Rail: Writing’s on the wall
Graffiti vandals see scrapped clean-up contracts as clear sign it’s open slather to deface
Graffiti removal on the Auckland rail network has “largely ceased” after an Auckland Transport decision to axe its graffiti clean-up contracts.
The Auckland Council business unit has cancelled its graffiti cleaning contracts with the Manukau Beautification Trust and Civic Contractors from July 1 and says it is “looking at ways of getting better value for ratepayer and taxpayer money”.
KiwiRail investment, planning and risk general manager David Gordon said no new contracts had been issued “as there is no funding available from AT”.
“That work has largely ceased since the halt to AT funding,” he said.
Public Transport
Users Association coordinator Jon Reeves said commuters had noticed “a dramatic increase in graffiti across the Auckland network” in the past eight weeks.
“It’s starting to look actually pretty bad,” he said. “Word gets around between the low-lifes that no one is monitoring it.”
A rail employee, who asked not to be named, said Auckland’s reputation was so bad that “graffiti vandals are even coming in from overseas now to try and ‘hit’ an Auckland electric train”.
“Two diesel trains were heavily graffitied on in the Pukekohe depot
HFor a video go to nzherald.co.nz
overnight last Sunday morning,” he said.
“The graffiti vandals also often target the new electric trains while they are out in service on the network (with passengers inside) by pulling the emergency stop on the outside of the carriages which prevents the trains from moving off until a member of train crew resets the emergency stop.
“Train crews can’t do this until it is safe to do so under the new Zero Harm law (and are not allowed to put themselves in a position of danger with approaching or challenging the graffiti vandals) — so basically have to just watch and wait until the vandals have finished.”
Manukau Beautification Trust’s last annual report showed it earned $282,070 from its KiwiRail contract in the year to June 2017, clearing rubbish off the tracks as well as cleaning up graffiti on the southern line.
Founding chairman Rev Mark Beale said that when the trust was started by former Manukau mayor Sir Barry Curtis, it employed unemployed people to paint out all tagging across Manukau. Any profits were used for environmental education projects.
“A private organisation is not going to do that, so overall the city or community loses when things go to private contractors,” Beale said.
Civic Contractors, a private
PAuckland-based company, is believed to have held a contract to remove graffiti on all lines except the southern line.
Auckland Transport (AT) spokesman James Ireland said the total cost of the two contracts was $200,000 a year — “about $180,000 from AT and $20,000 from KiwiRail”.
He said the contracts were not cancelled to save money: “This is not so much about saving money as it is getting a better service.”
Meantime, AT had asked City Cleaning, which cleaned railway stations, to clean graffiti on the network on “an as-needed basis”.
For longer-term contracts, Ireland said: “We don’t have a timeframe.”