How it benefits Auckland
Source: pic.twitter.com/vjQZfMUeex
I posted this in Facebook earlier this morning on how the City Rail Link benefits Auckland. It was in reaction to a Rant/Rave piece in the Herald from someone in South Auckland (where I live) not quite understanding how the CRL works. The piece was here: Rants & Raves: City trains not for everyone
And so I have stated the following:
The City Rail Link and Auckland
As I explained to Rebekka’s dad the CRL works on the following premises:
As of current all Western Line trains run from Waitakere, Swanson and Henderson into Britomart on a trip that takes around an hour. Those trains must pass through Newmarket where there is a 3min stand down as drviers change ends to allow the Newmarket to Britomart leg of the trip.
The Western Line as a result mixes with the Southern Line and Onehunga Line trains causing congestion. To make matters worse those trains then get caught outside Britomart as they mix with Eastern Line Trains causing delays and congestion.
The CRL would allow Western Line Trains from Mt Eden to travel down the 3.5km tunnel to Britomart skipping Newmarket and thus not running into Southern, Eastern and Onehunga Line Trains as a result. We also get two new stations on the CRL including Aotea which is going to be the busiest being in the middle of the CBD itself.
Time savings go from 60mins to about 43mins there about from Swanson to Britomart via the CRL as a result.
You will still get Swanson to Newmarket services that will then continue either on to Onehunga or even Papakura – the South to West services.
As the Western Line services are removed from the Newmarket-Britomart leg this frees track space for Eastern, Southern and Onehunga Line trains allow their frequencies to go from 10mins to 5mins in the peak of peaks. This means a train from Papakura every 5mins in the peak if so needed.
Result? Capacity increases and the allowances of new lines such as Airport and the North Shore (Botany would be serviced by a Sky Train concept)
That is how the CRL works – it services the bulk of Auckland….
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Auckland Transport have this graphic on time savings here:
Source and full info: https://at.govt.nz/projects-roadworks/city-rail-link/
As I said this is the simple but certainly not exhaustive list for the City Rail Link. To oblige the KISS rule I have left other aspects such as North Shore buses in benefit of the CRL, and of course funding both in OPEX and CAPEX.
I am not ducking those issues but just keeping things in bite size pieces 🙂
Here is quick piece on future lines:
Future rail lines
Creating the CRL and turning Britomart into a through station makes future expansion of the rail network possible. Without the CRL, proposed rail lines to the North Shore, the airport and the Avondale-Southdown line would not be possible because the rail network doesn’t have the capacity to run enough trains.
Source: https://at.govt.nz/projects-roadworks/city-rail-link/city-rail-link-route/
I can do something similar for other aspects of the CRL if needed.
Talking Southern Auckland 