Auckland’s City Rail Link (CRL) trains have ventured out of the tunnels and around the inner city loop for the first time to simulate the services the public can expect from the new train network when the CRL opens in 2026.
Thirty-five drivers were involved in the tests, driving a combined total of 290 hours over two days, on Saturday 18 and Sunday 19 October.
It was the first of several network and frequency tests for CRL, which will culminate in tests of the entire new rail timetable, operating across the whole Auckland metro network next year.
During the testing, trains ran at a frequency of 18 trains per hour in both directions through the CRL tunnels and stations.
The tests extended around a loop to Grafton, Parnell and Newmarket and along the Western Line as far as Kingsland.
Mark Lambert, Auckland Transport Group Manager Rail Services, said the testing was a great milestone.
“We learned more about how the CRL will function in our network, and we found things we need to adjust, but no big hurdles,” he said.
“We can now tweak the timetable before the next round of testing.”
City Rail Link Ltd Chief Executive Pat Brockie said it takes a lot of planning to carry out this kind of testing, with hundreds of people involved in the preparation and on the day across CRL Ltd, KiwiRail, Auckland Transport, and its network operator Auckland One Rail.
“We want to thank everyone for their hard work – from the timekeepers to incident controllers, the drivers, and operation and test management teams,” he added.
The tests are a key step towards ensuring the CRL can perform as designed, and that Auckland Transport can operate the new train timetable with more trains, more often across Auckland.
“Eighteen trains per hour, per direction, is more than we’ll be running when CRL opens, but we need to make sure we test at maximum capacity,” said Lambert. “It’s all about safety and reliability.
“The trains simulated a normal journey, stopping at all inner-city stations so we could check they stopped in the right places, that they were stationary for the right amount of time, and that there was a safe distance between trains as they trialled the higher frequency.”
KiwiRail City Rail Link Programme Director Bevan Assink said: “KiwiRail was excited to work with our partners on this key milestone event providing train and overhead line control services and test monitoring via our rail and digital systems.
“We also had rapid response staff at key metro locations ready to restore the network if anything was required – happily the testing went very well!”
The City Rail Link is the largest and most complex public transport infrastructure project ever undertaken in New Zealand and the first passenger service built underground .
