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Rail Safety Week is an Australasian (Australia and New Zealand) public safety campaign held every year on the second week of August. It raises awareness on how to stay safe near level crossings and has been run since 2007. The New Zealand campaign is run by KiwiRail and TrackSAFE New Zealand. [1]
The campaign first started on 23 July 2007, a Monday, after growing concerns about safety on the rail network. It made its debut with advertisements on major television channels (which were developed in Australia). [2] [3] The advertisements featured Chris Cairns, detailing his sister's death to a level crossing in 1993. The advertisements received numerous complains about being "too shocking" and "too graphic". [2] In Auckland, the campaign included school programmes and prints. [3]
The 2008 campaign included the same advertisements shown in 2007, and were also run in sporting functions and stadiums throughout the country. [2]
The 2009 Rail Safety Week started on 25 July 2009 with a new television advertisement. It was also supported by radio and print. [4]
By the time the 2010 campaign started, there had been 152 rail-related deaths. The 2010 campaign was called "Call it in," encouraging people to report near-collisions at level crossings. It ran from 23 to 29 August. It also included billboards, school visits and a display of a car wreck from a collision. [5]
The 2011 campaign included a display of a level crossing car collision at The Base shopping centre in Hamilton with the message "Stay Clear. Stay Safe". It also included a rail safety roadshow, a visit by Chris Cairns to schools in Napier, and a new website. [6]
The 2012 campaign ran between 13 and 19 August. Its slogan was "Expect trains", encouraging people that they can be hit by a train in a car, as it is most associated with being hit while walking. [7] The 2013 campaign ran between 12 and 18 August, focusing on pedestrians, telling people to use their "train brain". [8] [9] In 2014, the campaign included a virtual reality train experience where users can drive and stop locomotives. [10] The slogan of the 2015 campaign was "Expect trains", further reinforcing the idea that people in cars can be hit by trains. There was a "Cops in Cabs" event where the Police rode in locomotive cabs to experience what it is like to be near or in a collision. School children in Christchurch experienced a locomotive training simulator, and the NZTA launched a television campaign about driver behaviour at level crossings. [11] In 2016, the campaign included a video filmed at a level crossing in Lower Hutt, where multiple near misses had occurred. [12] The 2017 campaign included a television advertisement which interviews train drivers who experienced collisions or near misses. They talked about the impact that it had on them and their families. It won a film award. [13]
The 2018 week's slogan was "Whatever your look, always look for trains", and ran between 13 and 19 August. Multiple schools in Wellington did rail safety tours. [14]
In 2019, the week included the installation of 'near miss memorials' at level crossings, which were half crosses with a QR code on them linking to a video of a real near miss and a story on how it impacted the train driver. [15] There was also a virtual field trip, where approximately 1200 students enrolled in and web conferences with rail experts. [16]
The 2021 week ran between 9 and 15 August, and focussed on rural areas. [17] For 2022, it ran between 8 and 14 August with the slogan "Blow to the left and to the right, for safe travels". Before the week, KiwiRail and TrackSAFE started an unbranded campaign on places such as Reddit, train and travel blogs, and Wikipedia. Online influencers were encouraged to create content about their behaviours around rail, and then KiwiRail and TrackSAFE themselves followed by promoting these online posts. [18]
The 2023 campaign included a character called Steely Stan, encouraging people to look to the left and right before crossing a track. It includes the phrase, "Steely Stare. Steely Stare. All clear." [19]
The New Zealand state highway network is the major national highway network in New Zealand. Nearly 100 roads in the North and South Islands are state highways. All state highways are administered by the NZ Transport Agency.
The Auckland Harbour Bridge is an eight-lane motorway bridge over the Waitematā Harbour in Auckland, New Zealand. It joins St Marys Bay on the Auckland city side with Northcote on the North Shore side. It is part of State Highway 1 and the Auckland Northern Motorway. The bridge is operated by the NZ Transport Agency (NZTA). It is the second-longest road bridge in New Zealand, and the longest in the North Island.
Operation Lifesaver is the largest rail safety organization in the United States. It was founded by the Union Pacific Railroad in the early 1970s.
Rail transport in New Zealand is an integral part of New Zealand's transport network, with a nationwide network of 4,375.5 km (2,718.8 mi) of track linking most major cities in the North and South Islands, connected by inter-island rail and road ferries. Rail transport in New Zealand has a particular focus on bulk freight exports and imports, with 19 million net tonnes moved by rail annually, accounting for more than half of rail revenue.
The Ufton Nervet rail crash occurred on 6 November 2004 when a passenger train collided with a stationary car on a level crossing on the Reading–Taunton line near Ufton Nervet, Berkshire, England. The collision derailed the train, and seven people—including the drivers of the train and the car—were killed. An inquest found that all railway personnel and systems were operating correctly, and the crash was caused by the suicide of the car driver.
Public transport in the Wellington Region, branded under the name Metlink, is the public transport system serving Wellington and its surrounding region. It is the most used public transport system in New Zealand per capita, and consists of electric and diesel buses, suburban trains, ferries and a funicular. It also included trams until 1964, and trolleybuses until 2017.
The Onehunga Branch railway line is a section of the Onehunga Line in Auckland, New Zealand. It was constructed by the Auckland Provincial Government and opened from Penrose to Onehunga on 24 December 1873, and extended to Onehunga Wharf on 28 November 1878. It is 3.6 kilometres (2.2 mi) in length and is single-track only.
The Capital Connection is a long-distance commuter train operated by KiwiRail between Palmerston North and the capital city of Wellington on the North Island Main Trunk.
Public transport in Auckland, the largest metropolitan area of New Zealand, consists of three modes: bus, train and ferry. Services are coordinated by Auckland Transport (AT) under the AT and AT Metro brands. Waitematā railway station is the main transport hub.
Maymorn railway station is a twin platform, rural request stop railway station serving the small settlement of Maymorn on the Maymorn Plateau, east of Upper Hutt, in New Zealand’s North Island. It is served by the Wairarapa Connection, and sees five services each way Monday to Thursday, six on Friday and two on Saturday and Sunday.
The Waterview Connection is a motorway section through west/central Auckland, New Zealand. It connects State Highway 20 in the south at Mt Roskill to State Highway 16 in the west at Point Chevalier, and is a part of the Western Ring Route.
The Second Harbour Crossing is the name given to the proposed second transport link across the Waitematā Harbour in Auckland, New Zealand. Planners have also referred to new links across the harbour as the Additional Waitematā Harbour Crossing (AWHC) or the Waitematā Harbour Connections.
Auckland railway electrification occurred in phases as part of investment in a new infrastructure for Auckland's urban railway network. Electrification of the network had been proposed for several decades. Installation started in the late 2000s after funds were approved from a combination of regional and central government budgets.
The Rotorua Branch is a railway line from Putāruru to Rotorua, in the Waikato and Bay of Plenty regions of the North Island of New Zealand. Construction of the line was commenced by the Thames Valley and Rotorua Railway Company and finished by the Public Works Department (PWD). The complete line, 50.5 kilometres (31.4 mi) in length, opened in two sections; on 24 November 1893 to Tārukenga and the final 8 mi 43 ch (13.7 km) to Rotorua on 8 December 1894.
The Waitara Railway Preservation Society is a society established in 1999 to operate a heritage railway over the former Waitara Industrial Line railway that operated between Lepperton and Waitara in the New Plymouth District of New Zealand's North Island. The line had been closed that year after 124 years of operation, after the closure of the local AFFCO freezing works in the town.
The Northern Explorer is a long-distance passenger train operated by the Great Journeys New Zealand division of KiwiRail between Auckland and Wellington in the North Island of New Zealand, along the North Island Main Trunk (NIMT). Three services operate per week in each direction between Auckland's The Strand Station and Wellington railway station. The Northern Explorer replaced the Overlander from 25 June 2012.
The Ottawa bus–train crash was a collision that occurred between an OC Transpo double-decker bus and a Via Rail train in the Ottawa suburb of Barrhaven on September 18, 2013, that killed six people.
Kopaki was a flag station on the North Island Main Trunk line, in the Waitomo District of New Zealand.
There are over 3,000 level crossings in New Zealand, with about 1330 being publicly maintained by KiwiRail as of 2013. Of these, 275 crossings were protected by flashing red lights, bells, and half-arm barriers; and 421 are protected by flashing red lights and bells only. The remainder are controlled by "Stop and Give Way" signs. Level crossings are the responsibility of rail infrastructure owner KiwiRail Network, the NZ Transport Agency, and if the crossing is on a local road, the local city or district council. Much like Australia, New Zealand employs American-made crossing warning equipment. There were also in 2013 some 110 stand-alone public pedestrian level crossings; and some private level crossings, which are the responsibility of the land owner.