When the City Rail Link opens, it'll be the most ambitious infrastructure project ever completed in New Zealand. 

Linking key lines, slashing travel times and boosting capacity, buses, ferries and trains work together as one seamless transport system, while redeveloped precincts and vibrant urban spaces weave each station into the neighbourhood around it. 

With every stop a gateway to somewhere worth going, it won’t just get you from A to B faster – it’ll open up a whole new way to move through the city. 

Drawing on the Māori creation story, ancient waterways, volcanic cones, native forest and starlit skies show up through the art and design of each station – so the journey from daylight down into the tunnels becomes an experience in itself.

These are distinctly Tāmaki stations, carrying the region’s stories, identity and landscapes into the future.

Te Waihorotiu Station 

Set to become New Zealand's busiest rail hub, Te Waihorotiu will deliver thousands of Aucklanders straight into the heart of midtown's arts, entertainment and business hub, while serving as a major interchange for the entire region.

Located beneath Albert St in the city centre, Te Waihorotiu puts you at the doorstep of one of Auckland's fastest-transforming areas.

The station is within easy walking distance of iconic venues like the Civic Theatre, Aotea Centre and Town Hall, alongside the new International Convention Centre, Q Theatre, Art Gallery Toi o Tāmaki and the Central City Library. Auckland’s award-winning universities are also just a stone’s throw away.

Fresh public spaces and laneways to gather and explore, along with new bus, cycling and walking connections, make this a greener, more vibrant midtown that’s now built for people.

It’s a genuine hub for culture, performance and knowledge – with a lecture, a night at the theatre, or a wander around a gallery all just a few minutes' walk from the platform.

The station's name honours the Waihorotiu Stream, a waterway that once flowed through the area and sustained life here – providing fresh water for cooking, washing, bathing and growing food.

Today, the stream lies hidden below Queen St, and Te Waihorotiu Station continues its flow – moving people through town to the harbour and beyond.

At Wellesley St, blue aluminium fins wrap the entrance in a poutama pattern representing the tears of Ranginui, with earth-toned concrete panels referencing Papatūānuku.

Now step inside and look up.

Thousands of golden rods hang above the ticket gates, designed to evoke raupō reeds swaying in the old stream. The kaitiaki Horotiu is hidden among them, offering a haere mai and haere rā to those passing through.

Below street level, the station is a bright space with a platform future-proofed for nine-carriage trains. With trains every 4-5 minutes at peak, and serving both the new East West Line and South City Line, this will be one of the city’s best-connected transport hubs.

Even this far underground, daylight enters through seven skylights along Albert St, each representing a star of Matariki, while dark panels above the platform in kōwhaiwhai and pūhoro patterns extend the reference to Waihorotiu Stream.

This is a station that will reshape connectivity to Auckland's commercial centre, home to hundreds of businesses, thousands of jobs and a steadily growing residential population.

The CRL cuts commute times for Aucklanders getting here, opening up easier access to work, study, culture and everything else midtown has to offer.

Like the stream that inspired it, Te Waihorotiu is designed to carry Auckland forward, opening up the city like never before.

Karanga-a-Hape Station 

Set beneath one of Auckland's most creative and fiercely independent neighbourhoods, Karanga-a-Hape Station will connect the city's cultural heart to the wider region. 

Entrances on Mercury Lane and Beresford Square bring together trains, major bus routes, cycleways and walkways to this hub for arts, ideas and alternative expression,and  haven for diverse communities. 

K’ Road is known as the place that's  always got something happening, day or night – and it’s an area that’s expanding, with more people calling it home than ever before and further development expected as Aucklanders make the most of the station’s links across the region. 

Above ground, the surrounding precinct has been transformed with upgraded streets, wider footpaths, new pedestrian crossings, cycleways and planting – and with late-night trains on the weekends taking all the stress out of a night out with friends, K' Road's food and nightlife scene will get a boost, too. 

The station's gifted name – Karanga-a-Hape, or ‘The Call of Hape’ – recalls the ancestor who welcomed the Tainui waka to Tāmaki Makaurau. A story of belonging, it's a fitting name for a station that will welcome thousands each day. 

Passengers arriving via Mercury Lane are greeted by tall ochre poles referencing the strength of Tāne. The entrance is wrapped in the City Rail Link's signature blue aluminium fins, symbolising stars, with two large moulded concrete figures standing guard. 

Inside the entrance foyer, three giant kauri snail sculptures hang from the 8m-high ceiling,
their spiralling gold shells symbolising the connection between people and nature.

At 33m below ground level, this is New Zealand's deepest train station, served by the country’s longest escalator. Subtle colour shifts trace the geological layers of the earth as you descend to platform level, where curved passageways, ribbed acoustic ceilings and calibrated lighting evoke a sense of calm. 

The Beresford Square entrance offers a different experience – a glass pavilion bringing natural light to a stunning artwork tracing the phases of the moon in hand-carved kauri discs. 

This is a station raising the mana of Karangahape Rd, connecting its people and places, and weaving seamlessly into one of the city's most unapologetically authentic communities. 

Maungawhau Station 

The former Mt Eden Station is transformed into a major gateway to Auckland's western city fringe and a key interchange on the network. 

Located in the lively Uptown precinct – home to Eden Terrace, Newton and parts of Mt Eden – the station will make hospitality, music, retail and arts venues more accessible, providing faster, more frequent journeys. 

Uptown is very much a precinct on the rise – a dynamic, city-fringe neighbourhood rooted in character but evolving fast, fuelled by emerging and creative businesses. With the station at its centre, it'll become one of the easiest parts of the city to get to, live near and explore. 

Maungawhau operates as a crucial interchange between the new East West and Onehunga West lines, providing direct access to the city centre and reducing commute times for west Aucklanders. 

Inspired by one of Auckland's most prominent maunga, a striking triangle motif is central to the station's design. Formed by the eruption of Maungawhau 15,000 years ago, basalt excavated during construction is visible on the station's exterior and in boulders throughout the plaza, reconnecting the station to the whenua it emerged from. 

At the main entrance, a blue patterned façade is illuminated after dark to guide travellers in, where they’re met with a 9m-high waterwall sculpture Parawhenuamea spanning the station atrium, and a fiery map of Tāmaki’s 53 volcanoes made from lava-coloured glass triangles. 

Below, four rail tunnels pass through a complex underground junction, with platforms connected by a glass pedestrian overbridge. Towards Korari St, the ventilation building Te Hā houses the equipment that pumps fresh air into the tunnels below, its zigzag pattern referencing breath and life. 

Today, the area around the station is open space – until recently a hive of construction activity – but in the future will become one of Auckland's newest neighbourhoods, enhancing an already-buzzing part of town that's only getting better connected. 

Waitematā Station

Once the end of the line for Auckland's rail network, Waitematā Station has been transformed into a two-way through-station – dramatically increasing the number of people the network can handle.

Located in downtown Auckland, the station puts you right in the middle of one of the city's most exciting, fastest-evolving precincts. Downtown today is a genuine must-visit destination, with its mix of dining, shopping, arts and nightlife anchored by the harbour and shaped by a packed calendar of festivals and cultural events. 

It's the heart of Auckland's urban experience, where people live, work and play – and it's only getting better, with major investment and regeneration adding new reasons to visit all the time. 

Waitematā Station has long been a key link to Britomart, Commercial Bay, the Viaduct Harbour and Spark Arena, as well as services to the North Shore and beyond. The Ferry Building is also just a three-minute walk away, linking on to Waiheke, Devonport, Half Moon Bay and more. 

Engineers temporarily transferred the 14,000-tonne heritage building onto new foundations while twin tunnels were excavated beneath it to extend the line. 

The restored Edwardian building remains the principal entrance to Waitematā Station, and passengers pass under its colourful stained-glass skylights before descending to the contemporary underground station below. 

Outside, Te Komititanga – meaning "to merge" – is one of the city's largest public squares, while at the eastern entrance, a modern glass pavilion opens onto the artwork Waitī Waitā – a circular sculpture representing the meeting of fresh and salt water, and a popular place to sit and gather before heading off to explore the Britomart precinct and beyond. 

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