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 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, and require airport trains to run via the already-congested tracks and junctions of the inner Southern Line.
The indicative business case includes a preferred heavy rail option with four new stations, at Māngere Bridge, Māngere Town Centre, Airport Business District and the Airport Terminal, [10] [11] though the general arrangement plans indicate a fifth station at Favona, between the two Māngere stations. [12]
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The 2016 proposed alignment of the line shows a duplicated railway in a trench from Penrose Junction (notably without a new Penrose station), passing under an elevated O'Rorke Road and surface-level Maurice Road, with a new Te Papapa island platform in a trench under Mays Road, Captain Springs Road being severed and the line passing under Church Street, then returning to ground level at a severed Alfred Street, Victoria Street and Spring Street (a new Onehunga island platform between these latter two). Galway Street would be permanently closed and the line ramps uphill around the tight curve to head south, cutting off the present Onehunga station, and passing over the top of the flattened Neilson Street bridge. The line would remain elevated over a proposed Galway Street extension, then pass underneath the new and old Māngere bridges about 200 metres ahead of their southern abutments, over Mahunga Drive to the first new elevated station of Māngere Bridge. From there the alignment continues south, along the western edge of the Southwestern Motorway, with the at-grade Favona station north of Walmsley Road. Further along, it uses a bridge to transition to the median of the Auckland Airport motorway with an elevated island platform for Māngere Town Centre west of the New Bader Drive bridge, then continuing as a bridge in the median beyond Montgomerie Road until Westney Road then pointing south, crossing over the southbound carriageway and across Verissimo Drive. After this the line drops to a tunnelled Airport Business District station, with the island platform below John Goulter Drive Extension, before a final curve west below Tom Pearce Drive then George Bolt Memorial Drive to finish at a tunnelled Airport Terminal island platform outside Ray Emery Drive. [13] A proposed station at Ascot, between Māngere Town Centre and Airport Business District, was noted as being difficult to provide on the ramp down from the elevated median to below the second airport runway alignment. [14]
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. [15] The draft indicative business case for the "high cost" (grade-separated) design showed a planned service every 10 minutes, with benefits rated at $625M and costs of $1,946M (at a 6% discount rate) for Benefit–cost ratios (BCR) of between 0.23 and 0.48, depending on the discount rates used, but excluding Wider Economic Benefits (WEBs). [16] These WEBs were separately shown to be in the order of $106M. [17]
An alternative hybrid rail plus BRT option saw the present Onehunga station site retained, with a bus terminal constructed over the top. Buses would operate over the outer lanes of the Māngere Bridge, then the west and north sides of SH20/SH20a until Kirkbride Road, then crossing to the median. The whole road, including the BRT alignment, was to be rerouted beyond Westney Road to avoid most of the second runway alignment, with an Airport Business District station running east-west at the intersection of Tom Pearce Drive and George Bolt Memorial Drive, and a terminating balloon loop for buses about 600 metres north of the main airport buildings. [18]
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. [19] [20] [21] One coalition partner, the Green Party, also favoured light rail although the other partner, New Zealand First, favoured the earlier heavy rail scheme. [22] The previous (National Party) government said that light rail would be eventually required, but would not happen for thirty years. [23]
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. [24] [25]
Following the 2023 general election, the incoming Prime Minister, Christopher Luxon, told media that his government would be cancelling the project "because it's a white elephant”. [26]
The business case for the cancelled project was released in February 2024, showing that every dollar invested would have brought an economic benefit of $NZ2.40. [27]
Auckland Airport is the largest and busiest airport in New Zealand, with over 16 million passengers served 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 serves as the domestic and international hub for Air New Zealand, and the New Zealand hub of Jetstar.
South Auckland ) is one of the major geographical regions of Auckland, the largest city in New Zealand. The area is south of the Auckland isthmus, and on the eastern shores of the Manukau Harbour. The area has been populated by Tāmaki Māori since at least the 14th century, and has important archaeological sites, such as the Ōtuataua stonefield gardens at Ihumātao, and Māngere Mountain, a former pā site important to Waiohua tribes.
Māngere is a major suburb in South Auckland, New Zealand, located on mainly flat land on the northeastern shore of the Manukau Harbour, to the northwest of Manukau City Centre and 15 kilometres south of the Auckland city centre. It is the location of Auckland Airport, which lies close to the harbour's edge to the south of the suburb.
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, formerly known as 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.
The Northern Busway is a segregated busway that runs along the eastern side of the Northern Motorway, part of State Highway 1, in the north of Auckland, New Zealand, linking the North Shore with the northern end of the Auckland Harbour Bridge. As of May 2022, the busway consists of two-way lanes running between Albany Station and Akoranga Station, and from Akoranga Station a southbound-only lane that joins the harbour bridge approaches just south of the Onewa Road on-ramp system. The busway previously ended at Constellation before an extension to Albany was constructed in 2022.
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.
The Auckland isthmus, also known as the Tāmaki isthmus, is a narrow stretch of land on the North Island of New Zealand in the Auckland Region, and the location of the central suburbs of the city of Auckland, including the CBD. The isthmus is located between two rias : the Waitematā Harbour to the north, which opens to the Hauraki Gulf / Tīkapa Moana and Pacific Ocean, and the Manukau Harbour to the south, which opens to the Tasman Sea. The isthmus is the most southern section of the Northland Peninsula.
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 (AT) under the AT and AT Metro brands. 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 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 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.
Between 2015 and 2023, Auckland, New Zealand's largest city, considered introducing light rail lines to replace some of its most heavily used bus routes. Many of these new light rail lines would have reused the routes of Auckland's former tram system. Light rail systems have been proposed in Auckland throughout the late-20th and early 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 was a planned Light Rail line in Auckland, New Zealand, intended to be the first line in the Auckland Light Rail network. The planned route for the line travelled from the City Centre to Auckland Airport in Māngere. Final plans were for part of the 24 km line to be underground, with a cost of $14.6 billion which would have made it the single biggest transport project in New Zealand history. The entire Auckland Light Rail project was cancelled by the National-led coalition government in January 2024.
