Thousands have toured the metro City Rail Link’s deepest station — Karanga-a-Hape Station — ahead of its opening next month, and the station and its surrounds have come alive with music, performances and queues of people lining up to order food at St Kevin’s Arcade.

The event today drew in not just Aucklanders, but also visitors from other cities.

Karanga-a-Hape Station has New Zealand’s longest escalator, taking passengers 33 metres beneath Pitt Street.

Other artistic features include a ceiling shaped like three kauri snail shells, in homage to the kauri forests that once covered the Karangahape ridgeline before urbanisation.

Thirteen-year-old Aizu Rive, who has visiting his Auckland grandparents — coming all the way from Tokyo — said he likes the architecture of the station, including the ceiling designs.

The young rail enthusiast said he was excited that New Zealand now had a metro network.

“Feels very nice, because New Zealand is getting bigger too, it’s getting similar with Japan so it feels very nice,” he said.

Train ‘getting bigger’
“The train is getting bigger in New Zealand, and I love trains, so it’s really good for me,” he added.

Mary Thompson, who’s come from Te Aroha in Waikato to visit the station, said opening of Auckland’s City Rail Link will make it easier for her to do day trips to Auckland.

“Coming up to Auckland, it’s always been a pain with parking, this, we just grab one [train] from Pukekohe, come through a day out, a good journey,” she said.

Thirteen-year-old rail enthusiast Aizu Rive, with his brother and grandparents
Thirteen-year-old rail enthusiast Aizu Rive, with his brother and grandparents . . . enjoying the Karanga-a-Hape Station open day today. Image: RNZ/Lucy Xia

Thompson said she was pleased with the art at the station.

“I just think you only have one chance to make it beautiful, nobody retrofits a building to put art in it, and the spaces are so pretty.

“I’m just happy it’s got brightness and light, and after living overseas, some of the stations are rather dingy and horrid, and this is just lovely,” she said.

Meanwhile, a family of four living on Vincent Street, near the Karanga-a-Hape Station said the CRL’s opening would make a big difference for their school drop offs.

New Zealand's longest escalator going down 33 metres at the Karanga-a-hape Station
New Zealand’s longest escalator going down 33 metres at the Karanga-a-hape Station in the new Auckland metro – the equivalent of a 10 storey building. Image: RNZ/Lucy Xia

Four bus trips a day
Arrenda Maryzona currently makes four bus trips a day to drop off and pick up her kids from their school in New Lynn.

With the new Karanga-a-Hape Station connected to the Western Line, she can now take the train directly to New Lynn and cut down her travel time by half.

“It will make my life easier, because I can commute easily and I can spend less time than now, I will be so happy,” she said.

The new inner-city rail network has cost $5.5 billion and taken a decade to build.

Auckland Transport says the CRL is expected to double the number of Aucklanders who live within a 30-minute train journey of the city centre.