McCully opens World Cup transport hub

Rugby World Cup Minister Murray McCully today opened the revamped Kingsland railway station, the jump-off stop for Auckland's Eden Park.
 
The station was opened by McCully and a handful of All Blacks, including captain Richie McCaw, who travelled by train from Britomart Station in central Auckland to the newly remodelled pit-stop for rugby fans.
 
McCully said the Kingsland station was up to the job at hand .
 
"We need to absolutely have everything up to scratch and today is the start of a very important confidence building exercise.  We've got convince 15,000 people per game that this is the transport mode that they should use to get to Eden Park.  It's a demanding process but I'm confident we can do that."
 
McCully said $1.6 billion has been spent upgrading and electrifying Auckland's rail services.
 
"There's been a lot of money spent ... this is a small part of it, but it's a part of it that should give people confidence that rail is a mode that is going to be around for a long time."
 
The minister said it was critical that Aucklanders embrace public transport during the world cup. According to the Ministry of Tourism 85,000 people are expected to visit New Zealand during the event.
 
"It's very important that we have a significant number of people using public transport otherwise it puts unreasonable pressure on the other modes of transport, and we'll end up with the traffic not getting people around the city the way we need them to during the Rugby World Cup time," he said.

- © Fairfax NZ News