A ceremony was held today to mark the start of the City Rail Link (CRL). This is an underground rail link to and from Britomart. At the moment Britomart station is the end of the line but when the two tunnels are built, there will be a 3.5km rail loop, linking up with the western line at Eden Terrace. There will be two new stations downtown: Aotea Square and Karangahape Rd. Aotea Square will probably be the busiest station.
The cost will be $2.5 billion. Auckland City Council will fund the first part. The Government has agreed to help with funding in 2020 and the CRL will be finished in 2022.
Aucklanders have been talking about an underground train since 1923. Instead, governments built motorways. However, the population of Auckland has grown very fast in the last few years with immigration. Now Aucklanders are sick of sitting in traffic jams on motorways and hope that a fast, convenient railway will make it easier to commute to work.
Vocabulary
• to fund (v) – to provide the money for a project
• funding (n) – the money for the project
• commute (v) – travel a long distance to and from work each day