Esther Warren is a Chartered Civil Engineer with over a decade of project management experience delivering local and international infrastructure projects. Esther is a connector and an influencer in the rail industry. Esther has worked on the development, tender and construction of major infrastructure projects including Level Crossing Removal Projects, East West Link; Regional Rail Link, The Sugarloaf Pipeline and The Gold Coast Desalination Plant. Esther has a Bachelor of Civil Engineering from the University of Canterbury, a Diploma in Project Management from the University of New England and is studying towards her Masters of Business Administration with Melbourne Business School. Esther is Engineers Australia's 2016 Victorian Young Professional Engineer. She was also awarded the 2015 RTSA Young Railway Engineer Award, the 2015 National Association of Women in Construction Award to Emerging Leader and the 2014 Australasian Rail Industry Award to Young Engineer.

Currently employed as Project Engineer, Level Crossings for KiwiRail since 1/4/2015. Prior to that employed by Invercargill City Council as Senior Traffic Engineer between 1/4/1996 to 30/3/2015.

Shane is a very experienced road safety engineer and researcher who works at the leading edge of his field. He has an excellent understanding of the safe system approach and what engineering, education and enforcement measures combined need to be applied to achieve it. He is an Adjunct Senior Fellow at the University of Canterbury, where he lectures in road safety. He is also active on two TRB research committees in the USA (Safety Data Analysis and Evaluation and Pedestrians). Shane experience includes crash reduction studies, safety auditing and risk rating, using strategic tools like KiwiRAP and more detailed analysis tools like those in the Highway Safety Manual (HSM). Shane has been working with Kiwirail on level crossings safety for the last two years. This included development of the level crossing safety impact assessment process that he will be discussing today

Simon Fleisher is a Chartered Professional Engineer and a Fellow of the Institution of Mechanical Engineers (IMECHE). He started his career as a Marine Engineer in the RN and RNZN before moving into the Electricity Supply Industry to work for Meridian Energy and then Pioneer Energy (ex-Energy For Industry). In 2013, he was appointed to the role of CEO at Wellington Cable Car Limited (WCCL). Because of his extensive background in emergency operations, in 2014 he was asked by Wellington City Council (WCC) to take on additional responsibility as the “part time” Local Controller for Civil Defence and Emergency Management (CDEM). In addition to these, he is a Director of Waipa Networks, the Chair of the Wellington branch of the IPENZ Mechanical Engineering Group, one of two NZ representatives on the IMECHE Oceania committee, and he also sits on the IPENZ Standards and Accreditation Board.

Time to pose questions to all presenters in this session.