Curious about the ongoing rail network shut down in Auckland (and admittedly, tired of the circuitous and slow Rail bus replacement services), ended up sending an Email to KiwiRail for more information including a possible timeline as to when we might see a conclusion to the Auckland wide Rail network shut downs that occur regularly during the weekends.

This is their response… (Published with KiwiRail’s permission)

Mōrena Fergus,

Thank you for contacting us.

Closures of rail lines are necessary to integrate and test City Rail Link systems, deliver a huge scale of other upgrade work to prepare for CRL and to deliver a backlog of overdue renewals and maintenance. The overdue work is the result of funding not keeping up with wear and tear from increasing rail traffic and a key factor in the requirement for regular lines closures. We know this is frustrating for passengers and neighbours to the rail network.

Auckland’s mixed network running both freight and passenger trains was originally not built for the kind of passenger frequency we’ve seen in recent years which will intensify after CRL opens. So it doesn’t yet operate like modern metro networks in other countries, which allow trains to run in some areas while other parts of the rail line are closed for upgrades or maintenance.

We are carrying out work which would normally take a decade but is being delivered in three to four years. This includes major rebuilds of the rail network foundations across the network (the Rail Network Rebuild), upgrades like the new third main line and electrification to Pukekohe, as well as new track infrastructure to provide more flexibility for train operations.

All of the upgrades, maintenance and renewals catch up work aims to lift the network to a modern metro standard running train services that are reliable and at a higher frequency carrying more passengers following the CRL opening. These line closures to upgrade the network will also enable maintenance to shift from the current reactive approach to proactive, resulting in fewer disruptions, more reliable services and fewer full network shutdowns in future.

Thanks,

In a nutshell. Rail network was never built to handle both freight and the volume of passenger services we see now and expect to see upon opening of the CRL. Historical lack of investment has been blamed. Lack of redundancy in the system (which I believe the 3rd Main line is aiming to alleviate).

That said, like many of our infrastructure projects in this country (road, rail and otherwise), still reckon there are places we could (drastically) improve on delivery (Both speed and quality wise). Whether the entire network needs to be shutdown as regularly as it has, I believe is still debatable.