Eastern Line, Auckland

Eastern Line
Overview
StatusActive
OwnerKiwiRail (tracks and platforms), Auckland Transport (trains and buildings)
LocaleAuckland, New Zealand
TerminiBritomart
Manukau
Connecting linesOnehunga, Southern, Western
Stations11
Service
TypeCommuter Rail
SystemAT Metro
Operator(s)Transdev Auckland under the AT brand
Rolling stockAM class
History
Opened1930 (Westfield Deviation), 7 July 2003 (Britomart Transport Centre), 15 April 2012 (Manukau Branch)
Technical
Track length23 km (14 mi)
Number of tracks2
Track gauge1,067 mm (3 ft 6 in)
Electrification25 kV AC overhead

The Eastern Line is the name of the suburban rail service in Auckland, New Zealand between Britomart and Manukau via the North Island Main Trunk (NIMT) and Manukau Branch. Services are operated by Transdev under the AT brand.

In December 2014, all Eastern Line train services began terminating at Manukau, rather than alternating between Manukau and Papakura. Electrification of the Auckland suburban network was completed in July 2015, and all passenger services on this line are electrified.

In August 2020 the Eastern Line was closed down between Otahuhu and Britomart for 14 days from 24 August to enable urgent and unforeseen track replacement work to be carried out.[1]

Construction

The line from Auckland to Westfield via Glen Innes was constructed as the Westfield Deviation of the North Island Main Trunk. This eastern deviation had been proposed as early as the 1870s, but various events meant that it was never constructed, until traffic on the Auckland – Newmarket section of the NIMT began to experience significant delays. The Westfield Deviation avoided the major grades of the route via Newmarket and Remuera, which had a highest point of 81 metres (266 ft) above sea level, compared with the new line's highest point of 24 metres (79 ft).[2][3]

A small reclamation had been made in the early 1920s, 2 kilometres (1.2 mi) out of Queen Street into Mechanics Bay for goods yards and maintenance sheds. The remaining 14.28 km (8 miles & 70 chain) section was built as the "Westfield Deviation" between 1924 and 1930 by the Public Works Department as part of general improvements to Auckland's rail network, and authorised (estimated cost £375,000) by the Railways Improvement Authorisation Act, 1914.[4]

The Purewa Tunnel, a major engineering work halfway between the city and Glen Innes, was built in the mid-1920s by experienced miners who had worked on the construction of the North Auckland Line.[5]

The section from Mechanics Bay to Orakei required significant reclamation over Hobson Bay. At the same time a new road, Tamaki Drive, was built alongside part of the railway line. A notable feature of the deviation is that no road-rail level crossings were created by its construction.[6]

The Westfield Deviation via the Purewa Tunnel opened for goods traffic on 1 September 1929 using the down line to Westfield for single-line working, but was not used for passenger traffic until the up line to Auckland was opened on 11 May 1930.[7][8] The construction and opening of this line coincided with the then new Auckland Railway Station.[3]

See also

References
  1. "Auckland Metro: Track replacement work". KiwiRail. 2020.
  2. "The Westfield Deviation". The New Zealand Railways Magazine – archived at Victoria University of Wellington. 1 February 1931. Retrieved 25 December 2018.
  3. "Westfield Deviation – One track in use by May". The New Zealand Herald. 27 February 1929. Retrieved 1 March 2019.
  4. "Railways Improvement Authorisation Act, 1914". New Zealand Law online.
  5. "Good Progress - Auckland Railway Deviation". The Evening Post. 12 February 1926. p. 8. Retrieved 10 January 2011.
  6. Bill Pierre (1981). North Island Main Trunk An Illustrated History. A W Reed.
  7. AJHR 1930 D1 page xvii
  8. Pierre, Bill (1981). North Island Main Trunk. Wellington: Reed. p. 178. ISBN 0-589-01316-5.
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