KiwiRail

🤝 Meet Sienna MacArthur-Beadle, one of our Safety, Health & Wellbeing graduates here at KiwiRail. 🎓 Sienna started at KiwiRail earlier this year and moved up to Auckland from Christchurch for the opportunities available in the big smoke. She completed her Master of Science in Psychology, with her thesis titled “Targeting Children’s Pedestrian Safety Around Railways Through Storytelling,” and was awarded the Louise Cairns Rail Safety Award from TrackSAFE in 2022. 📍 Passionate about community rail safety, Sienna has spent much of her time at KiwiRail developing resources to better support our teams to be rail safety champions. She also facilitated visits by over 30 of our staff to 31 schools for Rail Safety Week in August, which saw them engaging with 7,000 students across nine regions. When asked why she chose to work at KiwiRail, she said, “I’ve always been really passionate about rail—when I was five, my dream job was to be a train driver. Once I studied psychology, I became really interested in understanding why people take unnecessary risks and behave unsafely around the rail corridor.” 🚊Sienna loves what she does and is not only interested in community rail safety, but also the safety of our teams and the impact that near misses and collisions can have on our people. Next year she’s excited to continue working with the Health and Wellbeing team to explore how we can better mitigate the trauma our drivers experience when they are involved in collisions and near-misses. “Spreading the word of rail safety is a job that is never complete,” she says. “The rail corridor stretches over 3,000km, and with so many people and communities to reach out to, it can be quite difficult. Train collisions and near misses have such a huge impact on people’s lives, and to be able to contribute in a positive way to mitigate some of that risk makes it all worthwhile.” 🪻Sienna is a people person and loves to meet and collaborate with people across the country on a topic she’s deeply passionate about. When she’s not out reminding people to stop, look, listen and think (when using an official level crossing), Sienna can be found out and about in nature, exploring New Zealand’s landscapes through her camera lens or visiting Pt Chevalier Beach, admiring the little things and watching life unfold. She’s also a huge fan of a big scoop of Goody Goody Gum Drops ice cream and can’t wait to frequent her local dairy this summer. Remember: Stop, Look, Listen and Think. Saving yourself a few seconds isn’t worth the risk.

I’m so proud of the way the KiwiRail team has worked hard day in and day out this year to deliver for our customers and for New Zealand. Here’s a three-minute look at some of the great progress our team has made this year. We’re gearing up for a big year in 2025, as we continue our momentum in modernising the rail system in New Zealand to play an even bigger role in moving people and freight around the country, reducing emissions and efficiently connecting our customers to global markets. For now though, may you and your families have a very happy Christmas and please stay safe this holiday season.

👀 Watch here to learn more about the work we are doing over the summer closures, preparing the network for City Rail Link.

🎉 𝗧𝗛𝗘 𝗥𝗔𝗜𝗟𝗦 𝗔𝗥𝗘 𝗥𝗘𝗔𝗗𝗬 𝗧𝗢 𝗣𝗔𝗥𝗧𝗬! At Lankhorst Rail, we’re celebrating a major milestone: the delivery of our 40,000th KLP® Hybrid Polymer Turnout Bearer Type 201 to KiwiRail. Our colleagues are in full-party mode, milestones like these deserve to be celebrated! This milestone represents: 📣 𝟰𝟬.𝟬𝟬𝟬 sleepers (now 40.247 and counting!). ♻️ 𝟰.𝟱𝟱𝟵.𝟰𝟮𝟭 kg of recycled plastic waste repurposed into sustainable railway solutions. 𝗟𝗲𝘁’𝘀 𝗯𝘂𝗶𝗹𝗱 𝗿𝗮𝗶𝗹𝗿𝗼𝗮𝗱𝘀 𝗳𝗼𝗿 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗳𝘂𝘁𝘂𝗿𝗲. 𝗛𝗲𝗿𝗲’𝘀 𝘁𝗼 𝗺𝗮𝗻𝘆 𝗺𝗼𝗿𝗲 𝗺𝗶𝗹𝗲𝘀𝘁𝗼𝗻𝗲𝘀 𝗮𝗵𝗲𝗮𝗱! Samuel Buxton~ Han Sterk~ Mark Heising #railinnovation #sustainablerail #railways #networkrail #sustainability #turnoutbearer #sleepers #rail

🤝 Earlier this year KiwiRail began an exciting partnership with Echo to reduce the environmental impact of our operations. 💻 Echo collects e-waste that would otherwise go to landfill and recycles and repurposes it, securely removing all data, before giving it a second lease of life. Recently, our sustainability team got the opportunity to visit their site and see the great mahi first hand. ♻️ Since April this year, Echo has collected 10,282 kg of our e-waste and given a second life to 767 old devices such as mobile phones and monitors, avoiding 6,000+ kg of greenhouse gases. 🍃 This is just a part of the work KiwiRail is doing across the country to minimise our environmental impact.

🎄 During the Christmas rail closure, our team are set to replace 130 metres of ballasted track in the Britomart Tunnel with Low Vibration Track System (LVT) concrete slab track. This type of track needs less ongoing maintenance and also cuts down how far track noise travels, making it ideal for the City Rail Link Tunnel and station approaches. 🚆 The work is crucial to prepare the Britomart Tunnel’s eastern approaches for when the City Rail Link opens and Waitematā becomes a through station. 🛤 To prepare for this work, the team recently gathered for a hands-on demonstration session at the Total Rail Solutions yard in Ramarama. It involved a mock-up installation of practising installing a 12-metre section of concrete slab track and LVT Blocks system. Giovan, KiwiRail Project Engineer for CRL projects, says "It was really helpful for the team to come together, have an open discussion, and get familiar with this new track system. It’s not commonly used across the network, so this was a great chance to understand the challenges and tackle them hands-on". 🤝 This is a great example of the work our teams are doing to prepare the Auckland rail network for more services when the City Rail Link opens, ensuring a more reliable network moving forward

Ever heard of Manapouri Street Station? It’s a station along Jarrod Hodson’s very own 25-metre-long railway that spans his backyard in Ravensbourne, Dunedin! This remarkable piece of history was built entirely by Jarrod and currently features two locomotive fronts—a DC and a DG. He’s gradually building the DG, seen above in the before and after pictures, to its full length of 13.8 meters. His setup even includes his own jigger. Jarrod often welcomes visitors to look around, and the local fire brigade has even used it to train new recruits in a safe, contained railway environment. Thanks, Jarrod, for sharing this incredible piece of KiwiRail history with us. For those interested in learning more, check out the Trainboy Crazy Garden Railway NZ, Facebook page

✨ We were honoured earlier this month to host around 50 members of the public at Wellington Station for an event featuring Sarah Dugdale, one of the consultant archaeologists on the Wellington Station Re-signalling Project. 🏺👩🏫️ Sarah delivered a captivating talk titled "The Archaeology of Wellington Station", in which she described how the team had uncovered many pieces of Wellington’s early rail history, including drainage systems, a weigh station and pieces of New Zealand Railways crockery. They also uncovered the foundations of Wellington's earliest engine shed, which was part of Pipitea Station, the city's first station built in 1874. 👀 You can just make out the engine shed in this historic photo of Thorndon.   🎉 The event formed part of the Wellington Heritage Festival, a volunteer-led, community-sourced festival that celebrates the rich heritage and culture of our region. Thanks to Sarah and the attendees for making it such a wonderful event.   Read more about the Wellington Station Re-signalling Project here: https://lnkd.in/gHGZcqBu

Meet one of our track inspection machines, the EM80, as it travels through the CRL tunnels for the first time!

🎉 Welcome to our KiwiRail Summer Interns!     👋 This week, we welcomed a group of talented engineering students into our teams. As part of their degree requirements, these students are completing their compulsory industry hours, and we are delighted to support them on this journey.     📝 We’ll be providing hands-on learning opportunities, sharing valuable industry insights, and helping  them gain practical experience that will set them up for success.     🧠 We look forward to seeing the impact they’ll make and the skills they’ll develop during their time with us.     #KiwiRail #Internship #EngineeringStudents #FutureEngineers #LearningAndDevelopment