{"id":569183,"date":"2026-08-14T21:22:09","date_gmt":"2026-08-14T21:22:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/569183\/"},"modified":"2026-08-14T21:22:09","modified_gmt":"2026-08-14T21:22:09","slug":"aucklanders-get-first-look-inside-new-karanga-a-hape-station","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/569183\/","title":{"rendered":"Aucklanders get first look inside new Karanga-a-Hape Station"},"content":{"rendered":"

Thousands of Aucklanders are expected to get their first look inside the City Rail Link’s (CRL) Karanga-a-Hape Station Saturday, as the city counts down to the opening of the $5.5 billion project.<\/a><\/p>\n

The station is the second of three<\/a> new or redeveloped stations to be opened to the public as part of a series of free “First Look” events ahead of the CRL opening to passengers on 13 September.<\/p>\n

Karanga-a-Hape Station, in the heart of the city, features New Zealand’s longest escalator, taking passengers 33 metres underground beneath Pitt Street.<\/p>\n

Its design also includes a ceiling shaped like three Kauri snail shells, reflecting the Kauri forests that once covered the Karangahape ridgeline.<\/p>\n

The station’s opening comes after a decade of construction on the country’s largest transport infrastructure project.<\/p>\n

The CRL includes twin 3.45km rail tunnels beneath Auckland’s city centre, two new underground stations at Karanga-a-Hape and Te Waihorotiu, and the redevelopment of Maungawhau Station.<\/p>\n

When it opens on 13 September, trains will run directly through the city centre for the first time, rather than stopping at Waitemat\u0101 Station.<\/p>\n

Auckland Transport says the new link is expected to double the number of Aucklanders who live within a 30-minute train journey of the city centre.<\/p>\n

At peak times, trains will run through the city centre every five minutes, while services elsewhere on the network are expected to run at an average of about 10min intervals.<\/p>\n

Off-peak services will run every 15min throughout the day, including weekends, compared with every 20min currently.<\/p>\n

Bishop said the opening would mark a turning point for Auckland after a project that had been discussed for about a century and had caused years of disruption for businesses and communities during construction.<\/p>\n

The CRL has cost $5.5b and taken about 10 years to build.<\/p>\n

The public will have another chance to explore the new network next Saturday, when Te Waihorotiu Station will be opened for a final First Look event on 22 August.<\/p>\n

The first trains will enter the CRL on Sunday 13 September, with the first services from Pukekohe, Swanson, Newmarket and Manukau arriving at Karanga-a-Hape Station from 5.45am.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Thousands of Aucklanders are expected to get their first look inside the City Rail Link’s (CRL) Karanga-a-Hape Station…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":569184,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[111,43,139,69],"class_list":["post-569183","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-zealand","tag-new-zealand","tag-news","tag-newzealand","tag-nz"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/569183","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=569183"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/569183\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/569184"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=569183"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=569183"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=569183"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}