Auckland’s City Rail Link bosses have been pressed over comments by its former chief executive that the $5.5 billion project could have been delivered for half the price, with one councillor “totally furious” over the claim.
Members from the CRL leadership team fronted Auckland councillors today to provide an update on the project set to be delivered in the second half of 2026, years later than expected and after about a $2b cost blowout from its initial $3.5b price tag.
Auckland councillor Richard Hills took the opportunity to ask the CRL leadership team their thoughts on former chief executive Dr Sean Sweeney’s description of the project as “Rolls-Royce” like in quality that could have been delivered for half the price.
“I feel totally furious that someone can be part of this project for six or seven years and then jump out… Do you hear that and know that’s not true? Surely, we could not have magically shaved $2b off when we were told, and shown, completely the opposite,” Hills said during the transport and infrastructure committee meeting.
Hills said Sweeney did not suggest such massive cost-cutting was possible when he was in the role as chief executive, which he left in 2024 to oversee Dublin’s MetroLink rail project.
Hills was also alarmed by Sweeney’s comment that he “didn’t have the experience in building metro stations” when Auckland Transport (AT) and KiwiRail said they could not scale back their “cathedral”-like stations.
“I don’t want you to comment on the personality, but I mean for someone who was paid $940,000 a year when he left, to say he was not experienced and would have saved us $2b if only he knew… What he said in that interview is completely the opposite of what he said when he was standing in your shoes.”
Sweeney earned $948,000 as CRL’s CEO in the year to June 2024.
Hills then read a previous quote from Sweeney that stated the extra funding and additional time for the CRL’s completion “is primarily due to Covid impacts, time lost on site and knock-on effects of the supply chain, resource materials, costs of steel and concrete, labour costs”.
The current CRL chief executive, Patrick Brockie, did not engage with Sweeney’s criticism of the project.
“I think our approach right now is really not to focus on that. Our focus is to finish the project and have it open for Aucklanders,” Brockie said.
“I don’t have time to dwell on Sean’s comments even though I know him well, obviously, having worked with him for a number of years, but this is not the time and place.”
Councillor Matt Winiata also quizzed the CRL panel on Sweeney’s comments, citing a 7.9% Auckland rates increase because of the CRL and stating the project “cannot fail”.
“The last thing that I, or any of the councillors, would want to be hearing is ‘there are learnings to come from this’,” Winiata said.
Brockie clarified there are three separate reviews into the project and its construction and cost blowouts.
One of them, he said, was a “lessons learnt” review commissioned by CRL itself into decisions around design and stakeholder engagement across the 10-year project. It would be an “independent component” by “international, experienced” people and also have a peer review component.
“There are many aspects of this project that I think are worth reviewing. We’ve agreed with the sponsors that we will do this,” Brockie said.
“We’re actually underway with that work and that will review various aspects of the project in order to benefit the next large infrastructure project, whether that be the harbour tunnel or bridge.”
A second “retrospective review” was launched by Transport Minister Chris Bishop on May 7 after Sweeney’s comments.
“Like everyone, I’m unhappy at the cost of the CRL. I have a lot of respect for Mr Sweeney, so I take what he says seriously,” Bishop said.
And a third will be a “gateway review” by Treasury to be finished before practical completion of the CRL.
Auckland councillor Daniel Newman pressed the team on an elusive “grand opening” date for the CRL.
AT’s group manager of rail services Mark Lambert said they could only be as specific as the second half of 2026, because AT was in the middle of trials of the network on trains without passengers.
“We will be in a position shortly after those trials to narrow the window down. There is a required six to eight weeks to effectively notify staff, particularly on trains, before we actually launch.”
Councillor Maurice Williamson cited the original costing of the project in January 2016 from then-Prime Minister Sir John Key, which was $2.5b, split between council and Government.
“I come from the perspective of trying to assuage terribly grumpy constituents. I wrote an article for the local paper recently that says the 2025 rate increase, the 7.9% we were putting on them, a record, was solely the total cost of what it was going to be to run the CRL, and had we not had that we would have been able to stay at zero.”
Williamson said his article came out the same week as Sweeney’s comments about the CRL’s “dreadful overspend, escalators too many, large stations”.
The Howick ward councillor said he’s ended up with people in the street saying: “Well so much for your bloody 7.9% rates increase, you go and blow it on a system you didn’t need to, and the guy who said it was the chief executive… it’s not like it was some think tank”.
“Do you understand how difficult it is for us to sell it to the public when those comments come out?”
Hills echoed this sentiment, saying it was a “huge frustration” trying to sell the CRL public asset in light of Sweeney’s comments.
Brockie said the best way to respond to this will be via the CRL’s own “lessons learnt” review, which would be released in an “open and transparent way”.
“We certainly will not hide from that,” Brockie said.
Sweeney’s criticisms of the CRL in his May 7 interview cited the over-specified nature of the project’s design.
Two of the new stations, Te Waihorotiu and Karanga-a-Hape, which are part of the CRL’s 3.45km twin-tunnel underground rail link, have walls covered in intricate designs, multiple escalators and high ceilings.
Sweeney agreed they were over-designed.
“I think we could have delivered this for half the cost, but it would have looked different. The stations would have looked quite industrial, and they would have been smaller, they wouldn’t have had anywhere near the extra facilities in them.”
In 2018, the decision was made to lengthen the platforms at two stations from six cars to nine cars to future-proof the project.
“It was a decision that was on the table when I arrived. To be fair, everyone was terrified of another Auckland Harbour Bridge [which had to be expanded from four to eight lanes in its first decade]. And they were terrified of, within two years, the whole railway being over-capacity,” Sweeney said.
“I now know the nine-car versus three-car probably doubles the cost.”
He said capacity issues would be better dealt with by running trains more frequently.
Sweeney is next heading to Australia to head the A$30b ($36.6b) Inland Rail Project. The 1600km freight line will connect Melbourne and Brisbane via regional Victoria, New South Wales and Queensland.
Tom Dillane is an Auckland-based journalist covering local government and crime as well as sports investigations. He joined the Herald in 2018 and is a duty editor and senior reporter.
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