City Rail Link boosts Auckland rail patronage to seven-year high

The opening of Auckland's City Rail Link has seen the city's train passenger numbers hit their highest level in seven years, according to Auckland Transport director of public transport Richard Harrison.

Speaking to Morning Report, Harrison said the network has performed well with an additional 25,000 passengers using the service on Monday.

"On Thursday we had 96,500 boardings measured on our door counters, and it's held over 90,000 every day this week. So to put it into context, that's back at 2019 levels. So we're now seeing a level of patronage that we haven't had for over seven years."

He said numbers dropped off during Covid and while the rail network was being rebuilt.

"Understandably people switched to other modes of transport, but we're seeing them coming back to rail in numbers now."

Harrison said some improvements are already being worked on, based on feedback from users, including signage and announcements informing passengers of where to get off the train for attractions such as the Sky Tower or Aotea Square.

"We've got a lot of learnings about how we might improve signage on platforms and installations just to help people navigate around.

"We've said that this is the initial timetable, and over the next six months we'll look to increase the timetable as we get more comfortable with the operations. It's the same thing with customer information. Once we learn what else people need to know, then we can react to that," he said.

The Warriors playing at Eden Park within a week of the opening of the CRL wasn't in the original game plan, but changes are being made to the timetable to get fans to and from the game faster.

"There'll be free travel on buses and trains from 1pm on Sunday for people going to the game.

"We've put on special buses from the North Shore coming all the way from Albany along the busway about every 10 minutes from 3pm. And of course the trains will be running to take people straight to Kingsland for the game."

After the game, trains heading west will leave from Morningside, trains toward the city will leave from Kingsland.

As well as normal services every 15 minutes, extra shuttle trains will be added into the schedule, with final plans likely to be released by Auckland Transport later on Friday.