Small business owners on Albert St have experienced huge losses due to ongoing underground railway construction. 

Kiwoon Keun, the owner of Sumo Sushi on Albert St, estimates that his business has lost about 40 per cent of its customer base, due to the isolation that the construction has caused.

Mr Keun has had to take on the brunt of his restaurant’s kitchen work in order to cut costs. “I have to work hard, instead of the chef,” he says.

He estimates that his business has been losing at least $15,000 a month, for the last three years since the construction started. This estimate puts his losses at over $500,000 in total. 

Mr Keun pictured in his restaurant.

Despite this, he hasn’t received any compensation from City Rail Link, the Government and Council funded company who are responsible for the ongoing construction.

City Rail Link is a $4.4 Billion project which involves plans to build an underground railway network through Auckland city, connecting Britomart station to Mt Eden station. The plans also include the construction of underground stations at Karangahape Rd and Aotea Sq.

The goal is to link up Auckland’s railways to make the city’s public transport system more efficient.  

However, the construction of the railway has made it difficult for small business owners to thrive.

According to Mr Keun, he is one of the last business owners left from before the construction on his street started. 

He says that most other owners have either sold their businesses or moved because of the construction.

The construction is currently affecting Albert St, but it could affect other areas in the city as the works move towards Karangahape Rd and Mt Eden station.

City Rail Link has offered businesses on Albert St a series of alternatives to help with their struggles. These include social media training, street cleaning, campaigns like Eat Albert and business training programs.

However, Mr Keun says these offers are not useful to his business.

Joshua Love is the owner of EightyEightCups, a Coffee shop on Albert St. 

He says the construction has not largely affected his business, as he signed his lease for the shop after the works had started.

Mr Love pictured in his coffee shop

However, he believes that many of the shops on the street should be entitled to compensation, due to a lack of “forward-thinking” from City Rail Link.

Mr Love says that the construction will be worth it in the end but that “people are going to lose their jobs, their businesses and their livelihoods in the process.”

Construction on Albert St is due to be finished in 2020, with the full City Rail Link project being due in 2024.

Audio clip

Reflective Essay

After I decided that I was going to write my story about the construction on Albert St, the first main challenge was finding people who were willing to do an interview with me. I walked along the street, to look at the construction, and find some suitable candidates. The first big issue I had was that I was very nervous to talk to total strangers. It took me a lot of walking around and preparing myself before I actually started talking to anyone. After I got up the courage to start talking to people I had a mixed bag of results. Some people politely said no for one reason or another and some refused me quite bluntly. Although I had remembered being told in my tutorials not to take it to take rejection to heart, it still did bother me a bit, but I got over it. On the first day, I had couple useful conversations, one with a coffee shop owner who I ended up interviewing, and another where I handed in my details to a bar owner, although I never heard back from them. 

About a week after I had originally been to the street I still hadn’t heard back from the bar who I gave my email to, and the coffee shop owner who I had talked to hadn’t actually agreed to an interview, so I effectively still didn’t have any sources. I was starting to get a bit worried that I would have trouble finding sources for the story, and that I wouldn’t be able to find anyone with a good story to tell. So I went back to Albert street to try and find some interviewees. I was still a bit nervous about it, but having already done it the first time made it easier. This time I went into a sushi shop. I talked to the owner of the sushi shop who was very passionate and had a lot to say. I knew once I began the conversation, that he would be a good source to interview, as he had clearly been affected by the construction and had strong opinions about it. After this, I went back to the coffee shop owner and locked in the interview with him. After this visit, I had two sources to interview and I felt much more confident about my story. I also sent out an email to City Rail Link, the company responsible for the construction, asking what they are doing to compensate businesses. They replied with a list of programs that they have implemented that they hope will help businesses. I plan to implement this into my story as well as bring this up in the interviews and see what the business owners have to say about it.

Both interviews went smoothly and gave me plenty of information and opinions to include in my story. Although I wish I had asked the coffee shop owner one or two extra questions that I decided to leave out in the heat of the moment. I also didn’t get photos of either of the sources during the interview so that left me with a bit of extra work to do which wouldn’t have had to if I had been more thorough. However, I went back to get photos of both sources later on. Transcribing the sushi owner’s interview was quite difficult as his English wasn’t perfect, so I had a dilemma as to how much I should change what he said so that his sentences made grammatical sense. I tried to keep the essence of what he said while writing his sentences in a way that was fit to be in a news story. 

I then wrote the draft for my story. It took me a while to figure out what was the best way of ordering the story so that it would make sense and be interesting, but after moving it around a few times, I think I found the best way to tell the story so that it makes sense and is interesting. I found the reading on the inverted pyramid particularly helpful in structuring my story. I got feedback from my tutor about the draft, with the main suggestion being that I get a photo of my first source Mr Keun, as well as making sure to comb through the story and find any lapses in expression or grammar.

I have now finished the draft for my story. It took me a while to figure out what was the best way of ordering the story so that it would make sense and be interesting, and I think its quite well structured now.

I got feedback from my tutor about the draft, with the main suggestion being that I get a photo of my first source Mr Keun, as well as making sure to comb through the story and find any lapses in expression or grammar.

So they final steps for finishing my story are to get that photo and thoroughly read through my story to make its as good as it can be.

Today I finished my second interview. I interviewed a Sushi store owner and a coffee shop owner and I’ve now transcribed both of the interviews. Both interviews went smoothly, and have given me plenty of information and opinions to include in my story. However I realised I didn’t get a contact number for the coffee shop owner so I’ll have to go back and get that later. Other then that I just need to get some photographs from the scene and start work on the story itself.

Transcribing the sushi owner’s interview was quite difficult as his English wasn’t perfect, so I had to change some of his sentences so that they would make grammatical sense.

Since the last entry I still hadn’t heard back from the bar who I gave my email to, and I was starting to get a bit worried that I would have trouble finding sources for my story. So yesterday, I went back to Albert street and I managed to lock in 2 interviews in the next week. I talked to the owner of a sushi shop who was very passionate and had a lot to say. He has owned the restaurant since before the construction started so he knows exactly what he’s been missing out on. I’ll be interviewing him tomorrow. I also talked to a coffee shop owner who signed his lease after the construction started, and will be interviewing him on Monday, although I don’t expect to get as strong answers from him as the sushi shop owner, since he knew what he was getting into when he signed the lease.

I also sent out an email to City Rail Link, the company responsible for the construction, asking what they are doing to compensate businesses. They replied with a list of programs that they have implemented that they hope will help businesses. I plan to bring this up in the interview and see what the shop owners have to say about it. It seems as though most of the programs aren’t particularly helpful and don’t fix the problem at all.

Firstly, I’ve decided that I’m going to write my story about the railway construction that is going on on Albert and Elliott street, and how its affecting local businesses.

Secondly, on Wednesday I walked along the street, to look at the construction. I was quite nervous to talk to total strangers, and I was rejected by a number of the shop numbers. However, I handed on my details to one of them, and had a conversation with another. I plan go back again next week and lock in at least 2 interview candidates.