Questions and answers

We’ll be clear when a chargeable service is about to happen and will give you our best estimate at the time. However, it may not be possible in all cases.

If the work turns out to be different to what we anticipated, we’ll get in touch with you to provide a new estimate of the cost.

Total hours and the expenses incurred will be stated in every invoice.

Having effective regulation increases the overall safety for the whole industry which ultimately builds public confidence and ensures a level playing field for all participants.

The new regulations will ensure there is sufficient core funding to provide for a balanced compliance approach. This means regular engagement, education and monitoring of rail participants that is complemented by a strong intelligence and investigative capability to ensure safety issues are dealt with quickly and robustly.

The new funding framework is a critically important step in creating a modern and effective regulator.

Under the Railways Act 2005, there are two classes of rail participant that must be licensed – rail operators and access providers. Most organisations operating rail vehicles on their own railway lines will be both a rail operator and an access provider.

If you control the use of a railway line by rail operators, you must hold an access provider class of licence. If you provide or operate (ie move) rail vehicles on a railway line (yours or someone else’s), you must hold a rail operator class of licence.

You can hold both these classes under a single licence.

All licence holders, regardless of the nature of their operation or its complexity, will have to pay $400+GST for each class (access provider or rail operator) of licence they hold.

The “Network Traffic Kilometres” applies to any railway. The definition of this is provided in Section 3 of the Railways Regulations 2019(external link).

Installing a cap on the new annual safety charge limited the increase from the previous framework. It means it’s a more affordable transition for all licence holders.

Setting caps transparently communicates that the intent of the measure is affordability rather than perceived differences in risks between different sectors.

There are no charges for reporting an accident or incident, nor for any of the follow-up investigating we do with you.

Continuous improvement is a fundamental principle of rail safety. We recognise that it’s in the interests of safety that there are no barriers to identifying when things have gone wrong and working out why.

However, if the investigation uncovers a breach(es) of the Railways Act 2005, and an enforcement notice is served, we may charge a fee for the work undertaken to issue the notice.

The annual safety charge applies to all licence holders regardless of their operational status. There are obligations in holding a rail licence and therefore it’s likely that organisations that are not operational will need to pay fees to meet these obligations.

Yes. All fees and charges for rail safety regulation are subject to GST. The invoice you receive from Waka Kotahi will include the GST amount.

The amounts specified in the regulations (and our guidance on fees and charges) are exclusion of GST. Regulation 14 states this. Waka Kotahi adds GST at 15% to the amounts specified in the regulations when invoicing.

During a licence application, there are a number of way you can reduce your fees. These have been listed on our Rail licence application fees page.

Likewise, when you’re having a safety assessment performed, we have guidance on our How to prepare for an assessment page that directly relates to keeping your fees down.

For other activities, such as developing or varying your safety case, we have comprehensive guidance on the website you can use. You can find all this guidance from our Rail home page.

If you think there’s an error in an invoice you’ve received from us, or there will be a delay in your ability to pay the invoice, please email us on railregulator@nzta.govt.nz with a copy of the invoice and the relevant information about the error or delay. 

We recognise the fees and charges we are required to issue under the Railways Act can be significant for a rail licence holder. However, providing regulatory oversight of a rail operation costs money. If some operators don’t pay, the rest of industry has to pay more to ensure it is adequately funded.

If you believe you have specific circumstances where paying in instalments or a waiver may be appropriate, please talk to your licence manager, who will guide you through the process, or email us on railregulator@nzta.govt.nz with a copy of the invoice and why you believe paying in instalments or a waiver is justified. Waivers are issued only in exceptional circumstances. 

Operational policy – consideration of waivers on hardship grounds [PDF, 131 KB]

• Annual safety charge – at present, there is an annual safety charge on all licence holders. This has been renamed from the annual safety fee to the annual safety charge and the method of calculation has been changed.
• Licence fees – moving from a flat fee to an hourly rate plus expenses.
• Safety assessment – will remain based on an hourly rate (although the rate has changed as expenses are now charged separately).
• Safety case variation (SCV) & safety case replacement (SCR) - will now be subject to an hourly rate plus expenses fee.
• Compliance actions – if the Transport Agency is required to apply a compliance notice on your operation, it will recover the costs to do so.

We will endeavour to ensure that all participants are treated fairly and transparently in how fees are applied to them. Most of our activity does not require travel to site.

No. Working with licence holders on general matters and keeping abreast of any developments is not chargeable. Our time on this is covered by the annual charge.

Fees are only for the work we do on specific functions, which are detailed on our Rail safety fees and charges page. If we need to charge for something we’re about to do for you, we will make this clear to you at the time.

No, general enquiries with us are not charged for. We want to hear from anyone who is thinking they may be performing a rail activity, or those who would like to.

If you decide to proceed with developing and lodging an application for a licence, you will be subject to fees.