KiwiRail Records Improvements In A Difficult Year For Freight Markets

Reporting Period: 12 months to 30 June 2024
Previous Reporting Period: 12 months to 30 June 2023

• Services business (above rail) external revenue steady on $774.3m
• Operating surplus for services business is $105.6m, down 33 per cent but ahead of forecast
• Total recordable injury frequency rate down 11 per cent to 23.3 injuries per million person hours
• $1.5 billion invested in assets and capital projects
• Interislander revenue up 5 per cent to $158.3m
• Interislander Reliability (Percentage of services delivered compared to planned services, excluding weather) 96 per cent, On Time Performance 86 per cent
• Great Journeys New Zealand revenue up 41 per cent to $34.5m

KiwiRail’s FY24 result reflects a challenging year in which the State-Owned Enterprise improved its safety, service reliability and asset availability performance for customers against a backdrop of tough trading conditions and ongoing network outages from challenging weather events.

KiwiRail’s operating surplus[1] for its services business – the “above rail” part of its operations – was $105.6m, down 33 per cent on the previous year, the result of deteriorating global and domestic freight markets and escalating costs.

The result also reflects one-off major impacts of $25.9m. Without these one-off impacts, operating surplus would have been $131.5m.

Acting Chair Rob Jager says that KiwiRail recorded good growth in forestry revenues (up 11 percent), Interislander passenger (up 15 per cent) and Great Journeys New Zealand services (up 41 per cent). However, while bulk freight held steady, there were falls in import/export and domestic freight (down 11 and 6 per cent respectively) in line with the New Zealand trading environment. 

Mr Jager says the reduction in domestic and import / export freight was disappointing but not unexpected with declining volumes across New Zealand impacting both road and rail operators.

“KiwiRail was able and willing to move more freight due to our improved asset availability but, too often, it was not there to carry in a year in which consumer confidence fell and New Zealand’s imports shrank.”

Extreme weather events which closed rail lines in Hawkes Bay and Northland continued to impact customers in FY24.

The below rail - network infrastructure - EBITDA was neutral, in line with the previous year.

The company is repositioning itself to be in a strong position to harness the economic recovery when it comes, he says.

“We have set ourselves an ambitious plan to grow by winning customer loyalty through enhanced customer experiences, better asset availability, improved service reliability and by delivering a lower cost of operations so we can compete for customers in freight and passenger markets.”

KiwiRail is committed to transforming itself to reach financial sustainability in its services business, and being able to fund its own “above rail” capital expenditure, Mr Jager says.

Chief Executive Peter Reidy says “we have been listening to our customers. We know that we need to continue to work hard at being easier to do business with, improve our service performance and reliability and deliver our service with competitive pricing. I’m confident that by engaging with our union partners, unleashing the talent of our people, and focussing on our plan, we will achieve these goals”.

FY24 saw $1.5 billion of capital expenditure across the organisation, a record investment in capital programmes and upgrades renewals across the 3700km rail network.

Mr Reidy says KiwiRail is putting an immense amount of work into preparing Auckland for the start of the City Rail Link, building a network that will support faster, more frequent and more reliable trains for passengers, and greater capacity for freight trains.

In January, we completed the rebuild of the Eastern line following its full closure for nine months, and it is now one of the best performing parts of the metro network.

“Auckland requires continued intense effort and, unfortunately, that will mean disruption for commuters. However, the rewards will be a true metro system, efficiently carrying hundreds of thousands of people on low carbon trips across the city once CRL opens.

The investment in infrastructure is beginning to deliver results for its customers.

Completed work on the metro networks in Wellington and Auckland is showing up in improved reliability.

“In Auckland, where we have been partnering closely with Auckland Transport and Auckland One Rail, 97.3 per cent of services were delivered without network issues, and in Wellington it was an even better result – 99.5 per cent.

“On time performance for our premier freight services is at 89 per cent, up from 83 per cent. Availability of both locomotives and wagons is at 90 per cent.

“The Interislander has also lifted its on-time performance and reliability, reflecting the benefits of our enhanced maintenance regime for the ferries.”

A recent assessment by independent international marine experts Det Norske Veritas (DNV) which found the three vessels have been well maintained was welcome.

“While the ferries are aging, our external asset management review, concluded there are no systemic issues to prevent them providing a safe and reliable service until 2029. However, that is subject to the increased maintenance and asset management, projected investment and the regulatory compulsory maintenance programmes.”

Mr Reidy says safety remains a key focus across KiwiRail, with a commitment to a philosophy that all injuries are preventable.

“As part of a multi-year programme, we have been investing over the last year in leadership safety skills, which are tools for 180 of our senior leaders. This is starting to significantly reduce injuries and high potential near-miss critical events, particularly in our Interislander and freight operations where we have achieved injury reductions of over 35% compared with the previous year.

“In FY24, injuries reduced by 11 per cent and, importantly, high-potential critical risk near-miss events fell by 71 per cent – a positive reinforcement of an improving trend in our safety culture.

Mr Reidy says FY24 was challenging for the New Zealand freight and passenger transport sector.

“Despite this, we have improved our operating performance across safety, asset availability and service reliability for customers, achieved significant milestones in our $1.5b capital expenditure across our business, refreshed our senior leadership executive team with a strong operational bias and built an ambitious plan with our people for the future.”

Key Figures:

Comparison with Statement of Corporate Intent (SCI)

We have exceeded our FY25-FY27 SCI forecast operating surplus target for FY24 of $104m.

Consistent with the Statement of Corporate Intent, KiwiRail will not pay a dividend for the year ended 30 June 2024.

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