- Rt Hon Winston Peters
The 1,000th rail wagon has rolled out of Dunedin’s Hillside Workshops, showing what happens when New Zealand backs practical industry, puts rail assets to work, and creates jobs for New Zealanders, Rail Minister Winston Peters says.
“Hillside is part of New Zealand’s industrial heritage but a little over a decade ago it was being run down and written off. Today, it is assembling modern wagons for the national freight network,” Mr Peters says.
“When last responsible for Rail, we committed the funding to demolish, rebuild, and start the assembly of 1,350 rail wagons at Hillside as the very first mechanical task for local Dunedin workers in the rebuilt workshops.”
The wagon assembly programme began in March 2024 and is delivering 1,350 modern wagons for KiwiRail’s freight network. The first 1,000 wagons are now operating around New Zealand, moving freight and supporting exporters, importers, ports and regions.
“Rail is part of the freight solution for New Zealand – helping to clear busy ports, moving the heavy loads, and giving regional industries another practical way to get goods to market. We are seeing more road-rail hubs develop around New Zealand to share the load cost effectively,” Mr Peters says.
“The new wagons are working assets that already contribute to KiwiRail lifting its reliability to attract customers and lift the value of the business for New Zealanders, as its owner.”
“New Zealand will soon have one of the youngest rail freight rolling stock of any rail company in the world, setting a strong base to grow.
“The rebuild at Hillside supported more than 200 construction jobs and Hillside now employs around 60 mechanical engineers and wagon assembly staff and 50 infrastructure staff.
“The production teams, planners, logistics personnel, quality specialists, engineers, maintenance teams and support staff at Hillside can be proud of how their work is contributing to rail’s success,” Mr Peters says.
Hillside’s renewed facilities include a purpose-built wagon assembly operation capable of assembling up to two wagons a day, alongside mechanical workshop capability that supports rail operations in the South Island. The redevelopment has also helped rebuild practical mechanical engineering skills in Dunedin.
“This is about work, skills and contribution – with Kiwis learning and applying specialist rail skills at Hillside and looking forward to the next task after the assembly programme.”
The first 1,000 wagons have required approximately 16,000 tonnes of steel and materials, 4,000 wheelsets, 40,000 bolts and 60,000 washers. More than 8,000 quality assurance check sheets have also been completed.
