City Rail Link

The 2012 Auckland City Centre Masterplan set out to shift the city from traffic-dominated streets to people-centred places. CRL is the key deliverable in realising that ambition, and the capacity it releases underpins planning for a population forecast to grow from 1.57 million to 2.5 million by 2050. The network dramatically reduces journey times and increases the convenience of public transport across the region.

Platforms are future-proofed for nine-car trains, so what reads as a generous space is inbuilt capacity for the anticipated increase in rail patronage. Designed to 100-year design life meeting international standards for underground rail and to withstand a 1 in 2500-year flood event, this is resilient infrastructure built for a sustainable future.

Aotearoa New Zealand’s first fully underground railway line, CRL converts the existing network into a two-way through system able to carry up to 19,000 people an hour at peak. It took three to four years of investigation to establish that the route was possible at all. Thousands of soil samples were taken to analyse ground that shifts from reclaimed land to sandstone to dense basalt flows left by the volcanic activity that shaped the city. The alignment turning out of Waitematā Station into Albert Street passes as close to the foundations of an eighteen-storey office tower as it was possible to build.

Station geometry was predetermined by engineering requirements. Karanga-a-Hape’s concourse sits 33 metres below the street because it has to. The line climbing from the harbour edge to the Karangahape ridge rises at 3.5 degrees — close to the maximum gradient for rail of this type, so the platforms could not be shallower. Karanga-a-Hape station’s height, and its vertical shaft, follow from that depth and from the escalators and evacuation routes needed to move people out of it. A switchback escalator negotiates the deepest concourse in the network in the least space available.

Each station is a different typology for similar reasons: aligning with existing platform levels; protecting heritage structures above or beside; the depth and construction methodology of tunnels and interfaces with bus networks and public space. 

A Mana Whenua Forum of eight iwi was established for the duration of the project, with architect Rau Hoskins of designTRIBE appointed as Kaitohu Mahi Motuhake during the early stages of the project to facilitate engagement on behalf of CRLL. Working from newly created Te Aranga Māori design principles, the Forum established a framework for arts and culture throughout CRL, co-creating the country’s largest civic public art project and a rare example of a public transport system designed with Indigenous peoples.

The network tells the creation story of Ranginui, the sky father, and Papatūānuku, the earth mother. As passengers travel down into the underground and back up again, the architecture and mahi toi follow that journey from darkness towards light. Each station is emblematic of its precinct through its respective atua, drawing on stories gifted by mana whenua that reflect a Te Ao Māori worldview in which people and the land are one.

Auckland Council annual public arts funding was funnelled to the CRL project, with Alt Group developing the arts framework alongside Jasmax. The Forum nominated a mana whenua artist for each precinct. The integration of art, architecture and urban design across station exteriors, thresholds, concourses and public realm was mandated in the reference design, carried through the procurement of contract packages and delivered by Link Alliance.

Unlocking the rail network at long last are the twin rail tunnels that now extend beneath the Category 1 heritage-listed former Chief Post Office turning a terminal into a through station. To achieve this, the 1912 masonry building was placed on temporary foundations, tunnelled beneath, and lowered back onto permanent foundations, damage free. Its restored Edwardian interior and domed skylights set it apart from the three new stations. Jasmax has worked on every stage of this building’s life as a station, from Britomart Transport Centre in 2003 to Waitematā Station today.

Expected to be the country’s busiest station, Te Waihorotiu’s landmark entrance sits at the corner of Albert and Wellesley streets, with platforms 15 metres below street level and a concourse extending to a bus interchange on Victoria Street. Its gifted name honours the Waihorotiu Stream that once flowed down Queen Street. Four thousand golden aluminium rods hang from the Wellesley Street entry ceiling like raupō, native bulrush, with a kauri sea serpent at their centre representing Horotiu, the stream’s guardian.

Station artist: Graham Tipene (Ngāti Whātua, Ngāti Kahu, Ngāti Hine, Ngāti Hauā, Ngāti Manu).

Karanga-a-Hape opens onto Mercury Lane, with a second accessible entrance on Beresford Square. At the entrance threshold, three spiralling sculptures in the ceiling reference the shell of the pūpūrangi, an endangered kauri snail, and the connection between people and nature. The name, the call of Hape, recalls the ancestor who welcomed the Tainui waka to Tāmaki Makaurau.

Station artist: Reuben Kirkwood (Ngāi Tai ki Tāmaki, Waikato Tainui, Waiohua, Ngāti Ruanui).

The former Mt Eden Station has been upgraded to connect existing lines into CRL, reducing commute times into the city for many suburban Aucklanders. Construction met basalt from the Maungawhau eruption too dense to tunnel through, requiring careful removal. The station’s identity draws on Mataaoho, atua of volcanoes. Inside the Ruru Street entrance, a nine-metre waterwall of reclaimed Maungawhau basalt tells the story of Parawhenuamea, atua of fresh water.

Station artist: Tessa Harris (Ngāi Tai ki Tāmaki).

Significant upgrades to public spaces and transport infrastructure in the city include Te Komititanga, the plaza in front of Waitematā Station and Waitematā Plaza behind reflecting the Urban Design Framework principles for work in and around the station environments established by Jasmax. Concurrent with CRL design and construction are Albert Street Bus Zone and Te Hā Noa (Victoria Street) upgrades, alongside a decade of public realm upgrades to neighbouring Britomart precinct.

Suburban enabling projects for CRL include platform upgrades for Ōtāhuhu, Henderson and the Strand stations. Part of Maungawhau Station is Porter’s Ave bridge, a safe connection for pedestrians and cyclists. All these components are designed by Jasmax to extend the world-class CRL passenger experience into the city’s surrounding streets and neighbourhoods, reinforcing Auckland as a city for the enjoyment of people.

Jasmax has worked on CRL since 2011, across multiple contracts and roles.

Appointed by Auckland Council and Auckland Transport before central government had committed to the project, Aurecon, Jasmax and Grimshaw undertook the definition work that proved CRL was possible: route options, station locations and footprints, land designation, and the vision for what an underground network could do for the city.

Both practices then joined the Principal Technical Advisory team, led by Aurecon, to author the reference design. That work defined the station design concepts, future-proofed the stations for oversite development, and set the mandated design requirements developed with the Mana Whenua Forum that the delivery team would have to meet.

Government established City Rail Link Limited and appointed the Link Alliance to document and construct the stations from that reference design. Jasmax moved client-side, working alongside CRLL Head of Design John Fellows as Owner Verifier: reviewing tender submissions, then meeting the delivery team through documentation and construction to keep the mandated elements and the design intent intact. It is unusual for the practice that set a project’s design direction to still be in the room fifteen years later, checking that it has been honoured.

CRLL has now handed stations, tunnels and rail track to Auckland Transport and KiwiRail as the eventual asset owners.