The 15th Annual New Zealand Rail Conference 2026, organised by Informa, runs 2–3 December 2026 at the Grand Millennium Auckland.
The 15th Annual New Zealand Rail Conference returns to Auckland on 2–3 December 2026, convening the country's rail sector at the Grand Millennium Auckland under the theme "Shaping the Future of Rail in Aotearoa — Te Kitenga. Mahi Tahi. Auaha." (Vision. Collaboration. Innovation.). Now in its fifteenth edition, the two-day programme spans freight and supply chain, major project delivery, innovation, safety, decarbonisation and workforce development, and culminates in the inaugural NZ Rail Excellence Awards Dinner on the evening of 3 December.
The speaker line-up draws leadership from across the sector, including Auckland Transport chief executive Stacey van der Putten, KiwiRail's Chief Metro Officer Bevan Assink, Auckland One Rail CEO Martin Kearney, and senior figures from the NZ Transport Agency Waka Kotahi, City Rail Link and Auckland Council.
The conference is produced by Informa, the events business that trades in the region as Informa Australia within the Informa Connect division of Informa PLC, a global B2B events and professional information group. Informa runs the New Zealand Rail Conference as part of its long-running transport and logistics portfolio, and co-hosts the NZ Young Rail Professionals Forum with the Railway Technical Society of Australasia (RTSA).
The programme is built for professionals across the New Zealand rail system: freight and passenger operators, metro and regional rail, infrastructure and major-project teams, maintenance and engineering, regulators and government policy makers, and industry suppliers. Dedicated streams reach emerging talent, with a Young Rail Professionals Forum open free to those aged 35 and under and conference scholarships for those aged 30 and under.
The Grand Millennium Auckland sits at 71 Mayoral Drive on the corner of Vincent Street, in the Auckland CBD. The central-city location places delegates within walking distance of the Aotea precinct, Queen Street and the city's main hotel cluster, and close to public transport across the inner city. As a full-service conference hotel with in-house event space and accommodation on site, it concentrates the two days of sessions, the awards dinner and delegate stays in one CBD location, which simplifies logistics for the many attendees travelling in from outside Auckland.
At fifteen editions, the New Zealand Rail Conference is an anchor fixture on the national business-events calendar and a case study in how a specialist international organiser sustains a recurring, awards-anchored conference in New Zealand. It draws senior public-sector and operator leadership into Auckland for two days each December, pairing a technical programme with a gala awards dinner and networking — the kind of multi-element, CBD-hotel-hosted event that underpins Auckland's year-round conference demand and demonstrates the pulling power of the Grand Millennium as a mid-size conference venue.
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