Keeping up appearances in the corridorOne of the most difficult issues ONTRACK has to deal with is the appearance of the corridor up and down the country. In the major cities, graffiti is the biggest problem while in smaller towns and the countryside, its weeds and vegetation.
We are looking to increase our spending on vegetation control by more than 30 percent in the 2008-09 year in an attempt to improve the appearance of the corridor and meet the concerns of local and regional councils.
“I wish we had a ready made solution to the problem but sadly we don’t,” says General Manager Commercial Neil Buchanan. “The rail corridor is 4,000 km long and we administer more than 18,000 hectares of railway land. Given the resources we have available through us, we’re always going to struggle to get on top of the problem, particularly because some areas have been neglected in the past.
“We currently spend $2 million on vegetation control nationwide, carried out under contract for us by Treescape. We are proposing to increase this by more than $3 million.”
We spray the rail corridor twice a year and we spray “off-track” areas on an “as required” basis, often as a result of discussion with local authorities or neighbours who adjoin the corridor.
Our work includes ballast spraying to prevent weed contamination of ballast, tree control to prevent trees falling across tracks and vegetation control to ensure that level crossing view lines are adequate and trees do not interfere with overhead wiring. We also spray in rail yards, mow, spray around level crossings and carry out annual line surveys.
ONTRACK is also doing its best with graffiti. Asset and Corridor Manager Frazer Tweedie says we’re often held responsible for graffiti that isn’t even on our land but is sprayed on fences and buildings that adjoin the corridor.
“It’s a tough nut to crack and it’s good to see courts taking a harder line on people caught tagging,” he says.
ONTRACK is a member of the Government’s advisory group which is helping in the preparation of legislation due to be introduced later this year. We’re also working with local trusts to manage graffiti by having it painted out in a timely manner.
“The problem we have been dealing with is allowing people onto the corridor to remove graffiti. We’ve been working to arrange protection for people removing graffiti and training members of trusts and partners like Keep New Zealand Beautiful so that they can carry out their own supervision.”