As many head back to work for 2023, thousands of Auckland train commuters will be looking for different ways to get around with an unprecedented rebuild of the rail network now underway.
From Monday, six stations along two lines will be closed until at least late March, as part of the first stage of the overhaul.
The Onehunga Line will be completely shut for the next three months, as will the Southern Line from Ōtahuhu through to Newmarket.
Onehunga, Te Papapa, Penrose, Ellerslie, Greenlane and Remuera are the stations affected. Anyone travelling on a Southern Line service from elsewhere will shift onto the Eastern Line instead.
Read more: Rolling closures to hit Auckland train users again until 2025
Auckland Transport says it’s “providing alternatives for every service that’s closed.”
Replacement buses will be operating, including some “express” buses between major stations, but there are warnings demand will be high.
“Buses will be busier than usual, especially at peak times,” Auckland Transport said on its website.
“You may wish to travel outside of the peak where you can.”
The council-controlled organisation has acknowledged the “difficult and stressful” disruption for passengers, but says the work to lift rails and sleepers, replace foundations and improve drainage is vital to prepare for the City Rail Link opening in late 2024 or early 2025.
There’s been some criticism of the replacement services that operated over the regular holiday shutdown period, with transport writer Matt Lowrie highlighting some reports that older buses were being used.
“It seems that all AT could manage for rail replacement buses during the rail shutdown are vehicles that should have been in a scrap yard decades ago,” he wrote on blog Greater Auckland.
“If this is the kind of quality we can expect for the rest of the rail shutdowns, then things are much worse than feared, not to mention the appalling frequencies.”
1News has approached Auckland Transport for further comment.
Lowrie also said getting the city’s public transport network “‘back to normal’ as much as possible is critical if we want people to really start using it again”, and that he’d be watching if Auckland Transport can mitigate the impact of the rail shutdowns.
The second stage of the rebuild begins in late March, and will see the entire Eastern Line closed until the end of 2023.
Shutdowns on other sections of the network will follow in a phased approach.
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