The Eastern Line is the name of the suburban rail service in

Auckland Auckland (pronounced ) ( mi, Tāmaki Makaurau) is a large metropolitan city in the North Island of New Zealand. The most populous urban area in the country and the fifth largest city in Oceania, Auckland has an urban population of about I ...

New Zealand New Zealand ( mi, Aotearoa ) is an island country in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. It consists of two main landmasses—the North Island () and the South Island ()—and over 700 smaller islands. It is the sixth-largest island coun ...

between Britomart and

Manukau Manukau (), or Manukau Central, is a suburb of South Auckland, New Zealand, centred on the Manukau City Centre business district. It is located 23 kilometres south of the Auckland Central Business District, west of the Southern Motorway, so ...

via the

North Island Main Trunk The North Island Main Trunk (NIMT) is the main railway line in the North Island of New Zealand, connecting the capital city Wellington with the country's largest city, Auckland. The line is long, built to the New Zealand rail gauge of and se ...

(NIMT) and

Manukau Branch The Manukau Branch is a spur railway line off the North Island Main Trunk railway from Wiri to Manukau City Centre in Auckland, New Zealand. It is the first fully new section of railway line constructed in Auckland since the Eastern Line in ...

. Services are operated by

Auckland One Rail Auckland One Rail is a train operator that commenced operating services under contract to Auckland Transport in January 2022. It is a 50/50 joint venture owned by Singapore-based ComfortDelGro and Australian-based UGL Rail. The operation is th ...

under the

Auckland Transport Auckland Transport (AT) is the council-controlled organisation (CCO) of Auckland Council responsible for transport projects and services. It was established by section 38 of the Local Government (Auckland Council) Act 2009, and operates under ...

brand. In December 2014, all Eastern Line train services began terminating at

, rather than alternating between Manukau and

Papakura Papakura is a southern suburb of Auckland, in northern New Zealand. It is located on the shores of the Pahurehure Inlet, approximately 32 kilometres south of the Auckland CBD. It is under the authority of the Auckland Council. Papakura is a M� ...

. Electrification of the Auckland suburban network was completed in July 2015, and all passenger services on this line are electrified.

Construction

The line from Auckland to Westfield via Glen Innes was constructed as the Westfield Deviation of the North Island Main Trunk. This eastern deviation had been proposed as early as the 1870s, but various events meant that it was never constructed, until traffic on the Auckland – Newmarket section of the NIMT began to experience significant delays. The Westfield Deviation avoided the major grades of the route via Newmarket and

Remuera Remuera is an affluent inner city suburb of Auckland, New Zealand. It is located four kilometres southeast of the city centre. Remuera is characterised by many large houses, often Edwardian or mid 20th century. A prime example of a "leafy" sub ...

, which had a highest point of above sea level, compared with the new line's highest point of . A small reclamation was made between 1905 and 1916, out of Queen Street into Mechanics Bay for goods yards and maintenance sheds. The remaining 14.28 km (8 miles & 70 chain) section was built as the "Westfield Deviation" between 1924 and 1930 by the

Public Works Department This list indicates government departments in various countries dedicated to public works or infrastructure. See also * Public works * Ministry or Board of Public Works, the imperial Chinese ministry overseeing public projects from the Tang ...

as part of general improvements to Auckland's rail network, and authorised (estimated cost £375,000) by the Railways Improvement Authorisation Act, 1914. The

Purewa Tunnel Purewa Tunnel is a rail tunnel in Auckland, New Zealand. It is on the North Island Main Trunk line and is located in the suburb of Saint Johns, to the west of Glen Innes. The tunnel is concrete-lined. Eastern Line passenger services operat ...

, a major engineering work halfway between the city and Glen Innes, was built in the mid-1920s by experienced miners who had worked on the construction of the

North Auckland Line The North Auckland Line (designation NAL) is a major section of New Zealand's national rail network, and is made up of the following parts: the portion of track that runs northward from Westfield Junction to Newmarket Station; from there, we ...

. The section from Mechanics Bay to Ōrākei required significant reclamation over Hobson Bay. At the same time a new road,

Tamaki Drive Tamaki Drive is the coastal road which follows the contours of the Waitematā Harbour, Auckland, New Zealand. The road links the suburbs Ōrākei, Mission Bay, and Kohimarama ending in Saint Heliers providing easy access to the local beaches. ...

, 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 Westfield Deviation via the Purewa Tunnel opened for goods traffic on 1 September 1929 using the ''down'' line to Westfield for single-line working, but was not used for passenger traffic until after the ''up'' line to Auckland was opened on 11 May 1930. The construction and opening of this line coincided with the then new Auckland Railway Station. The first passenger train over the line was a Wellington Limited express, when a derailment at Penrose caused it to be diverted on 18 September 1930. The new station and deviation were officially opened on 24 November 1930.

References

External links

* * * * * * * * {{NZR Lines Railway lines in New Zealand Public transport in Auckland Rail transport in Auckland