The Southern Line in

Auckland Auckland (pronounced ) ( mi, Tāmaki Makaurau) is a large metropolitan city in the North Island of New Zealand. The most populous urban area in the country and the fifth largest city in Oceania, Auckland has an urban population of about I ...

, New Zealand is the name given to suburban train services that operate between

Britomart Transport Centre Britomart Transport Centre, also known as Britomart railway station, is the public transport hub in the central business district of Auckland and the northern terminus of the North Island Main Trunk railway line. It combines a railway station ...

in central Auckland and

Pukekohe Pukekohe is a town in the Auckland Region of the North Island of New Zealand. Located at the southern edge of the Auckland Region, it is in South Auckland, between the southern shore of the Manukau Harbour and the mouth of the Waikato River. ...

via Newmarket.

Routing

From Britomart to Newmarket, Southern Line services use the

Newmarket Line The Newmarket Line is a railway line in Auckland, New Zealand, that runs between Quay Park Junction, near Britomart Transport Centre, and Newmarket Train Station. It is 2.64 km long. It connects the North Island Main Trunk (NIMT), whic ...

, then follow the

North Auckland Line The North Auckland Line (designation NAL) is a major section of New Zealand's national rail network, and is made up of the following parts: the portion of track that runs northward from Westfield Junction to Newmarket Station; from there, w ...

to Westfield Junction, and from thence onto the

North Island Main Trunk The North Island Main Trunk (NIMT) is the main railway line in the North Island of New Zealand, connecting the capital city Wellington with the country's largest city, Auckland. The line is long, built to the New Zealand rail gauge of and ser ...

(NIMT) line as far as Pukekohe, the terminus of the Southern Line. In its entirety, this line follows the original 1875 North Island Main Trunk route between central Auckland and Pukekohe. The line, originally single-tracked, was duplicated, piecemeal, between 1909 and 1939. In 1915, the original single-track Parnell tunnel was bypassed by a twin-track tunnel. The older tunnel can be seen alongside the current one, between

Parnell station Parnell was a station on the Chicago Transit Authority's Englewood branch, which is now part of the Green Line. The station was located at South Parnell Avenue and 63rd Place in the Englewood neighborhood of Chicago. Parnell had a direct platfor ...

and Newmarket Junction.

History

In 1930, the Westfield Deviation opened a new eastern route for the NIMT between Auckland and Westfield via Glen Innes. The route between Auckland and Westfield via Newmarket then ceased to be part of the NIMT. The portion between Newmarket and Westfield became part of the North Auckland Line (NAL), which runs between Westfield and Whangarei. The Southern Line suburban services continued to run on the older route. A new line, called the Eastern Line, was introduced for services on the new route. While the Eastern and Southern lines have a different route between Auckland and Westfield, they share the same tracks between Westfield and Puhinui station.

Third Main Line

A future third main line to be built as part of the ''Wiri to Quay Park'' project announced in 2017, work on which started in 2020 and is to be completed by 2024. It is expected to ease congestion on Auckland rail lines by allowing "through" trains to pass stationary trains at stations, improve rail freight access from the Port of Auckland to the Westfield yards and allow more frequent passenger and freight services. The new line would be between Westfield and

Wiri Wiri is a mostly industrial-commercial focused suburb in Auckland, New Zealand. It was formerly part of Manukau City until the merger of all of Auckland's councils into the ' super city' in 2010. The area was named after the chief Takaanini ...

. These improvements will avoid an estimated 175,000 annual freight movements on the state highway network. Work began at the end of 2020. The $315 million funding package for these works was announced as part of the Government's New Zealand Upgrade Programme.

New stations

As part of the New Zealand Upgrade Programme, new stations are to be built at Drury East, Drury West and Paerata.

Electrification

Along with the rest of Auckland's suburban railway network, the Southern Line was electrified from Britomart to Papakura, with electric services beginning in 2014. Services between Pukekohe and Papakura are still provided by diesel multiple units (DMUs). In 2020, as part of the New Zealand Upgrade Programme, the government announced $371 million in funding to extend electrification from Papakura to Pukekohe. The project is due for completion in 2023.

Services

Suburban services are operated by

Auckland One Rail Auckland One Rail is a train operator that commenced operating services under contract to Auckland Transport in January 2022. It is a 50/50 joint venture owned by Singapore-based ComfortDelGro and Australian-based UGL Rail. The operation is the ...

under the

AT Metro AT Metro is the public transport brand in Auckland, New Zealand, managed by Auckland Transport. It was launched in December 2014, following the decommissioning of the MAXX brand with updated bus and train liveries, staff uniforms, wayfinding si ...

brand.

Stations on the line

Stations in grey are closed or no longer served by the Southern Line. The following section of unelectrified track is served by a diesel train shuttle service. Papakura is the transfer hub between services.

References

{{NZR Lines Railway lines in New Zealand Public transport in Auckland Rail transport in Auckland