KiwiRail chief metro and capital programme officer David Gordon visited the Hillside Rd workshops yesterday and congratulated its team on reaching the major milestone.
The workshop marked the production of its 500th rail wagon since production began in March 2024.
He said the goal was to assemble a total of 1500 wagons before the workshop would transition to focus on wagon maintenance and refurbishment.
The Hillside Workshops were KiwiRail’s main heavy maintenance facility in the South Island where it maintained locomotives and wagons and built brand-new wagons in its purpose-built assembly workshop.
Despite industry-wide challenges over the past 18 months, including global supply chain disruptions and skilled labour shortages, wagon production remained consistently on track.
“KiwiRail’s wagon assembly operation is the only one of its kind in New Zealand, designed to meet the specific needs of New Zealand’s national rail network,” Mr Gordon said.
Building and maintaining wagons required specialist rail skills, which were not widely available in the local market.
KiwiRail developed capabilities to train and upskilling a dedicated workforce in-house.
As a result, it reduced reliance on overseas supply chains which increased local capability and boosted regional development.
Significant government investment enabled KiwiRail to transform an old rail plant into a modern mechanical facility — allowing it to better deliver freight to customers and grow rail in the South Island.
“Our purpose-built facility not only supports domestic manufacturing, but also enables us to retire ageing wagons, reduce maintenance costs and improve performance for our freight customers and for their customers.”
Every year KiwiRail moved 17 million tonnes of freight. — Allied Media
