Auckland’s Trains Just Had Their Busiest October Ever, and One Friday Broke the All-Time Record

Auckland’s trains carried more than 2.1 million trips in October 2026, the busiest October on record, according to provisional figures Auckland Transport gave Hooray News in an email interview on Nov. 3. The City Rail Link opened on Sept. 13, and more frequent trains are planned before year’s end.⁸²

October’s total was 67.5% higher than October 2025 and 13.3% above the previous October record, set in 2019, Auckland Transport’s media team told Hooray News. The figures are provisional and could still change.⁸

The City Rail Link (CRL) is Auckland’s set of new train tunnels and stations.

A correction to our earlier City Rail Link story

In October, Hooray News reported that average daily trips between western stations and the city centre rose almost 173% compared with the six weeks before opening, and that more than 2 million train trips were taken in the first month.⁹¹

Auckland Transport clarified two things about that 2 million figure. It counted the entire rail network, not just the CRL, because the Onehunga West line does not run through the new tunnels. It also covered the first four weeks after opening, not a calendar month.⁸

Related: West Auckland Train Trips Nearly Tripled After the City Rail Link Opened

The 173% rise also deserves its fine print. It measures only average daily trips between western stations and the city centre, which works out to about 2.7 times the old level. It does not cover all West Auckland train travel.¹

What Auckland Transport is seeing now

There have been 3.5 million train trips since the CRL launched, with weekdays consistently above 82,000 trips, the media team said. The strongest growth is still on journeys from the west into the city on the new East West Line, where travel times fell the most.⁸

The busiest day the rail network has ever had was Friday, Oct. 30, with 108,447 trips. Auckland Transport said it was largely driven by people attending the Black Caps v India T20 cricket match at Eden Park, which suggests the fastest way to fill a train is to put a cricket match at the other end.⁸

Auckland Transport was careful not to oversell it.

“It’s too early to conclude any large shifts in travel behaviour but we have seen a lot of travel between the three CBD stations (Karanga-a-Hape, Te Waihorotiu and Waitematā) which indicates people are using the train as another great option to get around the city.”⁸

Not just commuters

Auckland Transport pointed to the rise in weekday travel between rush hours. “We are really excited by the rise in weekday interpeak travel. It shows us that people are using the new network as far more than just a commuter service,” the media team told Hooray News.⁸

During the first school holidays after launch, off-peak weekday trips on child concession fares rose 268% compared with school-term weeks. In the 2025 school holidays, the equivalent rise was 96%. Use of SuperGold cards, which give free travel to people 65 and over in New Zealand, has also increased.⁸

Buses are holding up as well. Auckland Transport said bus patronage remains strong, with some of the strongest growth at bus-rail interchanges such as New Lynn and Panmure. It also reported better reliability, punctuality and customer satisfaction scores.⁸

More trains on the way

The CRL opened on a temporary timetable, with trains every 15 minutes through the day instead of every 20. From Nov. 22, that 15-minute frequency will be extended by three hours on Fridays and Saturdays, adding 48 services a week.⁸

By the end of 2026, Auckland Transport plans to raise peak service between Henderson and the city from six to eight trains an hour, or a train every seven to eight minutes. In 2027 it expects to explore more frequent service on the South City Line with KiwiRail and operator Auckland One Rail.⁸

“This was the biggest ever change to Auckland’s rail network, and a lot of preparation and planning went in to making the transition as smooth as possible for our customers and for our operational staff,” the media team said.⁸