'Near miss': Trainee driver stops train 5m from where worker had been kneeling on tracks
A train stopped five metres from where a worker had been kneeling on railway tracks after a trainee driver slammed on the emergency brake in a “near miss” north of Wellington.
A Transport Accident Investigation Commission report found a rail protection officer (RPO) used a safety system they knew wasn’t allowed at the Plimmerton worksite.
The empty passenger train was being used for driver training. It was going 62km/h and had rounded a curve when the trainee driver spotted people in orange high-vis clothing on the North Island Main Trunk line on May 8 last year.
The RPO had been using the “individual train detection” (ITD) safety process at the worksite, meaning trains could travel at normal speed while the RPO watched for approaching trains.
However, ITD wasn’t allowed at the site, and the RPO knew that, the commission wrote.
“It’s virtually certain the RPO opted to use ITD even though they knew it wasn’t allowed. They perceived it to be both a simpler and more practical method of protection than blocking, given the location and timing of the planned work.”
Video footage from the train showing workers on track during a near-miss incident in Plimmerton on May 8, 2025.
Blocking – where trains are prevented from entering a worksite – was the approved safety method at the site.
The RPO also lodged their ITD on an old paper form, rather than digitally, because they’d forgotten their iPad and reading glasses, the commission wrote.
Nine trains passed during the 63 minutes the RPO and two subcontractors were at the site, with gaps of six to 11 minutes between them.
The trio arrived at the site about 9.20am to do maintenance on a trackside grease applicator before one subcontractor walked about 8m from the control box to fix a wheel sensor, kneeling between the tracks to lift it into position.
This image was included in the Transport Accident Investigation Commission's report released today into a near-miss incident involving workers repairing rail tracks north of Wellington in May 2025.
At 10.14am, a northbound train being used for driver training rounded a curve about 220m away.
The RPO saw the train approaching and called out to the subcontractor, but they didn’t respond because they were focused on removing a ring spanner stuck vertically on the sensor equipment, the commission wrote.
“The RPO reached [the subcontractor] and pulled them upward and away from the track. At the same time, the ring spanner was dislodged.”
The train came to a stop 5m from where the pair had been, 16 seconds after its emergency brake was pulled from about 180m away. The subcontractor’s tools and equipment were still in the centre of the track.
No one was hurt.
Investigators were told it was common for RPOs to use ITD at the site, and others with limited sightlines for similar reasons, the commission wrote.
“The misalignment between planned work and compliant protection methods may not be isolated to this incident.”
KiwiRail says it will improve worksite protection planning after the report into a near miss on the North Island Main Trunk line north of Wellington.
Neither subcontractor had the required competencies or current medical certification to work in the rail corridor, and the RPO had no way of checking.
Other contractors had since been found to be missing the required certifications, KiwiRail told investigators, and there was no robust system for auditing protection officers’ safety documentation, the commission wrote.
KiwiRail accepted the commission’s recommendations to improve worksite protection planning and to audit protection measures used by rail protection officers.
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