Auckland's underground City Rail Link opened this month, improving connections to the city centre for hundreds of thousands more residents and marking the completion of one of New Zealand's largest infrastructure projects. 

Behind the scenes, Ventia's Energy Networks and Renewables crews have spent the past five years helping to make it happen. Since January 2022, the team has worked above and below Auckland's streets to install, integrate and test the electrical systems and infrastructure connecting three new stations to the 3.45km City Rail Link tunnels.

That work included design verification and validation, installation of more than one million metres of cable, cable containment and ducting, and set up of project controls that were shared with and adopted by many other contractors working on the City Rail Link project.

This was definitely one of the bigger projects in New Zealand, and one that was a bit different because of the commercial and industrial nature of the work in a dense urban setting,

says Karen Boyes, Ventia Project Director North New Zealand.

Ventia’s work on the project began with electrical infrastructure at Waitematā Station (formerly called Britomart Station), before a separate contract was signed with Link Alliance for works at Karanga-a-Hape Station and Te Waihorotiu Station.

Karen says the signing of the contract of works directly with Link Alliance came off the back of exceptional service delivery while working alongside contractor partners on the separate initial contract at Waitematā Station.

During the project, Ventia mobilised a project workforce that peaked at more than 250 skilled electricians, trades assistants and engineers working on site at once.

"That was a challenge but also a real highlight,” Karen says.

Projects like this allow us to employ a diverse range of people and it was fantastic to see the pride the whole team took in delivering such a flagship project for our community.

Some of the keys to the project’s success were the strong relationship Ventia developed with the Link Alliance partners and having the right people in the right roles. She commended project manager Kevin Hopkins for his work, as well as all the team members who collectively put in many tens of thousands of hours of work throughout the project.

The City Rail Link has officially opened to the public, but Ventia’s role isn’t quite done yet. Members of Ventia’s design team are lending their BIM modelling expertise to create final as-built models of City Rail Link infrastructure. This will ensure accurate digital records are available for Auckland One Rail in future.

About City Rail Link

City Rail Link is a 3.45km-long dual railway tunnel deep below Auckland that officially opened to the public on 13 September 2026. It is one the largest and most ambitious infrastructure projects ever undertaken in New Zealand and is designed to double the number of people within a 30-minute commute of central Auckland.