KiwiRail has committed to never again shut down Auckland's entire train network after the City Rail Link (CRL) opens, with the railway owner saying the days of city-wide track closures will be "dead and gone".
Commuters have faced years of major disruption which has seen some lines closed for nine months at a time for track maintenance and upgrades.
But transport officials are bullish that the pain has been worth the gain.
KiwiRail chief metro and capital programme officer Dave Gordon said there would continue to be closures on sections of line in the future, but that a new maintenance regime would mean the train service would feel very different to passengers.
"We are committed to there not being full network shutdowns again," he told 1News.
"There's always work to be done associated with bits and pieces of line - there may be partial shuts - but we are committing to saying, the trains will always be running somewhere in Auckland every day of the year."
Gordon said a short-term commitment was to have the rails be available for passenger trains over the holiday break, which have long been unavailable.
"We want to ensure that over the Christmas and New Year break, the centre of the network - the CRL and through Parnell and Newmarket - that area remains open so people can use the rail for recreational purposes as well as commuting."
The commitment comes as Transport Minister Chris Bishop marked the completion of the five-year rail network rebuild programme on Thursday.
"Successive governments have invested more than $560 million - including $159 million in Budget 2024 - to carry out the work," he said. "The hardest and most disruptive work is now behind us. There really is light at the end of the tunnel."
Gordon conceded agencies had "used up" public goodwill with years of disruption while catching up on years of deferred maintenance with repair and upgrade works.
"There's always stuff to do, but the days of the massive shut are dead and gone," he said.
"People have to have confidence if they want to get a train, they can damn well get one."
The $5.5 billion City Rail Link is expected to open in the second half of the year.
Patronage growth stalling due to disruption - advocate
Public transport advocate Matt Lowrie said post-pandemic patronage recovery on the train network had fallen well behind buses and ferries, with the disruption a key issue.
"Imagine if we'd shut a motorway down for nine months," Lowrie said.
"There's going to be a period of time that's needed to just to rebuild trust in the network, that the network is reliable, that trains are going to keep running. It looks like we're not really going to get that until CRL opens."
Lowrie is an editor and spokesperson for the Greater Auckland blog.
He said many passengers had switched to buses or driving, or were working from home more as a result of train closures.
"People have given up on the rail network because it's been so unreliable because of all these shutdowns."
Buses have recovered to around 90% of their pre-pandemic usage levels, but trains have lagged behind at only around 65%.
"It's welcome news that we're going to see finally see some improvement," Lowrie said.
"It's a question I've been wanting asked for a long time, into the Christmas shutdowns in particular, because they have been a feature of Auckland's rail network for 20 plus years now, where we've had significant shutdowns."
Train commuters are being forced onto replacement buses during the testing. (Source: Breakfast)
However, the advocate said KiwiRail needed to publish data on network quality to demonstrate improvements and hold itself accountable after a half-billion invested.
He said metrics around unplanned track faults existed but were not made public.
"There's no way of comparing, you can't see how much better the network is."
Maintenance regime overhaul behind commitments
Gordon said KiwiRail had divided Auckland's rail network into 36 sections, allowing targeted maintenance on small areas while trains continued running in both directions.
"In future, we're doing it predominantly at night, with a small section closed, akin to a lane closure on a road where you have one way traffic for a period," Gordon said. "So trains can still run in one direction while we're doing the maintenance."
He said it would take around 18 months to transition to the new maintenance regime.
High temperatures saw multiple rush hour services on Auckland's train network cancelled yesterday. (Source: Breakfast)
KiwiRail was also extending its planning timeframe from slightly less than 52 weeks to 104 weeks, giving businesses and event organisers two years' notice of partial closures.
Gordon said the advance warning would allow event planners to avoid booking venues during affected periods and help Auckland Transport plan replacement bus services.
The CRL would create a more interconnected network with more trains, but he acknowledged this meant disruptions could cascade more widely than before.
"There's no such thing as a train only using one line - if I create some havoc at Henderson, it'll flow on to trains going through to Manukau," Gordon said.
Lowrie said the promised increased frequencies made proactive maintenance critical.
Officials take the first passenger trip on Auckland's City Rail Link after numerous budget blowouts and delays. (Source: 1News)
"When you've got a train every two or three minutes through the core, there's less breathing room if something goes wrong," he said.
"Auckland's network is pretty skinny, you might say, compared to almost all systems overseas, where you might have four or even six tracks through the city centre".
The advocate said transport officials had historically viewed the rail network as being primarily for weekday rush hour commuters - but year-round access to trains, such as for after-Christmas sales or New Year's Eve celebrations in the city centre was critical.
"Being able to get out and enjoy Auckland at any time of the year by train is really important, because that's how people can help travel around and avoid congestion, avoid parking and all the rest of the things that go with it," Lowrie said.
"It's really critical that AT deliver on on a metro network that is easy to use and frequent for everyone, not just for some trips."
He added the infrastructure improvements should also deliver faster journey times, but said Auckland Transport and Auckland One Rail needed to take advantage of them through a better timetabling of train services.
A major $330 million rebuild project on the city’s rail network begins in December. (Source: 1News)
In 2020, the discovery of extensive "rolling contact fatigue" damage across the rail network required two years of repairs amid regulator-imposed safety restrictions.
Several post-mortems were critical of what was described as an unsuitable maintenance regime, resulting from years of underinvestment while rail traffic only grew.
Then in 2022, KiwiRail's "rail rebuild" programme has involved replacing the foundations and improving drainage on significant stretches of the Auckland network. However, it came at the cost of lengthy rolling closures across the train system during upgrades.
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