While we still wait to find out the date the City Rail Link will finally open, Auckland Transport yesterday released the timetables that will be used, and announced public ‘First Look’ events at the stations.
First Look Events
AT will be opening up the stations, one weekend at a time, for people to look through. Tickets will be required but they will be free.
Auckland Transport, City Rail Link Limited and KiwiRail are also opening the new stations to the public through a series of ‘First Look’ events. These will be free, ticketed sessions, but numbers will be limited.
“This will mark the first time the public will be able to enter Auckland’s newest stations and we’re excited to give people the opportunity to experience them before passenger services begin,” says Mark Lambert.
Visitors will be able to walk through the stations, learn about their designs and hear more about how the new rail network will operate when the CRL opens. It will also allow people to rediscover the station neighbourhoods, which now feature upgraded streets and public spaces.
The events will take place over consecutive Saturdays in August:
- 8 August – First Look at Maungawhau
- 15 August – First Look at Karanga-a-Hape
- 22 August – First Look at Te Waihorotiu
Aucklanders can pre-register their interest in these events now using this link. Tickets will be available one week ahead of each event. Those who pre-register will get an email alert as soon as tickets are available to sign up for.
Each station will host ten one-hour sessions from 8am. From low-sensory and early bird sessions to busking and community performances inside, and food, pop up experiences and interactive installations and activities in the station neighbourhoods, guests are encouraged to choose the session that appeals to them most. Ticket holders will need to attend within the session they have registered for.
More information about the events, including how to get there and what attendees can and can’t bring, will be provided closer to each event.
We had a preview of the stations last month and they are impressive. As I said at the time, I think most people will be absolutely blown away by what has been built.
If you’re interested in the tours, you can pre-register here and you’ll be notified when the tickets become available.
Unfortunately it seems that in the current political climate there’s no appetite for a grand opening event to celebrate the completion of New Zealand’s biggest and most complex transport. In the past, massive celebration events were common.
CRL Timetables
The ‘First Look’ events are great, but once the stations open, everyone will be able to look at them – and more important will be how the CRL will change how people get around Auckland.
To that end, AT has just released the timetables that will be used once the CRL opens. They’ve also added a feature to their journey planner tool to allow you to use that to see how journeys will change.
Aucklanders can now explore how much easier it will be to get to more parts of the city with a new Journey Planner tool that shows what journeys will look like when the transformational City Rail Link (CRL) opens. A schedule of free, public ‘First Look’ events at each station has also been confirmed.
The Journey Planner preview launch coincides with the release of the initial CRL opening timetable that will take effect when services begin.
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“To help customers prepare for the changes, AT has added a new Journey Planner feature that allows users to switch between today’s network and the future CRL-enabled network.”
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At peak, trains will run every five minutes through the city centre and on average around 10 minutes elsewhere on the network. At off peak the new lines will operate every 15 minutes throughout the day, including weekends, compared with every 20 minutes today.
The new Journey Planner tool enables Aucklanders to better understand how the network will operate on day one and let them plan trips with greater confidence.
“We want people to get familiar with the new lines and where the new stations sit. Even a small change, such as your regular train arriving a few minutes earlier or later, can have a big impact on your day and we want to help people plan ahead,” says Mark Lambert, Auckland Transport Group Manager Rail Services.
“If you want to see what travel will look like on a Monday, you can select that option. If you’re looking to see how you can connect with bus services near new train stations, the tool will show you the options.”
The priority when opening the City Rail Link is to provide reliable services, so like other major rail projects overseas, the CRL will open with an initial timetable for the first few months. This means during peak at stations outside of the city centre, services will initially operate at similar frequencies to today, before increasing after more confidence is gained operating the new network.
To use Journey Planner Preview, visit at.govt.nz and navigate to Journey Planner or download the latest version of the AT Mobile app. Full timetables are now available on Auckland Transport’s website and more detailed guidance for customers will be shared in the lead up to opening.
The timetable is certainly a lot simpler, and therefore better, than what was first tested back in January – an improvement that AT confirmed they would make.
A big feature of the new timetable is a move to running trains every 15 minutes off-peak, including weekends. This is a step forward and means the rail network finally, but barely, scrapes into AT’s own definition of a “frequent service” – i.e. a train at least every 15 minutes, from 7am to 7pm.
Personally, I think the definition for rapid transit needs to be a service at least every 10 minutes all day and till later in the evening, and AT has already done this with a number of services.
As noted above, at peak times the services will operate at the same 6-trains per hour frequency we currently have across the network, but there are some important caveats to that.
- AT is currently aiming for a service exactly every 10 minutes at peak times. On the Western line that’s exactly what we have, but there is a bit more variation on the Southern and Eastern lines. The intention is to move up to one every 7.5 minutes once the CRL is bedded in. The new timetable has been designed with this change in mind, and that means we no longer get regular spacing of trains. For example, there might be a 6-minute gap between services, then a 15-minute gap followed by a 9-minute gap. This is frustrating, and the sooner AT can bump up services the better.
- As we saw with the January test timetable, the peak periods are shorter. You can see this from the charts below, where after 8am trips from Swanson drop back to a service every 15 minutes – whereas currently, those every-10-minute services extend for an hour longer.
One small piece of good news is that there will be a few extra services after the evening peak, too. It’s worth noting here by comparison that a lot of frequent bus services now run frequently till much later in the evening, even up until midnight.
Given we’re likely to see a jump in ridership once CRL is operational, I wonder how long it will be before AT have to either bring forward their plans to improve peak frequencies or extend the morning peak again.
For my journey to work, catching the train to Te Waihorotiu and switching to the NX2 now comes up as the fastest option, so that’s something I’ll give a go once the CRL does open.
Now, how about that opening date…
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With this timetable, I’ll be happy if it never opens. My 90 minute bus-bus-train commute will now be an extra 15 minutes longer. If I drive it’d be 45 minutes.
What’s that route if you don’t mind sharing?
Torbay-Greenlane. Usually 856-NX1-South.
I’m typically on the 7am train, I won’t make the 6:54, which leaves me on the 7:09. Instead of getting off the train at Greenlane at 7:15, it’ll be 7:28.
Maybe I can get the NX2 and then the 6:57, but I have doubts.
The NX2 will be much quicker.
Wynyard to Wellesley is faster than Wynyard to Lower Albert and the transfer from Wellesly to Te Wai Horotiu is faster than Lower Albert to Britomart and you give the train 3 or 4 minutes extra.
Your commute is going to be several minutes faster.
Hopefully, but every time I’ve caught the 70-NX2 instead of the south-NX1 to come home, the NX2 has been stuck in traffic. NX1 has a bus lane the whole way, and fewer traffic lights.
So the NX2 that I could catch got to Te Wai station at the exact same time as the train leaves. So no, it won’t be faster. Time to get a second car and start driving.
The NX2 route along Wellesley Street from Victoria Park to Te Waihorotiu station is getting further bus improvements very soon – https://at.govt.nz/projects-and-initiatives/wellesley-street-bus-improvements-stage-2. That should make this part of the journey quicker.
Sounds like a very specific short term issue until train frequencies increase to 8tph. Doesn’t sound like it would be worth spending the money on a second car to me but it’s ultimately your call.
Just quickly chucking this into the journey planner preview on the AT website, recommends changing to the 866 instead of the NX1 and then transferring to the O-W from Grafton. It would still be around 4 minutes longer than your current journey, but definitely not 15. I’d still recommend at least trying out the NX2 – you’d be getting to Wellesley St before the worst of rush hour hits so it’s possible you’d be ahead of schedule. It’s always chocka in the afternoons but it does feel a bit faster in the mornings.
Anecdotal evidence suggests that all this “teasing” rather than having a straight opening is having a negative effect. People are reporting actually getting angry seeing CRL advertising now. I’ve been yelled at for saying this but AT seem intent on damaging the CRL brand irrevocably.
“Irrevocably” is a strong word, but I agree it’s not helping.
I think what is frustrating is amount of marketing and communications being employed in general. It is an infrastructure project – just get on with building and finishing it. It almost gives the impression there is a comms team sitting around trying to make themselves look busy and important. Maybe this is a cynical take, but I do struggle sometimes with just how much marketing is attached to all kinds of projects now.
I do feel a comms department is valid and very important for such a big project. They can (and do) also assist with all sorts of semi-internal comms such as neighbours during construction etc. I think the problem is that there remains a lot of critics of the cost of the project, and delays always tend to raise suspicions (real or false) or “real” problems and cost overruns, Simply staying quiet don’t help there either, so it’s a bit of a catch 22. Anyway, I doubt that the comms budget is more than a rounding error in the overall project cost. And no, I’m neither in comms nor involved in the CRL 🙂
“It is an infrastructure project” – that’s the impression that’s been given by CRL, because that’s been their only job; but the public deliverable is not the tunnel, it’s the timetable. As the Germans say, paper before concrete (though they’re not always that good at sticking to it!).
The infrastructure is built and just about finished, and it’s running the trains through it to and from the existing network that needs bedding in.
I agree! It seems super unusual and inauspicious – it’s like there is something deeply wrong they are not telling us! But ok, not much longer.
The first train into Britomart on opening day arrived 7 mins late, with the Mayor there waiting to cut the ribbon.
If the system is effective once it’s up and running no-one will care too much about what happened in the lead up.
I disagree. Britomart was tainted for years by the drama about its design, rescoping, and threats of cancellation. People in Wellington were mentioning it to me 10 years after it opened.
If AT *really* think that the continual advertisement of something which has no opening date isn’t storing up resentment that will last, I think they’re going to be sadly disappointed.
Tainted sure, but the passengers used it in greater numbers that were forecast, which is what really matters.
Since when have Aucklanders been concerned about the opinions of Wellingtonians (and indeed vice versa)?
Yet another circus.
Don’t seem to be able to do anything with a semblance of basic organisation in this country.
It is really frustrating. The stations are so ready, waiting to be used.
Yep, we don’t want to visit the stations, we want to use them!
I hope that AT adjusts the Journey planner to allow for multiple exists from the new stations and bus transfers. At the moment it suggests that for a change from S-C line to WX1 going west you’d need to get off at Karanga-a-Hape (using Mercury Ln exit) and walk to the Rainbow bridge, which definitely not the quickest. Getting out via Beresfort Sq and walking down to Pitt st stop, or even going to Te Waihorotiu and catching WX1 from there is going to be faster.
Always a tricky one that.
But whilst getting out of Beresford Square exit of Karanga-a-Hape and walking down to Pitt Street bus stop may get you onto a WX1 bus quicker, going for the Mercury Lane, Rainbow Bridge routing means a reasonable chance of catching the bus before. And certainly even more so, then going further back on the WX1 route to Te Waihorotiu.
You have to factor the time it takes for the bus to travel between the stops. Heavily influenced by traffic density and the number of traffic lights enroute.
The blurbs in the new timetables are weird, and TBH incomplete,
Eg: the Blurb on the South City (Red) line p3, says that you can transfer to the E-W line (Green) at K-Road, but doesn’t mention that you can also do it easier at Te Waihorotiu, where its a single island platform transfer.
Also the blurb on the E-W line says that to get to the airport you should change at K-Road to take the South City line to Puhinui… Even though the E-W line also goes to Puhinui…!?
I haven’t looked at the timetables but I’m guessing that the time taken for the transfer from the E-W line would eliminate and time saving you might make taking the S-C line to Puhinui,…
Also why didn’t they just call the routes by their colour names, it would make life much easier…
Aren’t transfers at both Karanga-a-Hape and Te Waihorotiu cross platform? They’re both island platforms, according to KiwiRail.
But you’re right about Puhinui: on the standard 15-minute timetable, if you transfer E-W to S-C at Karanga-a-hape you’ll wait 11 minutes there, and arrive 4 minutes later than if you hadn’t changed. Duh!
Yes they are both islands ,
but at k-road there is much more separation .. with the platforms effectively being an “H” with a couple of passages 20-50 m long connecting the two platforms..
Whereas at Te Waihorotiu, it’s a traditionally. “I” with the two trains in full. View of each other and only about 10 m straight across the platform.
K-Road is also a single island platform, so just as easy, and you would save time over going further to Te Wai only to come back again.
On the E-W line from the west it would be quicker to swap to the south at K Road to go to Puhinui, at least a little bit, but obviously not from the east side.
They had some really good options for the line names, but naturally picked the worst ones. Calling one South-City, and the other East-West only suggests that the east west doesn’t go to the city or the south, when it in fact does both.
We seem to have a habit of poor naming. A bit like how heading north to the North Shore on SH16 you should take the east exit and not the north exit
That has caught me out before and I ended up by Whenuapai!
The future journey planner tells me to take the E-W line all the way to Puhinui, and catch the Airport Link bus there. Nothing about changing at Katanga-a-hape.
See the right hand column on page 3 of this
https://at.govt.nz/media/2vijblf3/east-west-line-timetable-auckland-transport.pdf
For much of the day, if one was to attempt to change from a south-city citybound train to a Swanson bound east-west train at Te Waihorotiu then they would end up missing their connection by one minute and thus have to wait 14 minutes at Te Waihorotiu instead of the five minute wait at Karanga-a-hape.
Now granted, I don’t think this happens with the other transfers, but to keep it simple it’s just easier to say transfer at K-Rd.
The timetables show there will be extra peak service operated between Kingsland and Syvlia Park via the CRL stations at peak times, which is great if you live centrally. Presumably they will turn around at Morningside’s sidings and Ōtahuhu’s third platform.
There are also some extra trips between Ōtahuhu and Manukau at certain times.
I guess these will eventually be extended to the full line as they ramp up the service levels?
I think extending those depends on level crossing performance and closures.
Lets face it – the journey planner sucks a lot of the time. On Sunday we went to Eden Park and it was urging me to take two buses and a train with a 10 minute walk! As it was raining I drove to the station and took two trains along with a lot of other people! Seriously looking forward to it all – getting into the upper end of town is going to be so much easier
Yeah it’s often awful
Once again, fail on basic shit
I wish they’d just pay Citymapper to make an Auckland version of their app
If we start saying EVENTUALLY the CRL will open, it will have a calming effect on all of us.
The constant soon, reminds me of The Smiths great ode to depression, “How soon is now?”
In Maaori, Ake Ake Ake is more or less eventually, I think this is a good translation for Taamaki Makaurau.
Eventually Auckland will have a subway/underground metro/tube that will unlock Waitemata and thusly giving some logical loopability to our rail network.
We could have said that in 1970 and it could be true this year!!!
bah humbug
I’m guessing the opening date will be sometime after 22 August. The stations aren’t ‘ready’ for services until all the safety certification is correct and complete. Then they’re ready.
Pretty sure you can’t have thousands of the people going through them on “open days” without the safety certification being signed off..
I’m guessing they’re now waiting on NZTA certifying the trackside stuff,
I wonder what NZTA certification would be needed just to access a building?
NZTA are responsible for rail safety audits
I was implying that the building stuff was signed off, its was the tracks they were wating on
Are trains going to be moving through the stations during the Open Days? If not, very different safety situation.
I was on that DMU (and still have the ticket to prove it). Seven minutes late was the 2003 equivalent to being on time.
Frequency of trains is one thing, but at peak capacity is as important. On the Western line running intermittent 3-unit trains at peak meant they didn’t really exist past Newmarket as often arrive at Grafton effectively already full. It doubled the wait as you needed to skip and wait for the next 6 unit.
I see there will be partial rail closures on the Southern and Western lines after 2nd January. I wonder what that means in practice, since the Western line will no longer operate in isolation (assuming CRL has actually opened by that point)
I understood from comments by Stacey that she expected to announce an opening date shortly after the last shut down for a full day testing. We’re getting on for 3 weeks since the “final dress rehearsal” without an update.
I thought they said back in May that the announcement of an opening date was imminent. The radio silence on an opening date sure is weird and does not build confidence. Seems like we are now waiting on sign off from NZTA but have no indication of how long that may take, weeks, months?
I can bet that there will be more problems identified after the “Customer Visit” and the opening date will be further unknown.