Simeon Brown: Transport Minister says there's no more room for delays ahead of 13-month long Auckland rail network repairs

The Transport Minister says KiwiRail will be held accountable for any delays in fixing Auckland's rail network.

The rail operator's being given $200 million in government funding to carry out the repairs – needed before the City Rail Link opens.

There'll be 96 days of full network closures and 24 days of partial - from Christmas to January 2026.

Simeon Brown told Heather du Plessis-Allan KiwiRail's committed strongly to that, and there's no room for delays.

“In terms of the timing, there is no more time other than what’s been provided.”

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Auckland rail users are set are in for a whole
lot more disruption next year. The entire rail network in
the biggest city will close for ninety six days in
total in the next thirteen months to upgrade the network,
which is basically, when you think about it, one in
every four days. It's going to start this Christmas is
going to carry on until the end of January twenty
twenty six and Transport Minister Simeon.

Speaker 2 (00:19):
Brown is with us.

Speaker 3 (00:20):
Hey, Simean, good evening.

Speaker 2 (00:22):
Does this shock you that this is necessary?

Speaker 3 (00:25):
Well, it is necessary because we need to make sure
we don't have ongoing works following the CRL opening. But
ultimately this rebuilt has been fully funded by the government
so that once the CRL is open, we can maximize
its benefit and actually make sure we can get more
people onto public transport and as it transforms public transport
in our city. So I get this is going to

(00:45):
be incredibly frustrating for rail users, but we have worked
very closely to make sure that the disruption is minimized
around the Christmas, New Year blocks, Easter blocks, long weekends
and school holidays, rather than during those other times when
traffic far worse on our road so we have done
everything we can to minimize the disruption, but totally acknowledge
very frustrating.

Speaker 2 (01:05):
Is it not possible to do it overnight?

Speaker 3 (01:08):
There we work we round twenty four seven around the clock.
So the idea here is having the closures for four
weeks over Christmas New Year's twenty four to seven work,
get in there.

Speaker 1 (01:17):
I understand some mean so they're doing blocks and then
they're doing it twenty four seven, But would it not
be better to leave the tracks open during the day
when people are using them, and then shut them down
every single one work.

Speaker 3 (01:26):
You can get about thirty percent more efficiency by actually
having a full closure and getting in there, because otherwise
you've got to set up that takes time. Overnight, you've
got to pack down again all your gear, make sure
the railway is safe again, and then get back into
the work. So it's about maximizing efficiency whilst minimizing disruption.
It's finally balanced. I appreciate the frustration that many Aucklanders

(01:47):
will be facing with this, but we have to get
this work done before the city rail link opens. Aucklanders
will not tolerate if this work is ongoing and there's
a continued line closures once the city rail link is open.

Speaker 2 (02:00):
Is it only going to take ninety six days?

Speaker 3 (02:02):
That is, there's contingency built in around around some of
these dates as well, So ultimately that's the amount of
time that's there. We've made our expectations incredibly clear to
Key Raw they have to work around the clock, get
the work done.

Speaker 2 (02:14):
Promise you though, have they said? It's only made.

Speaker 3 (02:17):
Commitments to me, and we will be holding them very
clearly to account.

Speaker 2 (02:20):
What happens if it takes longer than ninety six days.

Speaker 3 (02:23):
Well, look, there are well in terms of the time,
and there is no more time other than what has
been provided, as you'll see in terms of the calendar
that's been published. So there's the ninety six days of
full closures, there's a number of days of single line closures,
and there are some single line contingency closures which have
been built in. So they have built contingency into this
program that's been published. But what we've done is we've

(02:45):
been very clear about what the program is, people can
plan around it. We've taken major events into account as well,
and by putting that other disruption into those school holidays,
it means that the buses that would otherwise be available,
would be required for school A bus routes are available
to make sure that there is alternatives to keep people

(03:06):
when the trains are closed. So it has been well
thought through. I get the frustration. Nose is very challenging.
We have to get the work done though before the
City rail Link opens.

Speaker 2 (03:14):
Cool man. Hey, best of luck with it, Sime, and
thanks Simon Brown, the Transport Minister. For more from Hither
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