Corridor appearance
Some impacts, like train noise, are unique to our business. Others, like boundary fences and vegetation maintenance, are common to many neighbourhoods. Still others, like litter and graffiti, are community issues that affect areas seen as ‘public’ spaces.
We work hard with our partners and local communities to minimise these impacts where possible. The following information will help you understand the issues involved and how we manage them.
Graffiti removal
Graffiti is very common along rail corridors in major cities around the world.
We understand graffiti is unpleasant, however the cost of removal can be high. We need to prioritise our spending ensuring the railway runs safely. It is a challenge to remove graffiti on a busy metro network like Auckland as generally it can only be done when trains are not running. In many cases the graffiti is on our neighbours’ property rather than our own (e.g. a building backing onto the rail corridor).
In Auckland we use several graffiti removal agencies to help reduce the presence of graffiti along the rail corridor. We prioritise cases that involve offensive graffiti or impact on safe rail operations (e.g. graffiti on signals boxes).
Reporting graffiti
Trespassing to create graffiti is a crime and if you see someone putting graffiti on KiwiRail property please call the police immediately.
To report graffiti on railway property please contact us using our online form.
A mural of race car driver Bruce McLaren overlooks the rail corridor in West Auckland. The mural, painted by Tauranga artist Owen Dippie, is part of initiatives to reduce graffiti and deter trespassers from the rail corridor.
Litter
Litter can be an issue in places on our rail network. Much of the rubbish on rail land is illegally dumped there – sometimes in big quantities.
Where we are aware of problem areas on our network, we work with local councils and communities to try to resolve the issue. Where we can identify who owns the rubbish, we may ask them to pay for the cost of removing it.
Please contact us using our online form if you come across an issue and we will try to resolve it as soon as possible. As our staff are normally busy with scheduled maintenance tasks well ahead of time, they may not be readily available to remove the litter.
Related pages
Contact us
If you have questions or can’t find what you’re looking for, please contact us.