GALLERY: April school holidays rail network shutdown works progress

What work have KiwiRail and Auckland Transport been up to during this extended closure?

Apr 18, 2025

Welcome to the April School Holiday rail network shutdown works thread. On the 18th of April, NZ Transit Buzz travelled around the Auckland rail network to see what work KiwiRail and Auckland Transport have been up to during the extended rail network closure.

We started the morning at Henderson station, and while the weather isn’t playing ball, work is continuing at Henderson station for the escalator and lift replacement project, Currently, the train platform and bus platform escalators are closed, as well as the council building lift and the platform lift. Works recently wrapped on the lift replacement for access to Railside Ave. This project is expected to be completed by July 2025.

There are also two large piles of ballast being stored in the Laidlaw College carpark, which is likely from the track foundation rebuilds happening past the station.

Past Henderson Station is the site of the first major works site on the Western Line. Track foundations have been rebuilt over the last week, with new pre-assembled turnouts being lifted into place on Good Friday morning and new overhead masts being delivered.

The down main track was rebuilt and replaced during the Christmas 2024/24 network shutdown and NZ Transit Buzz understands the new track turnouts will likely be connected following the rebuild of the up main.

West of Glen Eden station, there is ongoing work mainly inside the buildings at the new Western Powerfeed to commission the equipment for use. Unfortunately, it was too windy to pop up the NZ Transit Buzz Drone to get a birds-eye view of the site.

Despite piles of track sleepers and machinery, there appears to be no work happening east of Glen Eden despite KiwiRail saying there would be major works. It appears some minor drainage work has been completed near the bend to Fruitvale Road station.

At Avondale Station, a new passenger information display was installed near the St Jude Street entrance and exit to Platform 2. KiwiRail are also storing their tamping machines on Platform 1.

Between Avondale and Mt Albert stations, crews are currently replacing a turnout as the previous one had reached its end of life. NZ Transit Buzz witnessed some very masterful crane control from the crews lifting one half of the eastern section of a new crossover in between the temporarily parted overhead wires.

Near Maungawhau Station, much of the station's build work itself is complete, with works at the moment focusing on the surrounding streetscape. Currently, Flower and Nikau streets are being realigned and reconstructed to connect up to the new station access roads and paths.

On Thursday, City Rail Link shared their latest Maungawhau Station drone flyover from March.

Where West meets South at the Newmarket Triangle, crews were undertaking maintenance on a number of the switching points within the triangle.

At Newmarket Station, Auckland Transport has begun a project to improve the watertightness of the station structure, This project is set to continue until October 2025, with Auckland Glass winning the tender to complete the work, which also included replacing the pivot windows at Grafton Station.

Much of the track work which was underway near Tamaki Drive on Thursday has wrapped up, with some minor track measurement and calibration works underway near Judges Bay.

As we began our journey down the Southern Line, our first section of work is on the Mitchelson Street overbridge, where crews appear to be undertaking maintenance on the bridge beams.

Further along the Southern Line at Middlemore, 90% of visible station works are complete, with crews this weekend working to install the new island platforms AT Hop Gates (large wooden box on the platform) as well as installing fences near the lift to direct people to the gates.

The streetscape works on Orakura Road are also nearing completion, with the new road layout in place and the retaining wall fully installed. Minor planting and road layout works remain to return the hospital carpark access roads to their historic state.

Between Middlemore and Papatoetoe Stations, there is some major track rebuild work taking place.

At Papatoetoe Station, the northern end of both platforms are being reconstructed, and at the southern end of the station, a new mural is being painted on the retaining wall, which was constructed for the Third Main project.

Homai is humming again this rail network shutdown. At Christmas, it was for the new station access bridge to be installed. This time, it’s major track rebuild works stretching from the northern end of the station to near Jellicoe Park.

Between North of Manurewa station and Jutland Road, both the up and down main have been temporarily lifted and stored near the old Manurewa station platforms while a rebuild of the track foundations is underway.

Track foundation rebuild works near Te Mahia have temporarily closed the pedestrian level crossing for the 2-week rail upgrade period. At some point in the next few years, the Homai Station pedestrian level crossing will close for good after being replaced by an overbridge.

As seen from the Walters Road level crossing, more track rebuild works are underway near the former Trionui Station Road pedestrian level crossing.

Actual station construction works for Drury station are mainly ground works at this stage. There is also a tower crane on-site during this shutdown moving equipment from the Great South Road side to the Flanagan Road side of the construction site.

Around the rest of the construction site, there are lots of earthworks to level the site to construct the station complex, and scaffolding is being assembled behind the retaining wall for the new Waihoehoe road bridge.