Recommendation Date
Recipient Name
NZTA
Text
On 13 December 2018 the Commission recommended that the Chief Executive of the NZ Transport Agency work with licensed rail access providers and road controlling authorities to ensure that they meet their responsibilities for maintaining sighting distances at public road level crossings.
Reply Text
The NZ Transport Agency has accepted these recommendations. In order to comply with these recommendations and enhance its regulatory oversight of the industry the Transport Agency is currently recruiting more personnel into the rail regulatory space.
The full-time positions will not be entirely dedicated to level crossing safety, but they are expected to help provide a system approach to evaluating the critical risk and system assurances across the country. The work will be complementary to the current ALCAM assessments (which deal with the assessments of level crossing safety on an individual basis) and other level crossing work in progress. It is not intended to deter from the efforts of those processes.
The Transport Agency (Rail Regulator) intends to apply a holistic approach to the road rail interface. The complexities of relationships between local authorities and the rail access providers in managing level crossing is to be more centralised in order to maintain a consistent approach to construction, regulation and safety.
While significant progress has been made it is accepted that as the rail industry grows, particularly in the suburban areas, the management of level crossing construction and protection will require greater scrutiny, primarily for the reasons of increased train frequencies and the number of incidents of damage to rail protection systems.
The full-time positions will not be entirely dedicated to level crossing safety, but they are expected to help provide a system approach to evaluating the critical risk and system assurances across the country. The work will be complementary to the current ALCAM assessments (which deal with the assessments of level crossing safety on an individual basis) and other level crossing work in progress. It is not intended to deter from the efforts of those processes.
The Transport Agency (Rail Regulator) intends to apply a holistic approach to the road rail interface. The complexities of relationships between local authorities and the rail access providers in managing level crossing is to be more centralised in order to maintain a consistent approach to construction, regulation and safety.
While significant progress has been made it is accepted that as the rail industry grows, particularly in the suburban areas, the management of level crossing construction and protection will require greater scrutiny, primarily for the reasons of increased train frequencies and the number of incidents of damage to rail protection systems.
Related Investigation(s)