Tens of thousands of Auckland train commuters will face major disruption to services until the end of 2025 as a major $330 million rebuild project begins in December.
In a media release, Auckland Transport (AT) and KiwiRail announced the work would see rock foundations under train tracks replaced across the city's 130km rail network.
The $330 million rebuild project comes after two years of widespread repair work and line shutdowns after extensive damage was found on KiwiRail-maintained track in 2020.
Disruption is also expected to continue after Auckland's $4.5 billion City Rail Link (CRL) tunnels open, though AT and KiwiRail say the "majority" of upgrade work will finish before it's completed.
A $330 million rebuild is taking place as rock foundations are replaced in preparation for the City Rail Link. (Source: 1News)
KiwiRail's chief operating officer of capital projects David Gordon said that even allowing some rush hour services would "push the completion date well beyond the start of CRL operations".
"Given the scale of what we have to do, using our normal evening, weekend and holiday line closures could take decades to get it done," he said.
"The rebuild involves replacing the rock foundations underneath the tracks, some of which haven’t been renewed since the Auckland network started being built in the 1870s.
"Replacing the railway foundations will remove the growing number of speed restrictions that have been placed on the network in recent years and make it much more resilient."
Beginning next year, the rebuild will mean years of rolling closures across Auckland's rail network. The Eastern Line between Britomart and Ōtāhuhu "will be closed for most of" next year from March 2023 until December 2023.
Meanwhile, the Southern Line will be closed between Newmarket and Ōtāhuhu from late December 2022 to March 2023, alongside the entire Onehunga Line. Officials said that more information will be available to affected passengers in November.
AT's manager of metro services Darek Koper said replacement bus services would be running, but that the agency would face "extra challenges" with ongoing driver shortages.
"The good news is that after this work is complete and CRL opens, Auckland will have a faster, more reliable rail network which will serve our passengers for decades to come."
Around 10% of the city's scheduled bus services have been cancelled in the past several months, due to driver shortages and absences from winter illness. Many weekend rail replacement buses have only been running every 60 minutes as a result - compared to every 20 minutes on the rails.
While Western Line services are not expected to be affected next year, AT and KiwiRail are warning that disruption will see sections closed in 2024 and 2025.
"The CRL will allow more commuter services, not just in central Auckland but across the city. However, for that to happen we need to make sure the existing rail lines can physically handle that growth," Gordon said.
After underground CRL stations open, Auckland's train services are expected to run every 7.5 minutes to suburban stations during rush hour, and every 15 minutes during the day.
But rebuild work on some "lower patronage" sections, between Puhinui and Manukau, and Henderson and Swanson will only be completed in 2025 after the CRL is expected to be opened.
"Once the rebuild is finished, the network will be up to a modern standard. We’ll need ongoing track maintenance to keep it that way, but this will be designed to avoid any major disruption."
Gordon said the disruptions would be used to "deal with issues that would otherwise need to be resolved later on" in order to avoid more future disruption.
Train services in Auckland have been disrupted since 2020 after KiwiRail undertook urgent work to repair fatigue cracks found across the the rail network. Line shutdowns were used by the agency to carry out extensive repair work.
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