Auckland, New Zealand's largest city, was served by an extensive tram network up until the mid-20th century. However, as of 2025, the only remaining light rail lines are heritage tramways. Recently, it has considered reintroducing light rail lines to replace some of its most heavily used bus routes. Many line proposals have involved reusing the routes of Auckland's former tram system.

In 2015 the city's transport agency, Auckland Transport, proposed a new light rail network – with a focus on a line between the Auckland CBD and Auckland Airport. In subsequent years, various technology types and modes were proposed by local and central government – including traditional street tramways and light metro. The most recent plans, proposed by the Sixth Labour Government, would have seen the construction of a hybrid underground/surface route. However, that particular project was cancelled by the Sixth National Government in January 2024.

Auckland was served by a network of traditional tramcar routes with horse-drawn trams (1884–1902) and electric trams (1902–1956). The original tram network was 72 kilometres (45 mi) in length at its fullest extent from the mid-1930s until the first closures in 1949.

In 2015 Steve Hawkins, Auckland Transport's Chief Engineer, said that the bus routes on Symonds Street and Fanshawe Street require as many as 150 buses each. The light rail study is considering replacing the bus routes on Dominion Road, Manukau Road, Mt Eden Road, Symonds Street and Queen St with light rail routes. All of these bus routes replaced routes on Auckland's former tram network.

Stuff quoted Auckland Transport officials who described how the study was considering the option of building light rail routes with dedicated right of way versus routes where rail vehicles shared the road with other vehicles, as with a traditional streetcar system. Officials projected that the maximum passenger capacity of a segregated light rail line would be 18,000 passengers per hour, while that of a street-running system would be 12,000 passengers per hour. This compares with a bus on a shared path shifting 2,500 people and a bus on a priority path's 6,000 people an hour.

In 2015 then Auckland mayor Len Brown pointed out that the city's ten-year plan did not include funding for building new light rail routes.

A line from the airport east to Botany Downs has also been proposed with a new interchange at Puhinui railway station, planned to be built in two stages, the first of which is said to be an early deliverable component of the Airport to Botany rapid transit line, planned to be operational by the end of 2020/early 2021. This encompasses a new at-grade bus/rail interchange and enhanced station. Buses will still use the existing local road (Bridge Street) to cross the railway line to/from Manukau, along with local traffic. The second phase provides a rapid transit overbridge across the railway line to provide a more direct and bespoke rapid transit connection. The new rapid transit link will integrate with the new interchange station on the overbridge. The first stage is estimated to cost $59 million to construct. The line will also go through Manukau railway station before ending in Botany.

On 26 April 2018 mayor Phil Goff and Transport Minister Phil Twyford announced the Auckland Transport Alignment Project 2018 with $NZ28 billion of investment in Auckland transport infrastructure over ten years, including the fast-tracking of light rail to Auckland International Airport.