After years of anticipation, Auckland's City Rail Link finally opened to the public yesterday, and the Prime Minister's hopeful it will boost rail patronage by 50 percent in the long run.

Luxon was at Ōrākei station on the Sunday it opened and he witnessed people coming from 'all over the place' to try it out, but he's hopeful this weekend won't be a one-off.

Luxon says the CRL will encourage more new residential and commercial developments, and reduce how long it takes people to get to and from work.

"I spoke to some people, actually, who just said it was going to take 15 minutes off their commute into the city."

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