Billboards spill the beans ahead of schedule on Auckland's CRL opening date

An opening date for Auckland’s long-awaited City Rail Link (CRL) has been revealed ahead of the official announcement this morning, in an apparent billboard blunder.

The country’s largest infrastructure project will be open to the public on September 13, according to electronic billboards appearing around the city centre early this morning.

Transport Minister Chris Bishop and Auckland Mayor Wayne Brown were intending to reveal the long-awaited date outside the new Karanga-a-Hape station at a press conference this morning alongside officials from the CRL, Auckland Transport (AT) and KiwiRail.

They have just confirmed the date to waiting media, with Bishop saying: ”This is one of the most significant transport investments in New Zealand’s history, and in just a few weeks Aucklanders will finally be able to use it."

Brown added: “People have been asking me for years, when the CRL was going to open. Now we can give them an answer.”

The Herald asked Bishop’s office and AT if the timing of the billboards was an accident.

“It’s a bit ironic because City Rail Link is late and the announcement of its opening is early. I did find that odd,” Bishop replied.

Adding to today’s blunders, Bishop mistakenly said the project would be opened on Friday, September 13th, not Sunday.

The billboards have since been swapped out with ads saying the CRL is “arriving soon”.

The electronic billboards have changed over to a version saying the City Rail Link is "arriving soon". Photo / Michael Craig 

Bishop said the CRL was “a story bigger than the numbers that will grab the headlines”, saying the project was ultimately about the people who would use it every day rather than the infrastructure itself.

He described the CRL as “not simply another piece of infrastructure”, adding its real value lay beyond the tunnels.

“It’s about what’s outside them.”

Bishop called the project “a symbol of ambition for Auckland” and acknowledged it had come at a cost, with years of construction causing disruption for residents, commuters and businesses.

“That does come with trade-offs along the way,” he said.

While conceding mistakes had been made during the project’s delivery, Bishop said the end result justified the challenges.

“It’s been worth it. Have there been mistakes along the way? Absolutely. Are there lessons we must learn for the future? Of course, and we will.”

He said once Aucklanders began relying on the rail link, they would not be thinking about “the consenting challenges, the funding agreements, the arguments that have been had along the way”.

“That’s the point. Good infrastructure sits quietly, making our lives a little bit better than they otherwise would have been,” he said.

Bishop noted the idea for the rail link stretched back more than a century, saying the project had first been discussed in the 1920s under the name the Morningside Deviation.

“Here we are 100 years later, finally delivering the City Rail Link project for Auckland.”

Timetable ready for commuters

AT earlier announced the day would be on a Sunday, to help cope with the expected demand.

AT has also announced a new Journey Planner tool, which shows what public transport trips will look like when CRL opens.

The Journey Planner preview launch is set to coincide with the release of the initial CRL opening timetable that will take effect when services begin.

Auckland Transport's new map shows how the City Rail Link will transform the transit network in the city. 

The date of September 13 had been suggested to the Herald this week.

Starting this weekend, AT is running three Saturday sessions to show the project to the public.

Those with free tickets can visit the stations.

The soon to be opened Beresford Square entrance to Karanga-a-Hape Station, part of the City Rail Link. Photo / Sylvie Whinray 

The city’s mayor says the council’s 50/50 share of the project is why Super City rates have been hiked by 7.9%.

In May, former CRL CEO Sean Sweeney told the Herald there were missed opportunities earlier in the project, where money could have been saved.

The Government has said there will be a full review of the project, including cost and time blowouts.

Once the link is running, trains will run every five minutes through the city centre and, on average, about 10 minutes elsewhere on the network during peak times.