Rail in the Community

Managing 4,000 km of rail corridor, 18,000 hectares of land, 4,000 wagons, 180 passenger carriages and numerous buildings across the country may seem like challenge enough. In fact, managing the appearance of these assets is a major challenge in its own right. In the main cities, graffiti and litter is the biggest problem while in smaller towns and the countryside it's weeds and vegetation.

The job of ‘keeping up appearances' is made that much more difficult when the mess is caused by other people - either throwing out their rubbish or tagging on railway property.

The problem of graffiti will be a familiar one but what is surprising is how many New Zealanders seem to believe that the rail corridor is a substitute for their local tip.

The graffiti issue is a tough nut to crack and there are limits on what we can do to address the issue. A number of freight wagons end up carrying graffiti because with high demand on the fleet, it is difficult to justify taking them out of service for cleaning and repainting after they've been tagged.

We are often also held responsible for graffiti that isn't even on railway property but is sprayed on fences and buildings that adjoin the corridor.

Allowing people onto the rail corridor to remove graffiti isn't straightforward - it is a hazardous environment and people working in the corridor need to know how to stay safe. But we do what we can to address the issue through a mix of prevention and cure.

Passenger carriages are checked daily for graffiti and removed from traffic as soon as possible to be cleaned before being allowed to return to service.

Graffiti is removed within 24 hours from all Tranz Metro Wellington stations and facilities. We work in partnership with a number of local community trusts and agencies that specialise in graffiti and litter control.

That includes providing training and supervision for volunteers to work on the rail network clearing rubbish and painting out graffiti.

Partner organisations include the Manukau Beautification Society, Keep Waitakere Beautiful and Tag Out Trust in Auckland and Keep New Zealand Beautiful in Wellington. We have also worked with the Department of Corrections on a pilot scheme where people sentenced to community work painted out graffiti on the rail corridor near Henderson in Auckland.

As well as cleaning up afterwards, we've looked for ways we can prevent graffiti before it becomes a problem. This includes how we use landscaping and planting as a deterrent for taggers. Trials of planting programmes are underway on several urban sites. We are also exploring ways to minimise illegal access to the rail corridor as people who graffiti are frequently trespassing. Taking a bigger picture perspective on the problem and how it can be addressed, KiwiRail Network joined the Government advisory group which worked on the preparation of the national strategy to deal with graffiti, launched in late 2008.

While graffiti on wagons remains a concern outside of the major cities, the bigger issue is weeds and vegetation. We have increased the spending on vegetation control by 30 percent in recent years to try and improve the appearance of the rail corridor. The work includes ballast spraying to prevent weeds, vegetation control to prevent trees from falling across tracks or interfering with overhead wires and to ensure level crossing view lines are adequate.