Eastern Line, Auckland

Eastern Line route map

Legend 0.0km / 0:00hr Britomart Transport Centre (Auckland) Southern line junction The Strand Ports of Auckland Terminal The Strand Tamaki Drive 4.6 / 0:06 Orakei Orakei Road 5.8 / 0:09 Meadowbank 6.6 Purewa 596m Purewa Tunnel 9.5 / 0:13 Glen Innes Merton Road 10.9 Tamaki Morrin Road Mountain Road 12.2 / 0:16 Panmure Ellerslie - Panmure Highway Waipuna Road 15.1 / 0:19 Sylvia Park South-Eastern Motorway Southern Motorway (SH1) Mt Wellington Highway Great South Road Southern line junction 16.7 / 0:22 Westfield Railway Lane 18.0 / 0:24 Otahuhu Kaka Street Mangere (North) Mangere Road Mangere (South) 19.7 / 0:27 Middlemore 21.7 / 0:30 Papatoetoe St George Street Bridge Street 23.2 / 0:33 Puhinui Manukau Branch Manukau Wiri State Highway 20 26.4 / 0:36 Homai Browns Road Jutlan Road Station Road 26.3 / 0:39 Manurewa Weymouth Road Great South Road 29.9 / 0:42 Te Mahia Southern Motorway (SH1) Spartan Road Manuroa Road 30.0 / 0:45 Takanini Tata Street Walters Road Tironui Subway Road Clevdon Road 33.1 / 0:50 Papakura (intermediate crossings not shown) Mission Bush Branch (intermediate crossings not shown) 51.3km / 1:06hr Pukekohe NIMT

The Eastern Line is the name of the suburban rail service in Auckland, New Zealand between Britomart and Manukau via the North Island Main Trunk and Manukau Branch. Services are operated by Transdev under the AT brand.

Construction

The line from Auckland - Westfield via Glen Innes was constructed as the Westfield deviation of the North Island Main Trunk. This deviation had been proposed as early as the 1870s, but various events meant that it was never constructed, until traffic on the Auckland - Newmarket Line began to significantly increase delays. The Westfield deviation avoided the major grades of the former main line, which had a highest point of 81m above sea level, compared with the new line's highest point of 24m.

A small reclamation had been made in the early 1920s 2 km out of Queen Street into Mechanics Bay for goods yards and maintenance sheds. The remaining 14 km section was built between 1924 and 1930 by the Public Works Department as part of general improvements to Auckland's rail network. The Purewa Tunnel, a major engineering work halfway between the city and Glen Innes, was built in the mid-1920s by miners that were experienced from working on the construction of the North Auckland Line.^[1] The construction and opening of this line coincided with the then new Auckland Railway Station.

The section from Mechanics Bay to Orakei required significant reclamation over Hobson Bay. At the same time a new road, Tamaki Drive, was built alongside part of the railway line. A notable feature of the deviation is that no road-rail level crossings were created by its construction. The line was completed on 24 September 1929, but did not open for traffic until 11 May 1930.^[2]

See also

• Public transport in Auckland
• List of Auckland train stations

References