Test and test again -CRL’s next phase
March 2024
In many different ways there has been a significant shift for City Rail Link these past 12 months that is having a profound and dynamic impact on the delivery of a world class and game-changing railway for the people of Auckland.
“Reset” needed to fix infrastructure crisis
December 2023
Recently I had the privilege of delivering the keynote speech to the NZ Rail 2023 conference.
The focus of my speech is what I regard as a long-term infrastructure delivery crisis facing New Zealand.
I don’t just want to complain about that, but I do have some thoughts on how to fix it for a more reliable, skilled and cheaper future.
CRL an agent of change for industry
June 2023
As the country’s largest infrastructure project ever undertaken, the City Rail Link is in a unique position to create change that takes the whole infrastructure industry forward.
In fact, we have a responsibility to do so.
If New Zealand is serious about effecting enduring positive change, then it is beholden to the big construction players to lead.
CRL Chief Executive sets the record straight on time, costs, delays
September 2022
The impact of Covid on major construction projects has been far more wide-ranging than first anticipated in early 2020. Unsurprisingly, this has cast a long shadow over the City Rail Link project since the first lockdown in March 2020 too.
Understandably people want and deserve an explanation about what those impacts are and why it’s taking so long to give a definitive answer around costs and finish date.
Public transport is the great enabler of great cities
July 2022
What a great sight Eden Park was last weekend – more than 48,000 people packing the stands to watch a superb All Blacks performance against the Irish- although my Irish heritage left me feeling the Irish were not flattered by the scoreline.
Then the small city of rugby fans decamped at the final whistle to find entertainment appropriate to follow such a stellar match. As any Eden Park aficionado will tell you, getting out of the stadium and into the city after a big game is quite a challenge.
Most people don’t realise how much the City Rail Link will be able to change all that through the flexibility and increased capacity that it will provide the Auckland rail network. It is going to change the way this city operates. We will be able to shift enormous numbers of people very quickly.
CRL’s point of difference with our Aussie cousins
May 2022
I was in Sydney recently as one of the guest speakers at the Australian Tunnellers Conference.
My presentation to the 100 or so delegates was a little unconventional. Not so much about CRL’s construction methodology - the Aussies have a lot more under way in terms of tunnelling projects than we do on this side of the Tasman – but more about what I consider to be CRL’s significant point of difference with big ticket construction projects here and in Australia.
Mega projects have a huge opportunity to do more – grow the infrastructure industry for sure – but along the way take a further step and break new ground.
CRL advances past Omicron
April 2022
For a few crazy weeks, City Rail Link sites looked more like the sets from a zombie movie than construction zones – near-desolate scenes with lots of machinery around but very few people about.
Those ‘crazy weeks’ occurred during omicron’s peak. Despite high rates of vaccination, the virus at its peak kept more than 15 percent of our workforce of 2000 at home. There was some fear turning up for work combined with understandable concerns all of us at CRL had for family and friends.
Importantly, though, we got through that – we did not allow omicron to beat us. Neither CRL Ltd nor the Link Alliance ever considered shutting down.
Pandemic politics and City Rail Link
February 2022
Politics plays a big role in the City Rail Link project. The Crown is one of our two sponsors – the other is Auckland Council – and it’s fair to say that we get a lot of positive support from all sides of the political spectrum.
But there’s no escaping the fact that those in the ‘big house’ at Parliament in Wellington do like to keep an eye on how the funds we receive from both New Zealand taxpayers and Auckland ratepayers are being spent.
Counting the cost of CRL’s construction battle with the pandemic
December 2021
These past few weeks have, rightly, been a time of celebration for New Zealand’s largest transport infrastructure project with some hugely significant milestones ticked off - but our successes are tempered by the very long shadow covid continues to cast across our project.
It should not be a surprise to anyone that the pandemic has had serious impacts on City Rail Link’s (CRL) costs and on our construction timings. Assessments are underway now so that we have a much clearer picture of the extent and depth of covid’s effects, but one thing is clear already – that covid shadow is becoming a numbers game for CRL.
CRL’s glow shines through mid-winter’s dark days
June 2021
Mid-winter and days that are short, cold and dark fail to diminish the glow of a City Rail Link project that has changed beyond recognition in 12 breath-taking months.
As our financial year draws to a close, we’re a project at peak production forging ahead; one successfully managing the challenges of the Covid-19 pandemic; one that can demonstrate significant contributions to a more vibrant and sustainable Auckland.
CRL forging ahead despite challenges
March 2021
A chief executive’s chair usually carries a lot of authority, but I have had a timely reminder here at City Rail Link that it is authority that goes only so far.
Any authority I do have at New Zealand’s biggest transport infrastructure project falls well short of foreseeing what the future holds - put simply, I cannot guarantee that it is not going to rain next Sunday, nor can I foretell the next disruption due to COVID.
CRL’s bloody amazing year!
December 2020
“Bloody amazing!”
To me, those two words perfectly sum up City Rail Link’s year in 2020. Equally, that Crowded House song, “Four Seasons In One Day”, is a very fitting reminder of how rapidly things change – a year that began with high expectations, unexpectedly took a covid turn for the worse, and is ending on a very positive high reflecting what is unique about New Zealand/Aotearoa!
Replacing the 3Rs with 3 Ps- Project, Pandemic, Progress
June 2020
All it took was a 90 minute flight for my City Rail Link world to turn upside down. On Saturday, 21 March, I took off from Auckland. When I landed in Queenstown, my phone “went nuts”. During those 90 minutes in the air, the Prime Minister announced we would be moving to the newly defined “level 2” immediately and a full lockdown within days.
Building Auckland’s City Rail Link is not child’s play
March 2020
Some people have the view that building Auckland’s City Rail Link is a bit like playing with a giant Lego or Meccano set – it’s as easy as clicking plastic tiles together or joining up a metal sections with nuts and bolts - albeit lots of them!
Maori Language Week
August 2019
It’s quite some cultural recipe.
“Ingredients” include perky piwakawaka, mighty Tane Mahuta muscling its way through the forest canopy up north to prise open the sky, a colonial villa nestled on the slopes of Maungawhau, the seven daughters of the Ancient Greek Titan, Atlas, known collectively as the constellation Pleiades who guide Matariki, the Māori God Rongomatane, and the foundations for Tāmaki Makaurau (Auckland) – the city’s volcanic basalt, its sandstone and mudstone, and its rain.
Titahi Bay
August 2019
Titahi Bay on the fringe of Wellington ranks as one of New Zealand’s prettiest beaches. It is a near-perfect crescent of sand curved like a sliver of new moon that looks west out to sheltering Mana Island and then to the wilder Tasman beyond.
I grew up on Titahi Bay streets bordered mainly by state houses during New Zealand’s baby boomer years. Many who lived there had called other places their home first. For my family it was Ireland and the UK, for others the Pacific, and some came from heartland New Zealand looking for new opportunity in the “big smoke.”