Underground at last: century-long road to the City Rail Link in video

<p>Long before the first tunnel boring machine broke ground for the City Rail Link, Auckland planners were dreaming up underground rail plans — an idea that survived nearly a century of shelved proposals to finally open this week. </p> <p>With thousands of pages of studies carried out across the past four decades alone, the notion of running trains underground through the city centre predates the state highway and motorway network, the Harbour Bridge and the Sky Tower.</p> <p>1News takes a look back at past proposals, key milestones, and how the way Aucklanders move has changed over the decades.</p> <h2>The 1920s and 1930s: tunnel plan abandoned</h2> <p>The idea of underground rail in Auckland can be traced back to the early 20th century, when the city's tram network was still the dominant mode of public transport.</p> <p>At the time, the project was called the Morningside Deviation, and in 1924 the then-government approved…