An estimated 72,500 passengers were counted on trains across the Auckland Transport network by 5pm today — 25,000 more than last Monday.

Auckland’s City Rail Link — New Zealand’s first underground metro — has had its first full weekday in operation on Monday.

Auckland Transport chief executive Stacey van der Putten said passenger numbers stayed strong all day, following the morning’s busy peak period.

• READ MORE:  CRL took a century to open – what else is Auckland still waiting on?
• Other City Rail Link reports

“This shows Aucklanders are getting out there and exploring the new routes that CRL offers, and it’s a fantastic new way for people to visit parts of the city they may not have had easy access to in the past,” she said.

“Our ambassador staff have been supporting customers at Karanga-a-Hape and Maungawhau stations throughout the day to transfer from the East-West to the South-City or Onehunga-West lines,” van der Putten said.

“These transfers will become second nature to Aucklanders in the weeks to come.”

More than 100 customer service staff and ambassadors were at stations helping with travel and transfer information, and more than 100 security staff were also present, she said.

Busiest Sunday on record
AT said the opening day on September 13 was the busiest Sunday on the rail network on record.

On Beresford Square outside the new Karanga-a-Hape Station, some were having a coffee at the nearest cafe, and others took a moment to stop and join a Waiata group singing Purea Nei and celebrating Te wiki o Te Reo Maori.

Bo Meng from the nearby bakery PieFee said in the past they didn’t open on Sundays, but they opened yesterday to coincide with the CRL opening to the public.

He said Monday was also busier than usual.

“I’ve seen heaps of people walking around, and new faces, so yea pretty good,” said Meng.

His colleague added that they’re considering opening on future Sundays as they expect to get more customers coming through.

Charlotte Ryan from the Karangahape Road Business Association said she had seen lots of new faces over the past few days, particularly on Sunday.

Many people returned
“I think I expected lots of our friends or lots of the K’rd community to come out, and they were, but it was actually majority people that I don’t think have been here in 10 or 15 years or even longer.

“People were commenting where they thought old buildings were, it was really really interesting to see that people had returned.”

Ryan said she was optimistic about the future, but added that some businesses were still waiting to see how many customers they would get before they made decisions around staffing.

“Do you bring on those extra staff, how quickly are people going to start using this as a thoroughfare, you know it’s like a social experiment,” she said.

Karanga-a-Hape Station is an interchange station, with a bus connection to Westgate, and a transit point for people hopping from the West-East line to the South City line.

Ryan said she expected people might be open to having a wander around Karangahape Road, or getting a drink in between transits.

Meanwhile, the mid-city Te Waihorotiu station was touted to become New Zealand’s busiest train station, but Shobhana Ranchhodji from Roma Blooms — which is mere metres from the Victoria St West entrance – said she had barely noticed any change in the amount of foot traffic.

“Nothing’s changed, no more people than what it was last Monday … I say give us a month, it is what it is,” she said.

Commuters cut down on travel times
Key features of the new network include the Eastern and Western lines merging into one, as well as faster trains.

On the 5.27am East West train from Swanson, Craig said he is glad he no longer needs to wait for 5-10 minutes at the Newmarket Station as he did in the past.

He estimates that he can save about 15-20 minutes on his journey into town.

Johnny Waititi used to take the train to Britomart from Ōtāhuhu, then bus to Symonds Street to the kura where he works as deputy principal.

He said he was now able to take the train directly to Karanga-a-Hape station then walk to work — saving about 20 minutes on each trip.

Waititi said overall, it was a good experience this morning, but he said the service he had originally planned to take did get cancelled – although he said he was able to quickly find out in advance through the Auckland Transport app.

Waititi said he was worried for older people who don’t have the app and will not be able to get timely updates on cancellations.

One train fault
Auckland Transport told Morning Report there was one train fault this morning which had caused a few cancellations.

Another worker who was travelling on the East-West line, trying to get to Auckland City Hospital, said she was disappointed her train got cancelled and she had to take a bus to get to Grafton.

A family living on Vincent Street in the CBD, whose two children go to school in New Lynn, are stoked to be saving time on their daily school runs.

The family does not own a car, and mum of two Arrenda Maryzona used to spend four hours on the bus each day, with each return trip to the school taking two hours.

Now, she said it’s just a three minute walk to the Karanga-a-Hape station, and she is saving about 15 minutes on each trip — adding up to an hour saved.