A quieter week from us in after the last one, but here’s some stuff that caught our attention. Feel free to share anything you found in the comments!
This week on Greater Auckland
- On Wednesday, we had a guest post from Darren Davis about the state of rail across Aotearoa.
- On Thursday Matt went into the numbers and asked what was up with cycleway ridership?
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Another rail shutdown
With another long weekend we’ve got another rail shutdown, and that includes today.
Major rail upgrades to bring more frequent and reliable services mean no trains will be running from Friday 30 May to Monday 2 June, say Auckland Transport and KiwiRail.
The work is happening across the Auckland rail network to get ready for the opening of the City Rail Link (CRL) in 2026.
This four-day closure is part of KiwiRail’s ongoing Rail Network Rebuild programme. AT and CRL Limited also have work underway this weekend while trains aren’t running.
No trains will operate during this period, including on Friday 30 May, a standard weekday. To support passengers, AT will operate frequent all-stop rail replacement bus services (RBE, RBW, RBS, and RBO) across all lines.
And there’s more on the way
There will be two further rail closures during June and July to enable KiwiRail and CRL Limited to upgrade Auckland’s rail infrastructure and facilities, including disruptive work that needs to happen when trains aren’t running, and some stations are closed.
A full rail closure is planned for the extended Matariki weekend – from Friday 20 to Monday 23 June.
There is also a partial rail closure scheduled for the winter school holidays, from Saturday 28 June to Sunday 13 July. During these school holidays:
- There will be no trains running south of Puhinui Station and reduced frequencies on all other lines except the Onehunga Line.
- The Western Line will be a single line running, which allows construction work on one set of tracks at a time, while trains continue running on a second set, between Henderson and Swanson.
- KiwiRail will use this time to build a third platform and additional tracks at Henderson Station.
- As a reminder, especially during single line running – your safety is a priority to us. Before crossing train tracks, follow all safety signage and do not cross when the lights are on.
This work will enable more frequent trains for Western Line passengers when CRL opens in 2026.
Have your say on Western Springs
The council are currently consulting over the future of Western Springs Stadium with three options
Option 1 – Auckland Arena
This proposal is for a privately funded bespoke 12,500-15,000 capacity multi-purpose sports stadium for all of Auckland with high-performance facilities and fields, 8 indoor basketball courts, football, padel for community use, and commercial activity including hospitality options and a health centre.
Option 2 – Western Springs Bowl
This proposal is for a permanent music/festival venue, a 5,000-8,000 seat boutique stadium and community sport facility from a mix of private investment and ratepayer funding. Facilities also include a soundstage, clubrooms, corporate hospitality venue, and gym.
Option 3 – Neither option: either Keep things as they are or explore other ideas.
Time sign showing the speed of cycling and PT
Spotted this week on a commute!
Bikes on Buses
Transit Buzz reports that AT are expanding their trial of allowing bikes on some NX1 buses.
#BusNews: @AklTransport has confirmed that another 14 bike racks will be installed inside double-decker buses on the NX1 route over a 4-6-week period in during May and June 2025 as phase 2 of a bikes on buses trail. Phase 2 of the trial will run for at least a year.
— NZ Transit Buzz (@nztransitbuzz.bsky.social) 2025-05-27T05:22:34.482Z
From July 2025 any cyclist can use the racks but AT says they ‘cannot guarantee a predictable level of service’. The AT Mobile App will allow users to check in the ‘live departures’ section of the app to see if the bus headed their way has a bike rack on it or not.
— NZ Transit Buzz (@nztransitbuzz.bsky.social) 2025-05-27T05:22:34.483Z
MORE: haveyoursay.at.govt.nz/bikes-in-bus…
— NZ Transit Buzz (@nztransitbuzz.bsky.social) 2025-05-27T05:22:34.484Z
The Southerner is back (for a few days)!
After tickets sold out, the Southerner line will be running trips in October of this year. Maybe its time to bring back proper regional rail in the South Island?
After a successful four-day revival of The Southerner rail route, Great Journeys New Zealand is adding another round of dates so more guests can relive the nostalgic journey.
Originally operating from December 1, 1970 to February 10, 2002, The Southerner was a premier passenger express train that once connected Christchurch and Invercargill via Dunedin, travelling along the Main South Line.
[…]
Executive general manager of passenger Tracey Goodall said they were excited by the strong interest in ‘The Southerner Returns’.
“These one-off tourism experiences pay homage to the original passenger train that once connected Christchurch and Invercargill via Dunedin, travelling along the iconic Main South Line.
“The Southerner was renowned for offering a comfortable and scenic journey, making Invercargill the southernmost passenger station in the world. Its legacy as one of New Zealand’s most beloved train services endures, and now it is returning to offer a new generation the chance to experience part of this historic route once again.”

Scott and Mike Hosking about City Centre planning changes
With the City Centre part of Plan Change 78 approved by Auckland Council last week, what can be built in the heart of Auckland has changed (although only slightly). On Monday, Greater Auckland’s own Scott Caldwell had a chat with Mike Hosking about it.

New student accommodation announced
Precinct plan to build a new student accommodation building on Stanley St, a continuation of the city centre starting to expand into Grafton Gully.
As the city continues to expand in this direction two things immediately spring to mind.
- It increases the need to deliver the City Centre Masterplan including the Grafton Gully Boulevard to make Grafton Gully better for all users
- The need for the Albert Park Tunnels to provide better and easier connections from Grafton Gully to the universities and the middle of the city centre.
Greening Auckland
From Auckland Council, this looks like a great initiative.
This June, Aucklanders are invited to roll up their sleeves and dig in by planting a free native seedling in their backyard, and be part of a region-wide movement to increase Auckland’s ngahere (forest) canopy, bringing birdsong back to our neighbourhoods, along with numerous other benefits.
Auckland Council’s Plant More Natives seedlings campaign is partnering with community nurseries across Tāmaki Makaurau to give away thousands of native seedlings throughout the month of June.
The goal?
To help achieve Auckland’s Ngahere Strategy of increasing the regions tree canopy cover from 18 to 30 per cent by enabling Aucklanders to plant a native in their own backyard.
Paris to make more streets car free
Bloomberg reports
Paris voters opted in a referendum Sunday to close 500 more city streets to cars, making way for pedestrians, bikers and greenery. The plan, which will also remove 10% of Paris’ current parking spots, will expand on a green push by Mayor Anne Hidalgo that has already seen 300 streets planted and cleared of cars since 2020.
Coming a year before the end of Hidalgo’s second and final term, the initiative will continue to change the face and character of a city that has already taken major steps away from car dominance towards an emphasis on public transit and active travel. The aim is to pedestrianize five to eight streets per neighborhood, with locals being consulted this spring to determine which streets would be most suitable, and an average budget of €500,000 ($540,000 USD) per street.
The initiative, approved by 66% of voters, has been celebrated by Paris City Hall. Paris’ Commissioner for Green Spaces and Greening Christophe Najdovski said the strong approval margin suggests Parisians are saying clearly that they want “more pedestrian streets, fewer cars, more nature in the city.”

From the socials!

That’s it from us, have a good long weekend!
If we don’t take Option 1 for Western Springs, Auckland is officially cooked.
Precinct really pushed the boat out on the exterior design for the student accommodation. Never seen anything like that before /s.
Yes, yes, yes to the Albert park tunnels.
Well done Paris.
Options 1 and 2 are both doomed, because the NIMBYs and the Mike Lee/Lisa Prager conservatives are whipping votes hard for Bring Back Speedway
Horrible thing is we are 13B in debt and we are trying to keep something loss making. Whatever happens we need to sell it to a private company use the money to pay a little debt back start charging them rates don’t really care what they build there we need money and more efficiency in council. AT shouldn’t have spent money reversing the speeds but they had better not spend a single cent trying to put them back. Hopefully when AT is disbanded and they gut some of the departments wasting time building speed bumps only to rip them up again a month or 2 later. I’m sorry but the right and left just are both wasteful as someone who’s in the centre it’s frustrating to see advocating for keeping something wasting money we don’t have. Sell the speedway FFS and ban AT from building speed bumps we got around just fine before.
“ AT shouldn’t have spent money reversing the speeds but they had better not spend a single cent trying to put them back”
HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAAHAHAHAHAHAHA
god you are utterly delusional; but i guess that’s what smug centrists get if they can’t figure out there’s no middle ground between ‘can we actually try and prevent climate change from getting worse following evidence’ and ‘POLLUTE, CONSUME, DESTROY’
Oh god more trolling don’t you know where to stop? Who cares about climate change now we all know no matter what we do we’re screwed most scientists agree it’s far too late to start acting the only things we can do now is brace for impact, not build close to the coast etc. But I see you think that because I’m GenZ now I’m going to have to face the consequences, but sure laugh away and keep trolling if that makes you feel better.
The irony of calling someone a troll while using a different name each week.
Pretending to care about pedestrians while insisting urban speed limits go back up, lol.
funny, [insert town name here] is changing their story as well from “climate change isn’t serious you’re a poor feeble minded brainwashed dummy” to “climate change is a lost cause but also we should not do anything about it.” Probably got a spot reserved in a survival bunker or fortified floating city for the elite, eh?
and yes, it will make me feel better when a smug and egotistical individual crashes out realising they were wrong. Pride goes before a fall; and 3+ degrees locked in global warming by midcentury leading to mass crop failure, oceanic current collapse, famine, and likely billions dead certainly sounds like a fall to me, and eventually pollution-brained consumerist pricks (especially business-as-usual centrist traitors) won’t be able to deny that it was their fault.
I’m not “using a different name each week” another lie. Ok we know the affects of climate change are likely to be serious (not that we can do anything to stop it) but you’re only looking at the most extreme events it’s unlikely to ever be that bad for the next 200 years. Also watch this “it not my fault no matter how bad it gets” there I did deny it:… because I know it’s not any individuals fault one person can’t change the weather (well except the guy who invented cloud seeding)
you really buy the establishment narrative? ha, you chump. they don’t want to let on that we’re royally screwed and that the data is pointing towards rapid acceleration of temperature increase.
but i suppose that’s typical for centrists, you all want to delude yourselves that you can keep on living your comfortable consumerist lifestyle and that nothing will ever threaten it. utter foolish denial.
maybe the shock and horror of that illusion being torn down will change your mind, but it’s a pity the sane ones among us us have to suffer as well.
Fair call – you’re using different names on the same day, not each week.
If we don’t allow a foreign billionaire to privatise a public park, then the City is cooked?
If turning over all our parks to foreign oligarchs is the price of Auckland’s success, I say keep the place raw.
How does the bike rack thingie work when there is standing room only on a bus? Does the entitled cyclist demand three people stand up? Or does the driver point out that they have a bike and can ride it instead?
Why are you labelling the cyclist as ‘entitled’? This is a trial by AT so if you have any complaints, contact them.
Also, when you take a public bus to go from A to B, you pay a price for precisely that. It does not buy you a seat.
Yet apparently it will not cost a cyclist any extra.
In other words, it is an entitlement.
Therefore, the cyclist concerned is by definition entitled …
When do I stop being entitled? Is it ok to bring my scooter, pram, suitcase, backpack, umbrella, shopping bags or wheelchair on a bus? Or anything else that might take up more space than just myself?
Or are we just all ‘entitled’ to having a place on a bus and bring (most) things with us? I admit I might have misunderstood you.
From Oxford Languages:
Entitled: adjective.
Believing oneself to be inherently deserving of privileges or special treatment.
Notice the word “oneself”.
Again, it is AT who is trialling this for free so how can the cyclist be called ‘entitled’? Maybe the cyclist does want to pay, who knows.
Jeez you’re a sourpuss this morning Miffy.
Read the article. It’s for the NX1 only; a route which cannot be ridden in its entirety because it includes the Auckland Harbour Bridge.
Bikes-in-buses addresses this very obvious gap in Auckland’s cycling network.
In answer to your question (if not the phrasing of it), this is a trial. The point of trials is to see how things work in real-life scenarios.
Try being a bit more constructive. It may make you feel better.
If the bus is that packed, the cycle area will be unavailable due to the three fold-out seats in that space being occupied.
The driver will regretfully inform the cyclist that they should wait for the next bus, which might have more room.
The entitled cyclist will then explode in road rage and squash the bus and all its occupants flat with their own mighty machine.
Is this because AT refuse to follow many other global cities ( including most other NZ PT operators) and have external bike racks on buses?
They’re not common in Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane. They slow the trip down for the majority who are on the bus without bikes.
Bikes on PT doesn’t scale well, it’s never going to be a service for more than a few. Better to get the infrastructure in place to make it easier to bike the whole route or store bikes at PT stations.
Apart from getting across the bridge, I don’t see the point as an adult rider. I go about the same average speed as the bus in town.
For kids who maybe don’t want to fang it through traffic on the carriageway because the bike lane is now a sharrow, that’s a different kettle of fish.
It will likely be at the driver’s discretion like with trains and conductors. I don’t know why you need to say entitled cyclists, this is giving cyclists another option (other than the ferry) for getting from the north Shore to central Auckland since there isn’t currently a way to cycle there. Unless maybe we could free up a lane over the bridge for active modes?
Also fantastic to have a bus as an option on the Shore in case of bike breakdowns or any other mishap. I’ve used the train when I had a flat tire but North Shore doesn’t have that option so this fills that gap
Agree this is a really good progression. I imagine that any cyclist trying to depend on the service will use it outside of peak hours. For example, someone who bikes to work but then ends up staying late/going out for dinner/etc can now go home with their bike rather than either riding home in the cold and dark, or having to leave it at work then take another bus the next day.
If the bus is otherwise not at capacity then I don’t see any downside to letting a few bikes on.
No commentary on the Liverpool FC parade incident?
It isn’t entirely clear why the driver of a minivan ploughed through a crowd of people, but it seems the use of vehicles as weapons is on the rise.
The similarly doped up driver who rammed pedestrians outside AU Engineering school in March was granted name suppression, and coverage seems to have dried up.
New Orleans 2025, Toronto 2018 & 2025, Vancouver 2025, London, Ontario 2021, London, England, seemingly at least once per year for the last decade. Just a quick scape off the top of the newsfeeds.
Suggest a punchline: ‘How many lone wolves does it take to form a conspiracy?’
By all means, use these senseless deaths to advance your bet noir without reference to the actual facts.
Please do fill me in on the actual facts.
I’m just suggesting we need more pedestrian areas and beefy bollards.
Bikes on buses is a great initiative but there’s better way. Vancouver has a ‘bikes on transit’ program we can learn from. All their buses have front-mounted bike racks that hold up to two bikes. They also run a seasonal. If you’re nervous about loading your bike, they have practice bike racks at skytrain stations so you can practice first. Keeping the bikes on the front of the bus makes sense to maintain capacity.
Got an alert for more efficiency with the rail bus Western line; at Newmarket is now Olympic pool and Khyberpass stops so doesn’t have to go in and turn around.
Another carbuncle for foreign students to mar the face of Auckland.
CRL posting a video of the tunnels where they proudly display a 60 second dwell time at each station? Surely that’s way too long
https://youtu.be/NQheuyu5L_8?si=6HM3hxanTmKU6NpC
It’s KR, AT and AOR. KR wants the longer dwell times as easier to shorten the dwell time if a train is late. AT and AOR want it because longer dwell times lets them pad their reliability and ontime rates. While no one is looking out for train users/the wider economy. A few seconds per station per passenger per day adds up to a lot of savings. And this isn’t even a case of a few seconds now, it’s many minutes per passenger per day – depending on how many stations they’re travelling past.
Let’s get the Transport Minister to intervene and shorten the dwell times. It gets people to where they are going – FASTER.
Yeah I noticed that too, way too slow it’s like a big portion of the time between each of those stations.
I recently visited Mumbai and used the local trains extensively (an adventure in itself!).
They really do not hang about at stations. I did some timing and on average from full stop at the platform to starting to move again was 22 to 24 seconds.
The shortest dwell time I measured was, I kid you not, 18 seconds.
Yes, Melbourne has around a 20 second dwell time at a quiet station, even Wellington has around 30 seconds with a train manager.
In fairness when they’re 45 seconds at a regular suburban station 60 seconds will probably be reasonably standard at a busy inner-city station.
This needs to be sorted, but its needed to be sorted for 10 years now.
The bike racks on busway buses is good, have taken my folding bike on them but it’s not great at busy times. Wonder why they don’t use the external front racks?
They are concerned about health and safety risk of racks on the front, as well as potential longer dwell times. Having the ability to take a bike on board is fantastic for someone like me who has joint problems and would struggle to lift my ebike onto a rack. But having both options would certainly provide more carrying capacity!