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Britomart Station
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Britomart Station
Britomart Station, officially Waitematā railway station, and formerly known as Britomart Transport Centre, is the public transport hub in the central business district of Auckland and the northern terminus of the North Island Main Trunk railway line. It combines a railway station in a former Edwardian post office, extended with expansive modernist architectural elements, with a bus interchange. It is at the foot of Queen Street, the main commercial thoroughfare of the CBD, with the main ferry terminal just across Quay Street.
The station was the result of many design iterations, some of them being substantially larger and including an underground bus terminal and a large underground car park. Political concerns and cost implications meant that those concepts did not proceed. At the time of its inception in the early 2000s the station was still Auckland's largest transport project ever, built to move rail access closer to the city's CBD and help boost Auckland's low usage of public transport. It is one of the few underground railway stations in the world designed for use by diesel trains, although their use is now prohibited. Diesel trains from Hamilton and Wellington terminate at The Strand station.
Twin underground tunnels for the new East-West and South-City lines have been constructed from the station as part of the City Rail Link project, which will open in 2026.
In March 2023, the station's unofficial name of Britomart Station was officially altered to Waitematā Railway Station by the New Zealand Geographic Board. Since 21 September 2025, Auckland Transport has referred to the station as Waitematā, after having used the dual name Waitematā Station (Britomart) since 2023.
The station is on reclaimed land in the middle of what was once Commercial Bay. Its original name came from Point Britomart, a former headland at Commercial Bay's eastern end. In the 1870s and 1880s the headland was levelled and used to fill in Commercial Bay in order to extend the railway line to the bottom of Queen Street.
Auckland Railway Station moved west from its original 1873 site to Britomart in 1885 and remained there after the Post Office was built on the Queen Street frontage in 1912. The Chief Post Office was designed by architect John Campbell in an Edwardian baroque style, using Oamaru stone on a base of Coromandel granite. In 1930 the station was relocated 1.2 km east to Beach Road and the former station site became a bus terminal in 1937 and a car park in 1958.
Many proposals were made to locate the station back in the CBD, most notably in 1973 and 1987, with the 1970s proposal of the mayor of Auckland, Dove-Myer Robinson, envisaging an underground station at Britomart and a tunnel loop, but that was stopped by the Muldoon National Government, which claimed it was unjustified and too costly. In 1995, Auckland City Council purchased the old Post Office building (PostBank offices closed in 1988, though some postal services remained open beyond that year) and proposed to redevelop the area as a transit centre.
Early designs called for both the bus terminal and the railway to be underground, but these plans were scrapped as consultation showed that buses were preferred above ground by both users and operators, and projected costs soared, partly due to the difficulties with potential water ingress. The developer eventually defaulted on contractual deadlines, and the project failed.
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Britomart Station
Britomart Station, officially Waitematā railway station, and formerly known as Britomart Transport Centre, is the public transport hub in the central business district of Auckland and the northern terminus of the North Island Main Trunk railway line. It combines a railway station in a former Edwardian post office, extended with expansive modernist architectural elements, with a bus interchange. It is at the foot of Queen Street, the main commercial thoroughfare of the CBD, with the main ferry terminal just across Quay Street.
The station was the result of many design iterations, some of them being substantially larger and including an underground bus terminal and a large underground car park. Political concerns and cost implications meant that those concepts did not proceed. At the time of its inception in the early 2000s the station was still Auckland's largest transport project ever, built to move rail access closer to the city's CBD and help boost Auckland's low usage of public transport. It is one of the few underground railway stations in the world designed for use by diesel trains, although their use is now prohibited. Diesel trains from Hamilton and Wellington terminate at The Strand station.
Twin underground tunnels for the new East-West and South-City lines have been constructed from the station as part of the City Rail Link project, which will open in 2026.
In March 2023, the station's unofficial name of Britomart Station was officially altered to Waitematā Railway Station by the New Zealand Geographic Board. Since 21 September 2025, Auckland Transport has referred to the station as Waitematā, after having used the dual name Waitematā Station (Britomart) since 2023.
The station is on reclaimed land in the middle of what was once Commercial Bay. Its original name came from Point Britomart, a former headland at Commercial Bay's eastern end. In the 1870s and 1880s the headland was levelled and used to fill in Commercial Bay in order to extend the railway line to the bottom of Queen Street.
Auckland Railway Station moved west from its original 1873 site to Britomart in 1885 and remained there after the Post Office was built on the Queen Street frontage in 1912. The Chief Post Office was designed by architect John Campbell in an Edwardian baroque style, using Oamaru stone on a base of Coromandel granite. In 1930 the station was relocated 1.2 km east to Beach Road and the former station site became a bus terminal in 1937 and a car park in 1958.
Many proposals were made to locate the station back in the CBD, most notably in 1973 and 1987, with the 1970s proposal of the mayor of Auckland, Dove-Myer Robinson, envisaging an underground station at Britomart and a tunnel loop, but that was stopped by the Muldoon National Government, which claimed it was unjustified and too costly. In 1995, Auckland City Council purchased the old Post Office building (PostBank offices closed in 1988, though some postal services remained open beyond that year) and proposed to redevelop the area as a transit centre.
Early designs called for both the bus terminal and the railway to be underground, but these plans were scrapped as consultation showed that buses were preferred above ground by both users and operators, and projected costs soared, partly due to the difficulties with potential water ingress. The developer eventually defaulted on contractual deadlines, and the project failed.