 million passengers in the year ended August 2023. The airport is located near Māngere, a residential suburb, and Airport Oaks, a service hub suburb 21 kilometres (13 mi) south of the Auckland city centre. It is both a domestic and international hub for Air New Zealand, and the New Zealand hub of Jetstar.
The Auckland Harbour Bridge is an eight-lane motorway bridge over the Waitematā Harbour in Auckland, New Zealand. It joins St Marys Bay on the Auckland city side with Northcote on the North Shore side. It is part of State Highway 1 and the Auckland Northern Motorway. The bridge is operated by the NZ Transport Agency (NZTA). It is the second-longest road bridge in New Zealand, and the longest in the North Island.
Onehunga is a suburb of Auckland in New Zealand and the location of the Port of Onehunga, the city's small port on the Manukau Harbour. It is eight kilometres south of the city centre, close to the volcanic cone of Maungakiekie / One Tree Hill.
Māngere Bridge, officially also called the Manukau Harbour Crossing, is a dual motorway bridge over the Manukau Harbour in south-western Auckland, New Zealand, crossing between the suburb also known as Māngere Bridge and the suburb of Onehunga.
Waitematā railway station, commonly known as Britomart railway station or Britomart Transport Centre, is the public transport hub in the central business district of Auckland and the northern terminus of the North Island Main Trunk railway line. It combines a railway station in a former Edwardian post office, extended with expansive modernist architectural elements, with a bus interchange. It is at the foot of Queen Street, the main commercial thoroughfare of the CBD, with the main ferry terminal just across Quay Street.
Newmarket railway station is a station in the inner-city suburb of Newmarket in Auckland, New Zealand. It serves the Southern, Onehunga and Western Lines of the Auckland railway network, and is the second-busiest station in Auckland, after Britomart.
Māngere Bridge is a suburb of Auckland, New Zealand, under the local governance of the Auckland Council. Surrounded by the Manukau Harbour, the area is the most north-western suburb of South Auckland, and is connected to Onehunga in central Auckland by three bridges that cross the Māngere Inlet. Many features of the Auckland volcanic field are found in and around Māngere Bridge, including Māngere Mountain, a 106-metre-high (348 ft) feature in the centre of the suburb, and Māngere Lagoon, a volcanic tidal lagoon opposite Puketutu Island in the harbour. The suburb is also home to Ambury Regional Park, a working farm and nature sanctuary run by Auckland Council, that connects to the Kiwi Esplanade and Watercare Coastal walkways.
The Onehunga Branch railway line is a section of the Onehunga Line in Auckland, New Zealand. It was constructed by the Auckland Provincial Government and opened from Penrose to Onehunga on 24 December 1873, and extended to Onehunga Wharf on 28 November 1878. It is 3.6 kilometres (2.2 mi) in length and is single-track only.
Transport in Auckland, New Zealand's largest city, is defined by factors that include the shape of the Auckland isthmus, the suburban character of much of the urban area, a history of focusing investment on roading projects rather than public transport, and high car-ownership rates.
State Highway 20 (SH 20), also known as the Southwestern Motorway, is a New Zealand state highway linking State Highway 1 at Manukau with State Highway 16 in Point Chevalier, via Māngere and Onehunga. Along with its spurs, State Highway 20A and 20B, the state highway serves Auckland Airport, the country's largest, therefore making SH 20 a key arterial route connecting the airport to the wider Auckland region and most of the upper North Island. The route also forms the southern part of the Western Ring Route, a 48 kilometres (30 mi) motorway route bypassing central Auckland.
Public transport in Auckland, the largest metropolitan area of New Zealand, consists of three modes: bus, train and ferry. Services are coordinated by Auckland Transport under the AT Metro brand. Waitematā railway station is the main transport hub.
The Avondale–Southdown Line is a proposed railway line between Avondale and Southdown in Auckland, New Zealand. One of its main functions would be to remove north–south freight trains from parts of the Auckland rail system that have significant passenger traffic.
The Waterview Connection is a motorway section through west/central Auckland, New Zealand. It connects State Highway 20 in the south at Mt Roskill to State Highway 16 in the west at Point Chevalier, and is a part of the Western Ring Route.
The Second Harbour Crossing is the name given to the proposed second transport link across the Waitematā Harbour in Auckland, New Zealand. Planners have also referred to new links across the harbour as the Additional Waitematā Harbour Crossing (AWHC) or the Waitematā Harbour Connections.
Auckland railway electrification occurred in phases as part of investment in a new infrastructure for Auckland's urban railway network. Electrification of the network had been proposed for several decades. Installation started in the late 2000s after funds were approved from a combination of regional and central government budgets.
The Waikaraka Cycleway is an off-road cycleway in the south of the Auckland isthmus, New Zealand, running from the suburb of Wesley along New Zealand State Highway 20 to Onehunga and then continuing along the shoreline of the Manukau Harbour beside mostly industrialised areas until it ends at Hugo Johnston Drive, in Southdown.
The City Rail Link (CRL) is a rail project currently under construction in Auckland, New Zealand. The project consists of a 3.5 km (2.2 mi) long double-track rail tunnel underneath Auckland's city centre, between Waitematā (Britomart) and Maungawhau railway stations. Two new underground stations will be constructed to serve the city centre: Te Waihorotiu near Aotea Square and Karanga-a-Hape near Karangahape Road. Waitematā will be converted from a terminus station into a through station, and Mount Eden station will be replaced by Maungawhau station, a new station with four platforms to serve as an interchange between the new CRL line and the existing Western Line.
Auckland, New Zealand's largest city, is considering introducing light rail lines to replace some of its most heavily used bus routes. Many of these new light rail lines, if built, would reuse the routes of Auckland's former tram system. Light rail systems have been proposed in Auckland throughout the late-20th and 21st centuries following the closure of the tram system in the 1950s.
The Onehunga Line in Auckland, New Zealand is the name given to suburban train services that operate between Waitematā and Onehunga.
The City Centre–Māngere Line is a planned Light Rail line in Auckland, New Zealand, the first line in the Auckland Light Rail network. The planned route for the line travels from the City Centre to Auckland Airport in Māngere. Current plans are for part of the 24 km line to be underground, with a cost of $14.6 billion which would make it the single biggest transport project in New Zealand history.