There’s been another milestone in Auckland’s City Rail Link with people from outside the project allowed on an underground test run for the first time.
Prime Minister Christopher Luxon was aboard along with senior ministers, city leaders and other officials.
The train journey started at the revamped Maungawhau Station and headed into a tunnel to arrive at Waitematā or Britomart Station.
“We were just saying it’s a bit like Star Trek, warp speed up there the way the tunnel is lit,” Luxon said after standing with the driver.
Auckland Mayor Wayne Brown stayed seated and chatting with the Finance Minister during the trip and maybe didn’t see the warp speed lighting.
“We don’t really see exactly what we’ve got here just yet, but it’s good, this is a good step in the direction,” he told RNZ.
In a speech before getting on the train, Brown said getting to today had not been cheap or easy, with Auckland enduring a decade of construction that has been tough.
He warned future projects needed to be done better and faster and could not be done on what costs were now.
There have been more than 1600 test train runs in the new City Rail Link tunnels so far.
Vince Ahkuoi was the driver.
“I haven’t driven a train that is that important, I don’t think,” he said.
Today showed just how far the City Rail Link had come, another driver Grant Dowie said.
He said test trains had run more than 5000km since February and 50 drivers had been trained.
“And if you think that the tunnel is only 3.5km long, to get over 5000km of test running we’ve been running backwards and forwards multiple times,” he told RNZ.
He said the VIP test train on Friday showed that testing had done its job, but there was still much more to do.
“We started at walking pace, and then we went to 3km [an hour] and then we went to 10km and then we went to 25 and then 40,” he said.
Trains now run at 70km/h and a key test was making sure the trains actually fit.
“I know it’s a silly thing but in other parts of the world there have been situations where they’ve built a tunnel and then the trains didn’t fit,” Dowie said.
“I know people are thinking ‘well why aren’t we opening the tunnel’ but it’s a journey that we have to go through to make sure it’s safe before we open.”
City Rail Link officials are hailing Friday’s VIP test run as a milestone but say there is still a long way to go before the public can have its turn.
CRL chief executive Patrick Brockie said testing and commissioning was the most complex part of the $5.5 billion project.
“There is still a lot of work to do before we know when exactly passengers will ride,” he said.
Another on the train, Finance Minister Nicola Willis was happy with what she saw.
“The feeling I have is it looks like when you’re overseas and you go in a proper underground subway and that’s an experience many New Zealanders have had and now they can have it here in Auckland,” she said.
rnz.co.nz