4. Requirements for licences
- 4.1 General
- 4.2 Application for a licence
- 4.3 Appointment of safety assessors
- 4.4 Risk management
- 4.5 Licence application and fee
- 4.6 Safety case requirements
- 4.7 Response to safety assessments and other safety reports
- 4.8 Accidents and incidents
- 4.9 Annual licence fees
4.1 General
The Railways Act 2005 (the Railways Act) requires that a licence must be held by a rail operator, being any person or organisation wishing to operate a rail vehicle, such as a locomotive, railcar, tram, light rail vehicle, hi-rail vehicle, maintenance vehicle, shunting tractor or similar, a monorail (single rail), or an access provider, being any person or organisation that controls the use of a railway line by rail operators. This applies to a railway operating on a single rail or set of rails with a gauge of 550 mm or greater and those with a lesser gauge included by regulation.
Generally, railways with a lesser gauge which are available for public use are considered to be amusement devices and are excluded from requiring a licence under the Railways Act. These amusement device railways are required to have a safety certificate from a registered engineer, have a permit to operate issued by the territorial authority and be registered by WorkSafe NZ. Cable cars on private land and not carrying fare paying passengers do not require a licence but are under the jurisdiction of appropriate local authorities.
The NZ Transport Agency (the Transport Agency) may exempt a person from holding a licence if all the rail activities of that person are covered under the licence of another licence holder, and the approved safety case of that other licence holder.
4.2 Application for a licence
All applications for a licence must be accompanied by a proposed safety case for the approval of the Transport Agency. The safety case must meet the requirements of the Act which are explained in Appendix 1 .
4.3 Appointment of safety assessors
The Act requires that the Transport Agency appoint safety assessors. Costs of assessments are recovered from licence holders.
4.4 Risk management
An essential element of the safety case as required by the Railways Act is that it describes the management systems that a rail participant has in place to identify and assess the risks arising from its rail activities and its ability to develop and implement risk control measures.
The safety risks arising and details of the measures to be in place to mitigate those risks must also be described.
Therefore, an understanding of the concepts and practices of risk analysis and risk management is an essential tool in demonstrating and practising a commitment to reducing the risks to within acceptable limits and in providing additional assurance on the safety of their operation.
Further information on risk management is provided in Appendix 1 .
4.5 Licence application fee
Applications for a licence must be made on the Transport Agency forms which should be completed and sent to the Transport Agency together with the fees payable and include the accompanying safety case.
Application fees are shown in Appendix 6 .
Application forms are in Appendix 5 .
4.6 Safety case requirements
Guidelines on the safety case and its contents – as required by the Act – are detailed in Appendix 1 .
Rail participants are required to carry out their activities in compliance with their approved safety case and underlying safety system. They need to keep their safety system up to date, making amendments to reflect changes in their operations and to reflect continuous improvement initiatives as necessary. Where material change affects the safety case it too must be updated and then referred to the Transport Agency for approval as a safety case variation.
Rail participants have to manage the safety system itself, by replacing or amending documents promptly, ensuring that current information is available to those who need it, ensuring records are maintained and that there is compliance with all safety system requirements.
Amendments are to be clearly identified and fully justified taking into consideration any new or changed hazards and alterations to risk profiles according to management of change procedures which must be clearly described in the safety case.
If safety case variations are required, these should be drafted by the licence holder and sent to the Transport Agency for consideration at least 20 working days before the approval is required. Each time the safety case is revised it is to be submitted to the Transport Agency for approval.
Typical changes to the operation which would constitute a material change of scope and a change in risk profile requiring a safety case revision to be submitted for the Transport Agency approval include (but are not limited to):
- changes to management team or to organisation structures resulting in significant changes to staff deployment and management/supervisory and/or inspection responsibilities
- new lines, extensions, altered layouts, and abandoned lines
- changes to line operating speeds over all or part of the operation
- any changes to operating procedures or methods requiring significant addition and/or amendment of operating codes
- changes to signalling or train protection rules over part or all of the operation (including any arrangements for work site protection)
- newly proposed motive power changes over full or part routes – steam to diesel, diesel to electric, etc (not changes under existing operating procedures)
- changes to inspection procedures – track inspection frequencies, bridge examination procedures and frequencies, structure inspections, traction overhead inspection, etc
- changes to signalling equipment and rail service vehicle examination and maintenance frequencies, etc
- alterations to structure gauge and loading gauge standards
- alterations to track standards with respect to material specifications, geometric shape, tolerances and installation procedures, etc
- alterations to bridge and structure standards with respect to loadings, material specifications, and clearances
- introduction of new locomotives, electric and diesel units (including second-hand) with respect to axle loadings, braking and coupling systems and requiring additions and/or changes to existing standards and/or operating procedures
- introduction of new, substantially changed rolling stock (including second-hand) with respect to width, length, height, loading capacity, axle loading etc and requiring additions and/or changes to existing mechanical and operating standards and/or operating procedures
- introduction of new (or second-hand) on-track equipment, not classified as locomotives or rolling stock and requiring any additions and/or changes to standards or operating procedures
- changes to inter-operability and interface agreements with other parties – for running rights access.
The above list is not exhaustive but indicates a broad range of possible causes of significant change to the risk profile (better or worse) of an organisation's activities, which would warrant notification to the Transport Agency. In terms of the safety case, these will require at least an update to the risk management detail provided. The Transport Agency is not required to approve the detailed underlying safety system documentation, but it needs to be kept informed of what applies for safety assessment purposes.
In the interest of continuous improvement it is important that rail participants conduct regular reviews of the relevance of the content of their safety system in relation to their current operations with a view to removing complexity and superfluous content.
The simpler – the better. Such changes if they result in an update to the safety case must also be notified to the Transport Agency as a variation.
Note: the Transport Agency policy concerning the introduction of rail vehicles must be complied with where new rolling stock is to be introduced. A copy of the policy can be found Appendix 7 .
4.7 Response to safety assessments and other safety reports
Safety assessments (as described in section 3.3 ) will be carried out when required by the Transport Agency. Following a safety assessment the Transport Agency will advise the licence holder of any remedial actions required, and that all other non-compliances and recommendations must also be addressed.
The licence holder must also ensure that action is taken to address problems identified by internal audits, health and safety committees, staff members or through a hazard identification and risk analysis process.
4.8 Accidents and incidents
4.8.1 Reporting
Under the legislation, the rail operator or access provider concerned must ensure that the Transport Agency is notified of any accident or incident that occurs on the railway under their management as soon as practicable.
Notification by telephone or email is required as soon as practicable after the occurrence and confirmed in detail on the report forms as shown in Appendix 2Appendix 2 .
The Transport Agency maintains 24-hour call arrangements for the notification of urgent occurrences on railway operations. Details of the emergency call arrangements and contact numbers are shown in Appendix 2Appendix 2 .
For occurrences on the national rail network, the requirements of NRSS/5 Occurrence Management are expected to be followed. This means that on the controlled part of the network, KiwiRail Limited will notify the Transport Agency in the first instance. On operator controlled territory the appropriate representative of the operator will notify the Transport Agency of the occurrence.
Additionally, rail participants are required to report accidents involving serious harm to any person to WorkSafe NZ as per the requirements the Health and Safety at Work Act 2015.
The Transport Agency will notify the Transport Accident Investigation Commission (TAIC) of all accidents and those incidents that the Transport Agency considers TAIC should investigate as covered by the memorandum of understanding between the organisations
4.8.2 Investigation
Where an occurrence involves rail related activities, the Transport Agency may initiate an investigation, but if this involves injury to rail personnel or other people, the NZ Police and WorkSafe NZ may also elect to undertake an investigation. TAIC may elect to investigate any accident or incident occurring on rail as notified by the Transport Agency, particularly where the cause is not clearly established or where it believes there are lessons to be learnt that may have significant implications for transport safety. TAIC have wide ranging investigative powers and mandatory requirements. All rail participants should be aware of these taic.org.nz .
4.9 Annual licence fees
Licence holders are required to pay an annual licence fee for rail safety monitoring and the Transport Agency will send quarterly invoices to all licence holders in accordance with the fees as set out in Appendix 6. Non-payment of any fees will not in itself immediately incur revocation of a licence. The Transport Agency will apply normal debt recovery procedures in respect of any outstanding fees.