Completing the forms

Change notifications  

You’ll need to summarise the planned change to your activities or organisation, give the reason for the change, and note the relevant sections of your safety case on your change notification form.

Change notification form [PDF, 219 KB]

If you’re not sure who your licence manager is, send the form to:

railregulator@nzta.govt.nz

Applying for a variation

You’ll need to give us copies of your planned change process, risk management process and any risk assessments you’ve done in relation to the change. Your communications with staff and affected parties is an important part of a change process, so a summary of this may also be required.

Your application must be approved before the change takes place. We approve applications if you’re managing the changes in risk so far as is reasonably practicable. If we don’t approve your variation, we’ll work with you to revise and resubmit the application.

Application for a safety case variation form [PDF, 236 KB]

Variations can also be partly approved or with conditions applied.

Approval criteria

Completing the form

You need the identifying details of your organisation and its current approved safety case. Other information includes:

• a summary of the planned changes to your operation
• details of the proposed changes to be made to your safety case, referring to the relevant sections that require amendment
• details of any infrastructure involved in the change – tunnels, bridges, vehicles
• details of any new type of service or operation you’ll be doing
• a list of other rail participants affected and the consultation you’ve done with them on the change.

You also need to attach the following documentation:

• a summary of your planned change process
• your risk management process
• your risk assessment results
• a summary of communications with staff and affected parties.

You need to show that your safety case will remain fit for purpose after the change has been made.

Applying for a replacement  

Contact us before you submit an Application for a safety case replacement form to your licence manager. This is so we can check if the replacement will mainly be format and presentation, or whether it has bigger changes needing more assessment.

Application for a safety case replacement form [PDF, 240 KB]

Submitting your application isn’t the same as having the replacement safety case approved. We need time to assess the new safety case and see if the safety parts of any changes have been properly dealt with. If we don’t think you’re managing the changes in risk so far as is reasonably practicable, we won’t be able to approve it and you won’t be able to operate under the new safety case. If this happens, we’ll work with you to revise the safety case and resubmit the application.

Completing the form

You need the identifying details of your organisation and its current approved safety case. Other information includes:

• the reason for the replacement
• summaries of any organisational or rail activity changes to the safety management system that weren’t part of the current approved safety case
• details of infrastructure involved in the changes – tunnels, bridges, vehicles
• details of the new types of service or operation
• a list of any other rail participants affected and the consultation you’ve done with them on the changes.

You also need to attach the following documents:

• a summary of your planned change process
• a copy of your risk management process
• a copy of any risk assessments done in relation to the changes
• a summary of communications with staff and affected parties.

You need to show that your new safety case will be fit for purpose after the change has been made.