Source: New Zealand Government
[11 September 2026, Te Waihorotiu Station, City Rail Link Official Opening]
Good morning.
Welcome to the tunnel, and in the words of Johnny Cash:
I hear a train a-comin’
It’s rollin’ round the bend
And I ain’t seen the sunshine
Since I, I don’t know when.
Thank you for the invitation to join you underground today in the brand-new City Rail Link. A special welcome to the new French Ambassador Francois Decoster, who presented his credentials on Wednesday.
Now, we are here as Minister for Rail – the word “for” is deliberate. We are for rail.
Our record is proof of that. Since 2019, the taxpayer has invested $2.4 billion on top of its share of this tunnel in Auckland’s rail network.
We are responsible for the vast majority of that commitment, because every action we have taken is to shift Auckland’s rail network from a freight route to a modern metropolitan railway serving people and freight.
We extended the electrified network south from Papakura to Pukekohe – it opened last year.
We added a third railway line between Wiri and Quay Park, unblocking the busiest section of railway in the country to give freight its own line and keep two lines for passenger trains between Wiri and the city centre. It also opened last year.
We have rebuilt Auckland’s railways from the ground up, focussing particularly on sections that were a century old. 70 kilometres of rebuilt drainage, 30 kilometres of rebuilt foundations, 80 kilometres of new rail, 55 kilometres of new sleepers, and 52 kilometres of new ballast rock.
That work is to lift the resilience of the line – all so that when this tunnel officially opens on Sunday, Aucklanders can experience trains turning up on time.
We also built two brand new railway stations at Drury and Paerata, and a third is opening next year in west Drury. TVNZ managed to somehow avoid acknowledging the fact the taxpayer paid for 100 percent of those stations when we opened those stations in July – let’s see how they do today.
The fact is, without our $2.4 billion of investment, this wonderful new tunnel would be a very nice, but little-used asset.
That investment is what enables us to have a train every ten minutes at peak, and will enable it to grow more frequent over time.
In a city, stuck all too often in congestion, this tunnel and our wider investment represents a gear change for the better.
So, Mr Mayor, we hope you are happier now.
And we will not stop advocating for rail, as unblocking Auckland – the largest local body metropolitan centre in Australasia – ultimately benefits New Zealand. A blocked city, a blocked market, is no good for the national economy. Rail is the answer.
We have a question for you. How is it possible that, after a hundred years, we have built the city rail link and yet there is no “Auckland Central Station.” That name follows the universal precedent and would be known to locals and visitors alike.
Instead, we have renamed Britomart Station the Waitemata Station. We have some news for you – the Waitemata is the harbour, not the station, and people don’t want to catch a train into the sea.
But here we are at the Wellesley and Mayoral Drive Station, beyond the Auckland Central Station, and before the K-Road and Mount Eden Stations. Those are names people know. Instead, we have been tasked to learn new names. Thank you, Auckland Transport – or should I say, “ngā mihi.”
That said, we will keep advocating for the third and fourth main lines on the busy southern corridor, for connecting Avondale to Onehunga through a new west-south line, and continuing to remove level crossings to separate our roads from our railways.
But we will not do it without the men and women of the railways – and everyone else across the construction and infrastructure industries.
You are the people who designed the city rail link, who tunnelled it, built it, fitted it out, tested it, and will now operate and maintain it.
You have built something of lasting value for your country.
In years to come, you will bring your children here. One day, they may bring theirs. And you will always be able to say, “I helped build this.”
Today, on behalf of the Government and the country, thank you.
Original source: https://nz.mil-osi.com/2026/09/11/the-light-at-the-end-of-a-long-awaited-tunnel/