Below are answers to some frequently asked questions. If you can't find what you are looking for, or want some more detail, please contact the team on info@lightrail.co.nz.
Once we have a confirmed route and stations, we will have a better idea about the number of properties which are affected. This will happen once the project’s sponsors have made decisions about the route. We plan to notify and engage with affected property owners as soon as we are able.
This work is to gather useful information about underground conditions (i.e soil, rock, water) in the wider project area. These investigations are taking place at numerous points to build a bigger picture of the geology of the area. They are not indicative of the proposed route. This work will help with our design and construction in the future.
If we need your property for the project, you will be fairly compensated under the Public Works Act. If you are affected we will:
Property owners can also view the Land Information New Zealand (LINZ) website for more resources. This includes a ‘Guide for landowners – what to expect when your land is acquired under the Public Works Act 1981’, to inform them of their rights and the role of accredited property agents in negotiations. You can view this online here.
Please get in touch with us:
Light rail in a tunnel from Wynyard Quarter to Mt Roskill, which comes to the surface and runs alongside the SH20 motorway to the airport has been chosen as the best option at an estimated cost of $14.6B.
It was chosen out of three options, so that rapid transit can be expanded in the future and eventually connect with other lines to the North Shore and North West.
The 24km route features up to 18 stations and stops and enables urban growth to be unlocked from the City Centre to Māngere and the airport. This would bring up to 66,000 new homes by 2051 and 97,000 additional jobs along the corridor in Mt Roskill, Onehunga and Māngere.
See our fact sheet and map.
This option will deliver strong transport and urban benefits while futureproofing for the future light rail network. Benefits include:
Initial indications for the number of stations and stops is up to 18. This number may change through detailed design and consultation with communities.
Community input will be sought on the design and location of stops/ stations.
As a guide, you could expect stops at surface level between Mt Roskill and Māngere to be located closer together than in the tunnelled section between Wynyard Quarter and Mt Roskill where stations would be located further apart in key locations, such as local and town centres.
Current modelling shows that for light rail options, there would be around 40,000 boardings per day in the years following opening (assumed to be 2031). This is likely to increase to around 65,000 boardings per day by 2051.
Note: these figures are approximate only and subject to further change and analysis. They will be refined as the project progresses, accounting for further growth in the corridor including growth in PT use as the line from future connections, for example to the North Shore and North West.
Yes, most of the undergrounding will be done using a tunnel boring machine.
Cut and cover, with semi exposed trenches, was originally considered as a cost saving but detailed investigation through the Indicative Business Case revealed that tunnelling could be achieved at a similar cost with significantly less disruption.
Having the line completely underground in the City Centre and Isthmus will leave the space at surface level available for walking, cycling and other facilities and also enable connectivity with the new City Rail Link, as well as future light rail lines to the North Shore and North West (which are anticipated to be underground in the city).
Yes, Light Rail enables mode shift away from private vehicles and therefore reduces Auckland’s carbon emissions. Light Rail (partly underground) encourages higher numbers of patronage, therefore resulting in less emissions from private vehicles.
Capable of carrying up to 17,000 passengers per hour at peak, which is four times more passengers than a dedicated busway or trackless trams, light rail is equal to 13 car lanes or taking 12,000* cars off the road.
(*average of 1.2 people per car)
Yes, it will be critical to ensure the location stops/stations maximise integration with other transport modes. We will look more closely at this in the next phase of the project and the community will help us shape this.
To support mode shift away from cars, the project proposes a cycle lane along the entire route, as well as the provision of walking and cycling connections to stations/stops.
While this route is our recommended option, the project’s sponsors – Auckland Council, the Crown and mana whenua – will determine the final route, based on detailed assessments and recommendations.
KiwiRail and Auckland Transport are in the early stages of developing plans to use the land to build a new heavy rail line. This is part of a much bigger plan for improving and expanding the rail lines in Auckland over the next 30 years.
A preferred alignment along the SH20 motorway was identified due to a number of factors including community feedback as part of the assessment. A route along the motorway is a shorter, more direct route reducing travel times and has less impact on local roads.
However, final decisions will depend on the route that the project’s sponsors – Auckland Council, the Crown and mana whenua - determine, based on detailed assessments and recommendations
ALR is looking at how to design a route alongside the SH20 motorway, past the edge of the lagoon and then onto the Onehunga township. This is a significant pinch point and more detailed design is needed.
However, final decisions will depend on the route that the project’s sponsors – Auckland Council, the Crown and mana whenua - determine, based on detailed assessments and recommendations.
We are progressing with design work, taking into account the local environment, minimising impact on green spaces, the lagoon and neighbouring properties. The design includes light rail on a long, raised bridge (viaduct).
This proposed route provides the opportunity to support greater development and new public spaces, but some properties in the commercial area are likely to be affected. Lodging for Notices of Requirement with Auckland Council to protect the land needed to build light rail is likely to be the next significant step in the project. This will happen once the project’s sponsors have made decisions about the final route, then ALR will notify and engage with affected property owners as soon as we are able.
While this route is our recommended option, the project’s sponsors – Auckland Council, the Crown and mana whenua – will determine the final route, based on detailed assessments and recommendations.
A key part of the station design is to ensure space is provided for safety and security measures and that this is incorporated early into planning requirements. This will include lighting and CCTV. These facilities will be designed in the next phase of the project and the community will be asked to help shape this.
The station is expected to be busy and bustling, with thousands of people passing through daily, and will be designed as a welcoming entry to Māngere with great connections into the town centre and the rest of the community.
All stations will be designed to provide the best possible access for everyone in community and for people of all abilities. We will look more closely at this in the next phase of the project in detailed design and will ask for community input. The latest design standards and best practice will be applied to the design.
As part of ensuring the station is accessible, there is likely to be provision for a drop off zone, as well as bus stops and space required for this has been identified early for planning purposes. There will be no 'park and ride' car parking.
As part of the Corridor Business Case recommendations, ALR is looking at the best planning and investment approach to deliver on urban and development outcomes. The station is located a short distance from the town centre and will be configured as a welcoming, accessible entry to Māngere.
The station will be a gateway for visitors and locals and is expected to have several thousand people passing through every day. This helps local businesses and attracts investment in areas, as people want to live, visit and work in destinations that are in easy to reach by fast, frequent and reliable transport.
The station will be designed to be a gateway for visitors and locals to the town centre and wider Mangere community, with public transport, walking and cycling connections a key design priority. Building a station near the motorway means we can also improve the current bridge over the SH20A motorway to Bader Drive. This will create high quality connections across the motorway for the growing community along Bader Drive.
We will ask for your input into how we design the station, connections with the rest of the community and how we can enhance the town centre.
The route impacts a small section of the park along the western edge. Careful design will minimise impact as much as possible and we will investigate options for offsetting impacts and adding to recent improvements.
Working with Auckland Transport, we will integrate connections with other public transport, including bus services to stations and walking and cycling paths.
A station near the motorway is our preferred option because seperating light rail from local streets provides a more reliable service and faster travel times.
We know that reducing current travel times is very important to the Māngere community and a station next to the motorway means every trip from Māngere will be a guaranteed 30 minutes to the city or just a seven-minute trip south for the growing number of people working in the wider airport commercial precinct, with trains every 5-10 minutes including early mornings and late nights.
A station near the motorway has less impact on local parks and also means less disruption for shops and businesses in the town centre as light rail is built.
We acknowledge that many people in the community would like a Māngere town centre station, but after considering all available information, we believe building the route and station next to SH20A would benefit the wider Māngere communities, being more centrally located for the future Māngere.
Improvements to the Bader Drive overbridge as part of project would help provide better access between new housing developments on the northwest of the motorway, creating a better-connected link to shops and community facilities, and the ALR station.
Our focus will be to make the station a safe, accessible and welcoming entry point to enhance and support a vibrant town centre and we will be asking the people of Māngere to help shape that.
Trains will likely run every five minutes (or less) – making it a real turn up and go service. No need to worry about timetables. Being fully separated from or having priority over vehicular traffic in many places means reliable and faster journeys too.
Currently it takes 1 hour (or more) to travel by public transport from Māngere to the city centre. Light rail will cut the journey in half to 32 minutes. For people working at the airport and surrounding business areas journeys will take 7 minutes from Mangere/Favona, compared with travel times currently longer than 30 minutes.
Capable of carrying up to 17,000 passengers per hour at peak - four times more people than a dedicated busway or trackless trams - light rail is equal to 13 car lanes or taking 14,000* cars off the road, which is a great result for local streets, communities and carbon emissions.
(*average of 1.2 people per car)
Light rail can dramatically cut travel times. Currently it takes 1 hour (or more) to travel from Māngere to the City Centre. On light rail, the journey will be 32 minutes.
Estimated travel times:
From the City Centre (midtown) to -
From the airport business precinct (a major employment zone) to -
Tunnelled light rail has better integration potential than surface rail because:
Next steps are to look at the exact route of the tunnel and how it links to the new Aotea Station (being built as part of the City Rail Link). We will also be looking at a new station at the university.
The light rail team is working closely with the Waitemata Harbour Connections project to further develop integration with a harbour crossing and future line to the North Shore .
A tunnel through the City Centre built by this project means light rail can be extended to the North Shore and North West without having to transfer from one line to the other and cater for increased passengers through the city centre for the next 50 years.
The Northern Busway is growing by 20% a year and will run out of capacity in 10-15 years, so a new light rail line will be needed. Preparing for a tunnel in the city centre gives flexibility for a new tunnel or a bridge across the harbour which is currently being investigated by the Waitemata Harbour Connections project.
Next steps are to look at the exact route of the tunnel.
Yes, it will be critical to ensure the location stops/stations maximise integration with other transport modes. We will look more closely at this in the next phase of the project and the community will help us shape this.
To support mode shift away from cars, the project proposes a cycle lane along the entire route, as well as the provision of walking and cycling connections to stations/stops.
The Indicative Business Case estimated a cost of $14.6B for this option.
This is an investment in the future and addressing problems of congestion, sprawl, carbon emissions, and air pollution.
Putting off investment does not necessarily save money. If growth is not facilitated on this corridor, it will need to be supported elsewhere and will likely be more expensive if it occurs at the city fringes.
Congestion alone costs the Auckland economy around $ 1.3billion a year (pre-Covid) which would be $65 billion over 50 years. As Auckland grows to a city of over two million people, these problems will only increase and costs will rise further.
Any significant rapid transit project will require a big investment, however this investment will help offset problems of congestion, sprawl, carbon emissions, and air pollution.
Congestion alone costs the Auckland economy around $1.3B a year (pre-Covid) which would be $65B over 50 years. As Auckland grows to a city of over two million people, these problems will only increase. Growth needs to be supported somewhere and will likely be more expensive if it occurs at the city fringes.
The Indicative Business Case estimated a cost of $14.6 billion for this option. As this will be the biggest transport project in New Zealand’s modern history, we know a large Government contribution is needed to be able to pay for it.
We’ve looked at a range of existing and potential funding tools and will be exploring these further. This includes how funding could be topped up by other sources such as council, precinct developers, the private sector, public transport and potentially fees for others who profit from the benefits of light rail.
The P50 cost has been used as the central cost estimate for the Indicative Business Case. It is the best indicator of project cost at this early stage.
The P90/P95 costs are not being released at this stage of the project. The ALR Group does not have a design yet, so all the costs are subject to large contingencies.
As the design moves ahead, then the cost range will become clearer. The time to release a range of costs will be at the final investment decision in 2024, when the range of costs will have reduced considerably from where it is today. This is based on more design information, estimating, escalation and value engineering.
The Infrastructure New South Wales guidance on information for infrastructure projects does not support the publication of cost information at this stage of a project. The guiding principles are very applicable to the New Zealand context. These state that providing detail prematurely on solutions, scope, cost and timeframes may lead to disappointment in the community and pressure on project teams.
Light Rail can enable 66,000 new homes and 97,000 new jobs over the next 30 years, along the alignment. Areas around stations will become vibrant, diverse, centres and neighbourhoods. These areas will support higher densities, enabling people to have more choice in where they want to live and types of housing, employment, education and other services.
Some locations will require less changes than others depending on the scale of urban ambition, market attractiveness and readiness for change. Some areas have been identified for significant growth and will require long-term commitment to realise their potential. Key areas identified to open up more housing are Mt Roskill, Onehunga and Māngere.
This project will serve housing growth that is already planned in areas such as Mt Roskill, Onehunga and Māngere. The indicative business case has also taken into account the overall growth of Auckland as a city and region. Where and when exactly the “overall” development happens will depend on economic factors as well as local and national legislation.
Auckland Light Rail Limited is a Crown-owned entity so any decisions about the future of Auckland Light Rail will come from the Government.
Auckland Light Rail welcomes any opportunity to respond to Auckland’s transport challenges and work with the new Government on their transport priorities for Auckland.
We acknowledge the coalition agreement expectations to stop work and are liaising with the Ministry of Transport ahead of further guidance.
It is anticipated that the planning and consenting phase will take 2-3 years and construction will then take 6-8 years.
The Government sees investing in transport and infrastructure as playing an important role in getting New Zealand moving, reducing emissions and supporting the economy.
We have the talent and expertise in this country from the City Rail Link, Waterview Connection and the Central Connector projects to move ahead with Light Rail.
Light Rail will be the biggest transport project in New Zealand’s modern history and presents significant opportunities for the private sector. The project marks the start of a broader programme of investment in mass rapid transport, beginning a pipeline of city-wide mass rapid transit work over the coming 20-plus years, offering industry the opportunity to start planning forward workload.
We recognise and respect Te Tiriti o Waitangi as Te Tūāpapa (foundation) from which we will work with and alongside Māori. For this stage of the project, the two Kaitiaki Forum Chairs have been members of the Board, as representatives of the Kaitiaki Forum. For the next part of the Project, we consider that it is vital that Mana Whenua play an even more active role in decision making.
Community and stakeholder engagement is integral to the ongoing planning phases and will help shape future decisions such as the design of stations, integration with other transport modes and urban outcomes. Community input is also important for the construction and operational phases of the project, to ensure the delivery is carried out reflecting the interests of the community, local residents and businesses.
While this project provides the opportunity to support greater development and new public spaces, some properties will be affected. Lodging for Notices of Requirement with Auckland Council to protect the land needed to build light rail is likely to be the next significant step in the project. This will happen once the project’s sponsors have made decisions about the final route. ALR will notify and engage with affected property owners as soon as we are able.
Planning and consenting is expected to take another 2-3 years before construction starts. Once a route and stations are confirmed by our project sponsors, there will be lots more decisions we will need feedback on, such as detailed design of the stations and how they connect with the rest of the community.
Lodging for Notices of Requirement with Auckland Council to protect the land needed to build light rail is likely to be the next significant step in the project. This will happen once the project’s sponsors have made decisions about the final route.
We will tunnel under many areas, reducing construction impacts along the line to the locations of stops/stations and landing areas at ground level for the tunnel boring machines, so disruption on this section of the route (City Centre to Mt Roskill) will be concentrated on fewer, large sites.
The section from Mt Roskill to Māngere will largely follow SH20, so disruption will be away from concentrated residential and commercial areas. Where there are stops at town centres and neighbourhoods we will work with communities and stakeholders to minimise the impact of construction as much as possible.
We know that business disruption is a real and justifiable concern for many stakeholders in the corridor and is inevitable during construction. This issue is particularly topical in light of the City Rail Link project.
A business support and targeted assistance scheme will be developed in consultation with the community to minimise adverse impacts of the project on businesses or individuals during construction (when impacts are most intense). This would have two aspects:
Benefit Cost Ratios and costings were not calculated for modes considered as part of the long list assessment, as is standard practice for this type of assessment.
Station locations have not been determined yet and will be explored further when the detailed planning and design work gets underway. As part of the engagement, comprehensive community consultation will be developed and implemented to inform the detailed design. This includes seeking community input on the design and the location of stations and stops, to help shape these decisions and to reflect the interests and concerns of the community, residents and businesses. Ongoing consultation and engagement will take place over the next 2-3 years.
Indicative station locations used for modelling will not be released at this stage because the locations have not been determined. The community will be involved in future discussions on the location and design of stations when there is more certainty on where they might be located.
The charts show the extra number of employment opportunities that can be reached within 45 minutes during the morning peak using public transport from a specific area, with and without light rail. The calculations include using public transport (bus/rail/ferry) with walk up time, wait time at stops, and in vehicle time - including delays from using busy routes. The calculations for light rail include enhanced public transport that would be delivered as part of the project. The modelling for each employment zone shows the forecast growth by 2051. Results:
Starting from Māngere Town Centre:
Starting from Onehunga Town Centre:
Starting from Mt Roskill:
The Indicative Business Case is available on our website here.
Please note: Redactions appear in the Indicative Business Case (IBC) and appendices as black lines that cover text and images.
The Official Information Act (OIA) provides reasons for content within official documents to be withheld or redacted. Most of these reasons are to preserve confidentiality and fairness.
Within the Light Rail Indicative Business Case and appendices, sections have been redacted for reasons of:
For more information about the Official Information Act and the grounds for redacting or withholding information in official documents, see the Office of the Ombudsman.
Light Rail in a tunnel from Wynyard Quarter to Mt Roskill is recommended by the project team, as it gives the best transport and urban benefit, with the least disruption and the best fit with the network in future.
Benefits are:
The investigations found that this corridor is quite constrained and contains significant underground services that would need to be relocated to Dominion Road – this would mean digging up both roads. A tunnel boring machine will avoid these services.
All options would generate some degree of disruption. The light rail option on Dominion Road would create prolonged (multi-year) disruption. The Light Metro (underground) and Light Rail (partly in a tunnel) options will tunnel under many areas, so impacts will largely be confined to the locations of stops/stations and landing areas for the tunnel boring machines.
The tunnelled Light Metro and Light Rail options show better integration potential than Light Rail (surface) because:
The next phase of the project will work closely with the Waitemata Harbour Connections and Auckland Rapid Transit Plan projects to further develop integration.
Three options for Light Rail were identified:
OPTION 1: Light Rail Dominion Road
Modern tram on city streets and follows the motorway.
OPTION 2: Light Metro Sandringham Road (underground in a tunnel)
Light metro goes underground in a tunnel under the Isthmus, and underground in Māngere and Onehunga Town Centres, and at street level in other areas
OPTION 3:
Light Rail (partly underground in a tunnel)
Modern tram underground in a tunnel from Wynyard Quarter to Mt Roskill. Then it comes up to the street and runs to the airport.
All three options deliver against the objectives of improving accessibility, reducing Auckland’s carbon footprint, and unlocking urban development in the corridor. Having three viable options is a positive outcome – they would all deliver significant benefits.
Our business case looked at identifying what form of rapid transit would best meet the project outcomes to:
We started by assessing 50 different options for mode and route. This included looking at options such as extending the heavy rail network and other modes like bus rapid transit. We weighed up options against investment objectives, wider impacts and opportunities. Short listed options then underwent more detailed assessment looking at the benefits and impacts to arrive at the final short list.
Trade offs like cost, disruption, value for money and the ability to open up housing along the corridor in Mt Roskill, Onehunga and Māngere were considered.
Each option had different trade-offs whether capacity, disruption, emissions profile (embedded and enabled), housing uplift, urban amenity, cost, or opportunity cost. The IBC and Chair’s summary report list the clear trade-offs between options and give an indication of the complexity involved in making the decision.
Estimated costs for each option are:
|
OPTION 1: Light Rail Dominion Road |
$9.0B |
|
OPTION 2: Light Metro Sandringham Road (underground in a tunnel) |
$16.3B |
|
OPTION 3: Light Rail (partly underground in a tunnel) |
$14.6B |
As part of a thorough investigation into the best option for the City Centre to Māngere corridor, a wide range of possible modes and routes were considered. These were tested against our project objectives and only options that could accommodate the expected demand and support quality urban development were taken forward for more detailed investigation. We assessed the viability of:
Overall, we found that traditional heavy rail options have high enough capacity and some fixed infrastructure benefits (i.e., we can connect to an existing network), but are not able to support and enable urban growth as well of other options.
Bus-based options and trackless trams do not have sufficient capacity and at the necessary high volumes would contribute to congestion on the road network.
While trackless trams have light rail type features and operate on public roads without the need for rails to guide them, they wouldn’t offer enough capacity for our future city.
A standard trackless tram can hold about 170 people, whereas modern trams can hold about 420 and light metro 580 people per trip. Our patronage predictions for trips from Māngere to the city centre during the morning rush show that trackless trams would be full by the time they get to Mt Roskill, leaving customers behind.
While some believe this option would alleviate construction disruption, weighing about 50 tonnes they require strengthened pavements along the entire length of the route. This would still incur the cost and disturbance associated with digging up streets to prepare for modern trams, because the roads are not designed for overweight vehicles.
You can read our assessment of trackless trams in our technical note.
Buses don’t have the capacity needed and increasing buses on the road would contribute significantly to overall network issues. There are currently too many buses within the city centre, which is affecting the function and amenity of our streets. Even if the buses were all electric, which is good from a carbon and pollution perspective - it would make no difference to congestion. There’s simply not enough space for all the buses needed to support Auckland's continued growth.
One of the challenges that this project seeks to address is the problem of too many buses within the city centre, which is affecting the functions and amenity of city centre streets. Even if all buses were electric (and Auckland Transport has begun electrifying the fleet) there is not enough space for all the buses needed to support Auckland's continued growth.
This corridor will see significant growth and development in the coming 30 years. In order to support this growth, a higher capacity mode like light rail is required to move more people from their homes to work, study and other activities.
Unlike a bus route, rail is permanent and carries a lot more people. This permanence encourages greater investment along the route because businesses and people want to be close to stops or stations of a frequent and reliable transport mode like the light rail.
Ultimately, this enables more people to live and work in existing communities and can reduce the need for new development on the edges of the city. Light Rail will also provide greater access to suburbs that currently have limited public transport (such as Māngere) and connect with other public transport, walking and cycling links.
Light Rail is more than just a connection for travellers to the airport. It will connect major employment and commerce hubs – the city centre and the airport - planned housing and deliver better access for communities including suburbs with limited public transport.
Extending a line to the Airport from Puhinui would present a number of challenges.
Providing a “one seat ride” from the Airport to the city by train via Puhinui would be difficult to achieve because the current rail network doesn’t have sufficient capacity to accommodate a high frequency Airport train service in addition to all the existing and planned rail services through South Auckland.
Currently there are only two tracks between Puhinui and Otahuhu, and they already carry passenger trains every 5 minutes in each direction in peak hours - every 10 minutes to and from Manukau on the Eastern line, and every 10 minutes to and from Papakura on the Southern line - plus KiwiRail freight trains.
KiwiRail has begun the process of adding a third track between Puhinui and Ōtahuhu, to enable passenger and freight trains to be separated on this section.
It is now generally recognised that third and fourth tracks will need to be built through the length of South Auckland, to cater for expected growth in demand, especially because of the planned expansion of the urban area between Papakura and Pukekohe. The extra tracks will be needed to allow for more frequent peak period train frequencies, including the possibility of running express trains which would be able to overtake trains stopping at all stations, and also to allow for inter-regional trains to be introduced in the future.
Te Huia, the limited Hamilton commuter service, now also operates through to The Strand and, with the growing use of the network, it is unlikely that there would be sufficient train paths between Puhinui and Britomart to allow Airport trains to also operate frequently and reliably.
However, Auckland Transport’s rapid transit plan does provide for frequent and reliable public transport connecting the Airport and Puhinui in addition to the proposed light rail route we are currently talking about. The first stage of the Airport to Botany (A2B) project is in place, with electric Airport Link buses now taking advantage of high occupancy vehicle lanes on State Highway 20B, running every 10 minutes all day, every day, between the Airport and the brand new Puhinui Interchange where they connect with trains on both the Eastern and Southern rail lines.
The project is more than just a connection for travellers to the airport and much more than a transport project. It will lay a foundation for future growth and development along the route, and give people better choices for how they get around and access jobs, education and for recreation.
Extending the Onehunga branch line to Auckland Airport would be a very expensive option. The railway between Onehunga and Penrose only has a single track, which seriously limits the frequency at which trains can operate - currently only every 30 minutes. There are also eight road level crossings between Onehunga and Penrose, and a rail junction at Penrose which means that trains heading towards Onehunga delay trains heading into the city from Papakura.
In order to offer a high frequency Airport train service via Onehunga, all of these constraints would need to be remedied - the line would need to be double-tracked, the level crossings would need to be eliminated by putting the line in a trench or on a viaduct, and the Penrose junction would need to be substantially modified, possibly with a flyover - a very significant cost which would not have the benefit of providing rapid transit service to any new communities.
In addition, the line would need to be extended across the Māngere inlet and alongside State Highway 20 to the Airport, possibly at a higher cost than light rail and probably without a markedly different overall journey time.