August/September 2024
Takanini incident
I wanted to acknowledge yesterday’s tragic fatality near the level crossing on Walters Rd at Takanini. These are the situations we all dread, not least our Drivers, Train Managers and other teams involved. There has been a blessing at the site and our HSQESS team will provide support to anyone affected. My thoughts and prayers, and I am sure everyone’s, are with the family, friends of the deceased and all those that were involved.
Please make use of our free, totally confidential counselling service, TELUS Health – it’s available to all of us, for any reason.
Contact TELUS Health any time, 24/7, for support: Call: 0800 360 364 | Email: wellbeingsupport@telushealth.com
For more details visit: TELUS Health - AOR EAP provider (sharepoint.com)
Take care, stay safe
Martin Kearney,Chief Executive Officer
New briefs
iPads help track services AOR on TV1
with iPads loaded with the KiwiRail Train Control Display (R9K), enhancing their situational awareness, especially during unplanned disruptions.
With this tool, CSTLs can now track service arrivals at Waitematā, Newmarket, and Otahuhu, as well as monitor Train Control's decision-making at intermediate stations.
This will enhance the CSTLs’ ability to provide real-time updates to customer service colleagues which will ultimately improve the customer experience.
'Four Go Flatting’ is Attitude's new series about four young men with intellectual disabilities who are moving out of home to live independently...no parents, no rules. Some of the filming took place on our network, so check it out:
DATE: Ep 1 Mon 9 Sept 2024
TIME: 7:30 pm
CHANNEL: TV1
Each new episode will go out on a Monday at 7:30 pm on TV1.
Attitude - 'Four Go Flatting' Attitude's new entertaining, amusing... | Facebook
TRACKS & Customer Champions winners
Thanks, and congratulations to our recent awards winners who collected their plaques at the July Quarterly Leadership Forum. Pictured anticlockwise:
Customer Champions Award
TM Nicole Pune, nominated by Brandon Te Huia, for going the extra mile to assist customers, particularly lost-looking out-of-town travellers struggling with luggage.
TM Aman Ram, nominated by ELT, for assisting LE Anthony Gonsalves for the incident described below.
CSA Shazia Saleem, nominated by Aman Ram, for staying with the drunk passenger described below and assisting even after finishing her shift and train ride home.
CSO Elizabeth Iupeli, nominated by Dave Phillips (pictured together below), for activating her body worn camera to document an incident onboard and taking decisive action to protect her colleague.
TRACKS Award
LE Anthony Gonsalves (not present), nominated by Aman Ram, for outstanding communication skills and assistance in helping to deal with a drunk and disorderly passenger who held the train up for nearly 20 minutes
Nominate your colleagues for a TRACKS Values, Customer Champion or Safety Star award.
The awards are given out at our quarterly leadership forums. Safety Star Awards are also awarded at the monthly Health & Safety Committee meetings.
Nominate those colleagues you see going above and beyond. We look forward to hearing all your great stories!
Please email your nominations to: communications@aucklandonerail.co.nz
Nicole
Aman Shazia Elizabeth
Matariki Colouring Competition winners
Thank you to all our talented young artists who sent in wonderful artwork for the Matariki colouring competition. We had a tough time judging the top four, so drew some names from a hat. Congratulations to Naomi, (Mike Williams), Ruby and her new dog Chia (David Page), Brooke (Logan Burling) and Declan and Brianna (Ryan Grave) - you are the winners of our four Hoyts family cinema passes. We received so many entries and were so impressed with the art, that everyone who entered received a prize pack to say thank you.
Some of the artists are happy to share their artworks with us:
Ruby (David Page)
Emilia (Bob Nieh) Maverick (Bob Nieh)
Shout Outs!
I would like give compliment to these two individuals for the train manager Brett, and CS Bee for their immediate action regarding the response to the incident happened in Newmarket station to Onehunga Station. An intoxicated man started to harass the customer and started swearing at everybody and the Train Manager immediately set him out and refused to take him inside the train.
The Train Manager cared much…[about] people’s safety inside the train and he's very efficient. Customer service team member Bee immediately called the station to inform them of the situation.
Very commendable service. Thanks to these two. The customer was very happy about the service she received.
Your train manager on the 8am from New Lynn to Britomart AMP659 is an absolute legend. Despite a packed train he managed to make 90% of people smile and/or clap when he acknowledged how packed the train was (up until Grafton) and sang a short song.
Quick positive feedback for train from Kingsland at 8:14am on August 14 2024, travelling to Britomart...One of many would like to give quick feedback about gentleman announcing on train with full of positivity and spreading the same...What a beautiful start to the day! Could not have asked for more.... Took a deep breath
Neil the Train manager on the Morningside to Britomart service today at 10: 20 am delivered a wonderful, heartwarming announcement. Ostensibly informing us of rail replacement buses over the weekend, he also thanked everybody for choosing AT, wished us a happy and safe journey and weekend, reminded us to be safe and kind, and then sang a little song to the tune of Old MacDonald Had A Farm with words like “Auckland Transport is your friend, E I E I know….with a bus bus here and a train out there, bus replacement, trains to everywhere, Auckland Transport is the one, E I E I know” He got a round of applause and absolutely made my day
Elijah (Jeffrey Diaz) Agatha (Jeffrey DIaz)
CRL Update
Our CRL project team continues its planning for the opening of Auckland’s first underground rail system in 2026. That may seem like we have heaps of time but, in fact, every month between now and then requires major progress and preparation to ensure we are ready in time!
Working underground is going to be a unique experience for all of our teams and touches every part of the business.
CRL recently spoke to our test train officers to get their views.
Check out the video here: AOR LinkedIn CRL test train officers Or CRL’s FB page: https://fb.watch/ufr8smD4hQ/
Removal of pedestrian level crossing at Homai Station
As part of their level crossings removal programme, AT is starting work at Homai Station during the Labour weekend BOL. The work will include:
• A new ramp to replace the stairs.
• A new footpath to the Park & Ride.
• Replacing footpaths damaged by tree roots on McVilly Road.
• Widening footpaths surrounding the station to 1.8m.
• Improved lighting and landscaping.
• Improved railway boundary fencing.
The access improvement works will begin on 24 October and there will also be significant work over the full BOL in December/January ahead of the network reopening on 20 January.
Scan the QR code for more information about AT’s level crossings removal programme.
Rail Safety Week
HSQESS appreciates and thanks staff participation in the Rail Safety Week initiatives. Once again congratulations to all the winners and hope to receive continuous nominations for Safety Star Awards each month.
• Five lucky winners won $50 Vouchers! The following people were nominated by their colleagues for their efforts in supporting safety. Congratulations to:
o Kimi Taylor
o Bruce Austin
o Andy Strivens
o Dane Gibson
o Ben Stewart
• 20 lucky staff have won the AOR double walled water bottles through the Rail Safety Week Fun Quiz.
Rail Safety Week, from 5 to 11 August, was an opportunity for our people to talk to customers about safety around level crossings and being vigilant on and around the rail corridor. Members of the executive leadership team (ELT), head office staff and customer service staff handed out KiwiRail/ TrackSAFE tote bags, flyers and cookies to high school students, parents and younger customers.
Mark Jones received his bottle from GM HSQESS Lisa D’Oliveira after winning the RSW quiz.
SAFETY EXPRESS
Rail Safety updates
• A hazard was identified and flagged when a KiwiRail freight container door was found open in transit at Otahuhu.
• AOR is undertaking deep clean at Papakura depot after the completion of Queen Street depot deep clean session.
• Occupational Health and Safety Manager is currently reviewing the return-to-work protocol and will outline the new structure based on the findings.
• Last month we have completed an internal audit on Eco Maintenance and this month an internal audit has been scheduled for MMS maintenance works contractor.
• On 7 August, the SPAD working group had their quarterly meeting and continue to prioritize network signaling issues.
• Environmental, Health and Safety and chemical management aspects of the EMU roof cleaning process is under review to be finalized for Batch 1 and Batch 2 units.
• AOR is looking into options for wrapping the rollingstock as a strong anti-graffiti control measure.
Security Update - Police Engagement
• A plan is in progress to deploy drones at specific locations on the network during specific times to identify graffiti attacks and attackers. This is especially useful during events when the number of graffiti attacks are significantly higher.
• This is to secure our fences and our rollingstock during CAT A events.
• AOR has an ongoing engagement scheduled with KiwiRail on securing the rail corridor against graffiti attacks.
• AOR is actively engaging and deploying security to deal with various security issues on the southern line.
• Currently AOR is undertaking a general performance review for Maori wardens and would appreciate any feedback from staff.
• Couple of TM assaults have been reported and HSQESS is in touch with the police supporting the investigation.
People Update
New Locomotive Engineer and Train Manager schools
Welcome aboard Back, from left: Jamal Roebeck, Steven Jones, Eden Dorset, Mitchell Greenaway, Sandra Venter, Lee-Anne Griffiths, Bhavesh Vallabh. Front, from left: George Iosefa, David Niuapu, Elsje Speck, Heather McGregor, Isha Gupta, Navneet Mahal
On 29 July we welcomed a new LE school, followed by a TM school on 12 August (pictured left). They all joined us for an induction day and welcome lunch at AROC (above picture taken at Wiri).
We also welcomed back Vipul Rajpara to AROC as a Crew Coordinator on 5 August.
We are currently busy recruiting for the last TM school of the year and the last three LE schools of the year, as well as a Planning & Performance Coordinator and Permit to Work Coordinator.
August sign offs
Congratulations to Tash Evans (pictured with Dane Fraser) who was certified as a mainline driver on 1 August 2024.
We are also happy to have signed off some of our new TMs –well done to Myron Almeida, Olivia Lafu, Brady Wilson and Robert Song!
Congratulations to Dane Fraser
I'm sure you will all join me in congratulating Dane on his recent full-time appointment as Train Crew Manager, after covering the role for an extended period on secondment. Dane is well known across the various teams, and I'm pleased he will continue demonstrating his professional style in the role moving forward.
Gavin Panter, Chief Operations Officer
Happy retirement
We’ve said goodbye and happy retirement to two of our people, Neil Jones (Training Manager) and Linda Hart (GM People & Culture).
Keith Olsen has stepped into Neil's place (see more below) and Jon Baxter is the Interim GM of P&C until a new GM is recruited. We wish both Neil and Linda well in their retirement.
New Training & Development Manager
We are pleased to announce the appointment of Keith Olsen as our new Training & Development Manager. Keith began his career in the rail industry in February 2017 as an LE, then progressed to the role of Minder, and most recently served as one of our valued relief trainers. Before joining the rail industry, Keith spent 30 years in the New Zealand Police, where he held various senior positions. Keith officially started his new role on Monday, 22 July. Please join us in congratulating Keith on this well-deserved promotion.
Forums for staff on IEAs
On Saturday 10 August, AOR hosted a forum for our crew, customer and community, TOC and facilities employees employed on individual employment agreements. This was an opportunity for us to provide updates on projects from around the business, including P2P, Wiri West Stabling, Batch 3, CRL, CSO Trial and Roster Construction. Thanks to all who came, and to those who presented. We will provide these updates at the RMTU Strategic Forum on 5 September.
Genesis Youth Trust
AOR is looking at ways to partner with Genesis Youth Trust to support their youth employment initiative. The offers a wraparound support service for young people in Auckland, including mentoring.
We recently arranged for the Genesis team and some of their young people to come to Wiri depot for a tour, have a go on the simulator and hear some of our employees’ stories about their career journeys in rail. Big thanks to Doug Rawiri, Teja Singh and Gavin Panter for taking the time to share their experiences. Head of Learning and Capability Fran Burke says she hopes it’s the first of many such collaborations with the trust