It combines a railway station in a former Edwardian post office, extended with expansive modernist architectural elements, with a bus interchange.

[4] Auckland Railway Station moved west from its original 1873 site to Britomart in 1885 and remained there after the Post Office was built on the Queen Street frontage in 1912.

The Chief Post Office was designed by architect John Campbell in an Edwardian baroque style, using Oamaru stone on a base of Coromandel granite.

Early designs called for both the bus terminal and the railway to be underground, but these plans were scrapped as consultation showed that buses were preferred above ground by both users and operators, and projected costs soared, partly due to the difficulties with potential water ingress.

[7][8][9] The project name, with the station intended to facilitate transfers between buses, trains, ferries and potential future light rail, was officially coined the Waitemata Waterfront Interchange.

[17] It involved 14 km of piling, some being 40 m long and driven 16 m into the underlying bedrock, mainly to provide good earthquake protection, and to futureproof the area for potential later construction of buildings on top of the station.

Cost over-runs and differing tastes made the centre politically controversial, the design often being described as a large hole in the ground, both literally and figuratively.

Despite this and a NZ$204 million price tag,[15] it has won numerous design awards and is internationally recognised for its innovative but heritage-sympathetic architecture.

[21] The main source of contention was the relatively great expense of this public transport development in the Auckland Region, where for many decades the focus had been on private vehicle ownership and travel.

[23] In April and May 2016, the canopy was dismantled and removed from the site,[citation needed] and on 28 May 2016 the Downtown Shopping Centre was closed and fenced off for demolition.

Auckland Council and proprietors Precinct Properties struck a deal to include tunnels for the City Rail Link directly underneath the premises.

The Public Transport Users Association criticised the move and alleged that 60% of Onehunga line passengers wanted to travel to Britomart.

Early forecasts predicted that while double-tracking of the surrounding rail network would improve peak time train congestion, the capacity of the corridor would not be reached until about 2020.

[40] In its early days, Britomart was criticised because it was built on a scale and level of grandeur that was well in excess of the capacity and patronage of the rail network.

Installation of overhead wires began later, with Auckland Transport (initially ARTA) purchasing new electric units to replace the diesel trains.

[44] Britomart was officially electrified on 31 March 2014, with New Zealand's Prime Minister, John Key, flipping the switch in a commemorative ceremony.

[46] From July 2015, all suburban trains serving Britomart were operated by AM Class EMUs, leaving the thrice-weekly Northern Explorer as the only diesel service using the station.

KiwiRail decided that the cost was not justifiable and from 21 December 2015 they ceased serving Britomart and relocated their Auckland terminus to The Strand Station, in the east of the CBD.

A proposed alternative to the City Rail Link (CRL) to increase capacity was the duplication of the existing eastern Britomart approach tunnel.

Initially seen as an inferior, but cheaper and more politically acceptable alternative to the CRL tunnel, the duplicate eastern approach also gained favour as a stop gap implementation due to the comparatively short build time.

[57] In 2019, funding was agreed to restore a five-year commuter train trial between Papakura and Hamilton, with a one-seat journey to Britomart being the eventual aim.