Two of Auckland Transport’s (AT) 23 new trains have arrived at the Port of Auckland to support the city’s growing passenger rail network.

AT is expanding its train fleet to 95 units over the coming months to cater for increasing demand. These can operate individually as 3-carriage trains, or in pairs as 6-carriage trains, with the future potential to run as 9-carriage trains.

AT’s Director of Public Transport and Active Modes Stacey van der Putten says there is a growing need for more trains in Auckland as upgrades are made to the rail network and the City Rail Link gets closer to opening.

“Auckland will soon have five new train stations – three south of Papakura and another two in the city centre when the City Rail Link is up and running. The rail network has also been electrified to Pukekohe Station, which is set to re-open next year.

“Catching the train will be a better option for even more Aucklanders to get around the city, and we will need to have more services and more capacity on our network,” Ms van der Putten says.

“Work is also underway to enable trains to run more often across the city, with KiwiRail’s rail network rebuild and the City Rail Link being big parts of this.

“Having these new trains means that when the time comes, we’ll be ready to provide Aucklanders with a more frequent rail service with more capacity,” she says.

The new trains are being built in CAF’s factory in Mexico and then being shipped to Auckland as individual carriages, to then be assembled as 3-carriage units at AT’s train depot in Wiri.

The first of the 23 new trains arrived in July and the latest two are on their way to the Wiri train depot. They are expected to be in service next year after testing.

The Wiri train depot is currently being expanded to accommodate the additional trains.

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