Auckland rail tunnel the world’s most expensive

Auckland’s city rail link is the most expensive rail project in the world per km, and the CRL boss has described the cost of infrastructure construction in Aotearoa as a crisis. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The Kākā

TL;DR: The 3.5 km City Rail Link (CRL) tunnel under Auckland’s CBD has cost $1.5 billion per km, according to a global study, which is 50% more than equivalent US city rail costs, three times the cost of city rail in Australia and nine times more than it costs to build in Finland, Portugal and Spain.

The CRL’s boss has described the situation as a crisis requiring a bipartisan approach to infrastructure building in Aotearoa that creates certainty and scale for a much more capable and permanent industry.

Elsewhere in the news at 6 am:

• Christopher Luxon admitted he and Chris Bishop wrongly said last week Northland would have just one cigarette outlet under smoke-free legislation National-ACT-NZ First would repeal. They were exposed in an interview Bishop had with Jack Tame yesterday (see video below);

• 50 oil and gas companies producing 40% of the world’s emissions from fossil fuels have pledged to cut their own emissions to net zero by 2050, but the plans do not take into account emissions from the fuel they sell and include massive carbon capture plans; (see detail and reaction below) and,

• Winston Peters has hinted New Zealand could sign up to ‘Pillar II’ of Aukus.

Paying subscribers can see and hear more detail and analysis in the podcast above and below the paywall threshold here.

The most expensive rail tunnels in the world, & how to fix it