NEW ZEALAND: Auckland Transport says one final City Rail Link emergency exercise is scheduled in underground stations and tunnels during the week of August 24, before passenger services begin on September 13.

Te Waihorotiu Station entrance in central Auckland before City Rail Link passenger services begin
Te Waihorotiu Station’s Wellesley Street entrance in Auckland. Illustrative photo. Photo: Paora, CC0 1.0.

City Rail Link is Auckland’s new underground rail connection through the city centre, due to open to passengers on September 13, 2026. Auckland Transport, the region’s transport authority, describes the scheduled exercise as an additional preparedness opportunity rather than a formal requirement.

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What the exercise will simulate

The exercise plan calls for emergency services and rail staff to simulate a fire on a train near Te Waihorotiu Station, a new underground station in central Auckland. Auckland Transport’s announcement, issued on August 24, did not state the exact day or time of the exercise.

What readiness means deep underground

Parts of the City Rail Link tunnels sit more than 40 metres below ground. City Rail Link Ltd says that depth creates challenges for access, evacuation and communication.

Testing has therefore covered more than the people who turn up on the scene. Auckland Transport says the earlier exercise programme examined ventilation and smoke extraction — the systems that clear smoke out of underground spaces — along with alarms, communications, CCTV, lighting and control-room operations, meaning the coordination of the railway response from the Auckland Rail Operations Centre.

Responsibilities are split between organisations. KiwiRail coordinates the response to incidents in the tunnels through that operations centre, while Auckland One Rail, which runs the train services, responds to unplanned events on trains and at stations, with emergency-service support when needed.

One drill, after a much larger programme

The wider testing programme was completed in July 2026 and involved more than 1,400 volunteer passengers. According to Auckland Transport, it ran to 15 live exercises, drew in around 200 personnel and more than 50 emergency-service vehicles, and put more than 300 participants at a time into the largest scenarios.

Those exercises simulated station fires, train failures in tunnels, derailments, onboard medical incidents and multi-station evacuations. The totals describe that completed programme, not the single exercise scheduled for the week of August 24.

Auckland Transport’s announcement does not confirm that the scheduled exercise has taken place or report any result. It says Fire and Emergency New Zealand has continued site visits and additional training in the weeks before opening.

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