Auckland’s City Rail Link Carries More Than 2 Million Train Trips in First Month

Auckland spent years digging a train tunnel under its downtown, and in a twist nobody at the planning meetings dared say out loud, people are actually riding it. More than 2 million train trips were taken in the first month after the City Rail Link opened, according to Auckland Transport, the agency that runs the city’s buses, trains and ferries.¹⁴

About two-thirds of those journeys passed through the new tunnels and stations.³⁴ (Fine print, for the spreadsheet fans: the 2 million figure counts every train trip in Auckland, not only the ones that used the new link.⁴)

What Auckland built, besides a very long hole

The City Rail Link, or CRL, opened to passengers on 13 September 2026.¹⁶ The $5.5 billion project (in New Zealand dollars) includes 3.45 kilometers of twin tunnels, a little over two miles, plus three new stations.⁵ That is a long way to dig, no matter how big your shovel is.

Waitematā station stayed the busiest stop on the network, so nobody had to update its résumé.³ Within two weeks of opening, the rookies Te Waihorotiu and Karanga-a-Hape had become the second and third busiest stations, and weekday boardings at city center stations had jumped 87%.⁸

The biggest shift came out west. Average daily rail trips between West Auckland and the city center rose almost 173% compared with the six weeks before the CRL opened.⁵⁷ That’s nearly triple the old number, which suggests a lot of people had been standing by the door with their shoes on, waiting for an easier way into town.

Other suburban stations got busier too. In week four, trips rose 56% at Sylvia Park, 47% at New Lynn, 42% at Panmure and a calm, collected 17% at Newmarket.³⁴

“Two million trips is a good sign Aucklanders are using it for what it was designed to do.”

That was Auckland Mayor Wayne Brown, in Auckland Transport’s announcement.⁴

Rugby fans, kids on break and a very full week

Week four logged a provisional 520,688 trips, the second-busiest week ever for Auckland’s trains.²⁴ It had some help. A sold-out All Blacks rugby match at Eden Park fell that week, and so did the second week of the school holidays, two crowds not famous for their library voices.³

The kids clearly found the trains. Off-peak weekday trips on child fares were up 268% compared with school-term weeks. During the 2025 school holidays, that same increase was 96%.²⁴ The official ranking of holiday outings may need an update: beach, playground, extremely new tunnel.

The record still belongs to opening week, when curious riders made 528,007 boardings, the busiest week in the history of Auckland’s rail network. Week two added 506,083 more, for a two-week total of 1,034,090.⁵⁶ Anyone can draw a crowd on opening day. Holding near those numbers once the novelty wore off is arguably the more impressive part.

Not everything has gone perfectly. RNZ also reported train delays at Eden Park after the All Blacks win, so rugby crowds and train schedules are still getting to know each other.² And all of these figures from Auckland Transport are provisional for now.⁴

More trains on the way

Here’s the part that might surprise you: the CRL is not running at full strength yet. Services are on a reduced timetable, and Auckland Transport plans to reach full frequency within six months.² So the 2 million trips came on fewer trains than the line is built to run, which is like setting a personal best while still wearing your warm-up jacket.

City leaders are looking ahead to the warmer months. (Summer starts in December down there, which the Northern Hemisphere still treats as a prank.)

“We’re heading into a busy summer period and it’s now much easier to get into the city for shopping, dining, events and everything else Auckland has to offer,”

said Andrew Baker, chair of Auckland Council’s Transport and Infrastructure Committee.³

Mayor Brown has also cautioned that it will be a long time before Auckland sees the full benefits of the project. The next milestone to watch is that full timetable, and whether more trains bring even more riders. Waitematā, for one, should keep that résumé handy.