Long before the first tunnel boring machine broke ground for the City Rail Link, Auckland planners were dreaming up underground rail plans — an idea that survived nearly a century of shelved proposals to finally open this week.
With thousands of pages of studies carried out across the past four decades alone, the notion of running trains underground through the city centre predates the state highway and motorway network, the Harbour Bridge and the Sky Tower.
1News takes a look back at past proposals, key milestones, and how the way Aucklanders move has changed over the decades.
The 1920s and 1930s: tunnel plan abandoned
The idea of underground rail in Auckland can be traced back to the early 20th century, when the city's tram network was still the dominant mode of public transport.
At the time, the project was called the Morningside Deviation, and in 1924 the then-government approved it as part of a major package of rail works across New Zealand.
The plan would have connected the new Auckland train station at Beach Rd with Morningside via a tunnel of just over 2km, running beneath what is now the inner city.
The scheme also called for electrification of the Auckland network and other upgrades.
The progress and expansion of Auckland as the city prepares to hold half a million people by 1965. (Source: Supplied)
But the scheme was scrapped in 1930 by a new government amid engineering challenges, rising costs, and tough economic times.
World War II and the subsequent normalisation of the car in Auckland helped to dominate transport planning in ensuing decades.
The 1970s: 'Robbie's rapid rail'
Decades of studies into possible rail upgrades over the 1950s and 1960s culminated when then-mayor Sir Dove-Myer Robinson pushed hard for his Auckland Rapid Transit scheme.
The Auckland Rapid Transit plan was a key proposal of then-Auckland City Mayor Sir Dove-Myer Robinson. (Source: 1News)
Unveiled in 1972, his plan would have electrified the network, cut the number of stations to speed up service, and run trains through a city loop before extending west and north.
The scheme was tentatively backed by the Kirk government, but after the Muldoon-led National was elected in 1975, it cancelled the project, citing cost as a major factor.
TVNZ spoke to people onboard trains and at Auckland's main railway station. (Source: TVNZ)
1980s and 1990s: rail nearly leaves Auckland
By the late-20th century, Auckland's rail service — and public transport in general — was among the weakest of any comparable city in Australasia.
Trains still terminated at the Beach Rd station, a long walk or bus ride from most city jobs. Services didn't come very often, and the fleet of trains being used was old.
Simon Mercep reports on new diesel trains and proposals to improve rail in the city. (Source: 1News)
Converting lines to light rail or other alternatives was floated more than once during the 1980s and 1990s, but the network remained stagnant to the point where closing it during off-peak times and on weekends was also contemplated.
But rising patronage from new railcars, imported from Perth, and improved timetables helped to revive talk of improving train service in Auckland.
2003: Britomart, built to be extended
Amid the construction of Britomart, there are calls to build an underground tunnel under the CBD. (Source: 1News)
Bringing trains back into the core of the city centre had been posited numerous times.
But Britomart finally opened at the foot of Queen St in July 2003.
It was the largest transport project Auckland had ever undertaken — an underground station carved into reclaimed land that had once been the seabed of Commercial Bay.
Grander visions of a scheme, championed by former mayor Les Mills, of an underground bus terminal and car park were pared back as forecast costs and scepticism grew.
The city centre train station officially opened in 2003. (Source: 1News)
Mayor Christine Fletcher reduced the ambitions of the project, and the underground station was later opened by successor John Banks.
From the start, Britomart had been designed with a possible future extension in mind, with the deadend-nature of the station creating a bottleneck for service growth.
Patronage grew substantially following the opening of Britomart alongside service improvements, line double-tracking, and station upgrades. Much of that work came from a decade of regional pressure and central government funding.
By the 2010s, talk of capacity constraints forced the discussion of future expansion.
Reporters Mary-Jane Aggett in Auckland and Jen Nolan in Wellington compare the merits of the two cities' train systems for morning commuting. (Source: TVNZ)
2010s: political wrangling and electric trains
The creation of a single Auckland council in 2010 under the then John Key-led government, alongside the approaching Rugby World Cup, focussed attention on the region's transport system as a whole.
Both mayoral candidates Len Brown and Banks supported the central rail loop, but the former took more strident positions for more public transport across the region.
Aucklanders get a sneak peek of new electric trains and engineers test out the new units. (Source: 1News)
When he took office, Brown didn't relent - despite facing a sceptical government preoccupied with rebuilding Christchurch after the devastating 2010 and 2011 quakes.
Amid the political to-and-fro around the project, the repeatedly proposed underground loop finally settled on its lasting shorthand — the City Rail Link, or CRL.
In the meantime, the rail network got its biggest upgrade in generations.
After the decision to electrify Auckland's rail was confirmed, overhead wires went up, and a fleet of new electric units replaced the ageing diesels.
The new rail link should mean faster journey times for passengers in Auckland. (Source: 1News)
Britomart station, one of the few underground terminals in the world ever built to run diesel trains, would eventually see them barred altogether.
The stalemate over the CRL itself broke in 2013, when Key's government agreed to back the project — though it wanted construction to start in 2020 rather than the council's preferred 2016. Then three years later, Key confirmed the Government's funding share and cleared the way for the main works to begin earlier in 2018.
2016 onwards: construction and disruption
Taxpayers are going to pay half the cost of Auckland's multi-billion dollar City Rail Link. (Source: 1News)
Early works began in 2016 as the downtown shopping centre was demolished, with the council striking a deal to run new CRL tunnels directly beneath the new tower — now occupied by Commercial Bay — that would rise in its place.
Works also began on the route between downtown and midtown with cut-and-cover construction causing major disruption along Albert St.
Owners pushed for compensation and a $12 million hardship fund was eventually established, though many said it came too late and paid too little.
In 2018, with rail ridership climbing faster than forecasts, the then Labour-led coalition government and mayor Phil Goff moved to future-proof the project.
Some are threatening to protest over lack of action from the council. (Source: 1News)
New platforms would be built long enough for nine-car trains, and Karanga-a-Hape would get a second entrance at Beresford Square.
In late 2020, Goff unveiled the tunnel boring machine that would carve the twin tunnels from Mt Eden into the central city.
Named Dame Whina Cooper, the machine broke through into the Te Waihorotiu station box in September 2022, completing the second of the two bores.
Auckland Council will consider its share of the funding request later this month. (Source: 1News)
But amid Covid-19 disruption, costs blew out by around a billion dollars — to roughly $5.5 billion — and shunted the opening back from its original target of 2024 to 2026.
Over the current project's lifespan, it has gone from being estimated at around $2.5 billion when early works began in 2016, subsequently $3.4 billion, while the budget was reset to $4.4 billion in 2019 and has since grown to a final of $5.5 billion.
Officials said earlier this year they didn't anticipate any further cost increases.
The project's cost is in addition to years of costly works elsewhere, such as KiwiRail's track rebuild programme and level crossing removals.
KiwiRail's rebuild of the Auckland tracks, much of which dated back a century, shut lines for months at a time across 2023, 2024 and 2025.
Michael Holland takes a trip deep under Auckland’s central city. (Source: Seven Sharp)
Whole sections of the Eastern, Southern and Western lines were closed for extended periods, with commuters forced onto replacement buses.
Dozens of level crossings are also being removed, on the grounds that the more frequent trains the CRL allows would otherwise leave barrier arms down for most of peak hour.
2026: what finally opens
On Sunday, trains will run through 3.45km of twin tunnels beneath the city centre for the first time — from Britomart, beneath Albert St and Karangahape Rd, to a rebuilt Maungawhau station at Mt Eden.
Two new underground stations, Te Waihorotiu in midtown and Karanga-a-Hape on the ridge, put most of the city centre within walking distance of a train platform.
Te Waihorotiu takes its name from the stream that once ran down the Queen St valley and now flows beneath it in a pipe. Karanga-a-Hape restores the ridge's original form.
Maungawhau is the mountain the station sits in the shadow of, and the downtown terminus, long known as Britomart, was formally renamed Waitematā in 2023.
A century after the Morningside Deviation, the tunnel under the city is finally upon us.
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