Rail newsletter — Issue 2, March 2006

ISSN no. 1176-9564

Hi and welcome to the 2nd edition of Land Transport New Zealand’s Rail Regulation Unit newsletter. This newsletter is distributed to all rail operators and other interested parties around the country. We would like to take this opportunity to remind you that this, and all other editions of the newsletter are available on the Land Transport NZ website at:
www.landtransport.govt.nz/rail/newsletter/index.html

Safety case deadline

As most of you will know, the Railways Act 2005 (the Act) requires all rail licence holders to submit a safety case for their operation to Land Transport NZ by 20 June 2006. This is the first round of safety cases for everybody and we have been fielding queries from all around New Zealand, so we thought we would take this opportunity to outline some of the key elements all safety cases should have.

Check your safety case against the Act to make sure it covers all the requirements of section 30, subsection 1.
Make sure you have a section covering your risk management methodology, results of your risk assessment and your risk management plan.
Ensure that your safety system is in line and integrated with the requirements of the Health and Safety in Employment Act.
Make sure you have a process for consulting with all personnel about safety system matters that may affect them, and that this process is outlined in your safety case.
Continuous improvement and review must be included also.
A lot of information for your safety case can be found in your safety system so you don’t need to ‘reinvent the wheel’ – just put this info into simple, easy to read language. Remember, your safety case is a standalone document and should make sense to anyone who picks it up.
Don’t over-complicate things – if your operation is simple then your safety case should reflect this.

Please bear in mind that the Rail Regulation Unit (the Rail Team) is aiming not to just accept/decline safety cases, but to provide assistance and guidance in their development. Making sure we are all on the same page increases the likelihood that all safety cases submitted will be approved and contribute to making the rail network a safe, efficient, sustainable – and enjoyable – system to operate on. Please don’t hesitate to contact us if you have a query. We are expecting to receive a large number of these cases around June and so encourage people to start submitting them earlier if possible, to avoid a total

Safety case variations

So far Land Transport NZ has approved two successful safety case variation for heritage main-line excursions in conjunction with ONTRACK – one each for Gisborne City Vintage Railway (GCVR) and Steam Incorporated. For those operators wishing to apply for a variation, we advise you send us the following:

a description of what you want to do
an outline of the risks involved and how you will manage them
evidence that you have consulted all parties concerned eg, ONTRACK, Toll, and representatives of rail personnel
all relevant documentation to show you have embraced the National Rail System Standards (NRSS) and the Mechanical Codes developed by FRONZ. GCVR’s Wa165, January 2006

Fee changes proposal

By now most of you should have received the Land Transport NZ proposal to change the fee structure for licence holders. These changes have been necessary to recover the costs incurred by Land Transport NZ to fulfil its statutory obligations under the Act. We have received a number of submissions regarding the fees structure and are currently working on our responses.

Rail Safety Consultative Forum (RSCF)

1 March 2006 saw another RSCF take place at Land Transport NZ’s National Office in Wellington. The day began with the ARA’s Phil Sochon speaking on new codes of practice and rules development, followed by the Ministry of Transport’s Martin Small, who answered queries on the Rail Safety Targets paper. From Land Transport NZ, Bob Gibson spoke about the latest ALCAM and ARCSIG developments, Glen Summers addressed questions about the new fees proposal and Merv Harvey gave an outline of the progress being made with safety cases. Guest speakers in the afternoon were Veolia’s Bill Guest, who gave a presentation based on corridor management and ONTRACK’s John Skilton, who presented a paper on Project Kupe. This RSCF saw a good turn out of industry participants and yielded much useful debate and discussion about the various topics presented. The next RSCF should take place later in the year and we are keen to hear from anyone interested in presenting/raising any topics for discussion. If you are interested, please email Anna at: anna.cleary@nzta.govt.nz

New staff members

Anna Cleary and Jo Anne Munro have recently joined Land Transport NZ, and we profile them both here.

Anna took up the role of Rail Safety Advisor in the Rail Team in mid-November 2005, coming to us from the Department of Internal Affairs, where she worked in Citizenship and prior to that in Births, Deaths and Marriages.

A Manawatu native, Anna completed her studies at Massey University in Palmerston North, graduating with a Bachelor of Arts in History and Sociology.

A ‘newbie’ to the rail sector, Anna has already been out in the field to sites around the Taranaki, Manawatu and South Island regions to gain further insight into the workings of rail in New Zealand.

Jo Anne Munro joined Land Transport NZ not long after Anna in early December 2005, taking up the position of Rail Advisor in the Networks Team. Jo comes to us after completing legal contracting work for both Crown Law and the Department of Internal Affairs. Prior to that Jo worked as an environmental solicitor for Chapman Tripp and in resource management planning in the Waikato. A Waikato girl, Jo has an LLB Hons and a Masters degree in Geography from the University of Waikato.

Jo will be working closely with the Rail Team, and when she’s not working can be found ‘parenting’ her three Scottish Fold cats.

Land Transport NZ's first birthday

Land Transport NZ marked its first birthday on 1 December 2005. Check out the details on page three at:
www.landtransport.govt.nz/publications/land-transportnews/issue-12.pdf.

Those of you with keen eyes might also notice an article and photo of our very own Graham Smith at an ALCAM trial in Silverstream…

Rail team on the move!

It is proposed that the Rail Team will be moving south in the coming months – heading down Waterloo Quay a couple of blocks to BP House. The shift is scheduled for mid-2006 and we will inform everyone of our new contact details in due course.

We would also welcome feedback regarding this newsletter and any suggestions of rail-related material for possible inclusion in the next edition of the newsletter. Please forward your comments to:
anna.cleary@nzta.govt.nz

Page created: 4 April 2006