Kiwirail will cut 181 jobs in a bid to save $200 million.
Staff at Kiwirail's infrastructure and engineering department will find out from today if they have lost their jobs in the redundancies announced by the state-owned company.
The North Island would lose the most staff -114 jobs. In the South Island 43 jobs will be lost and a further 24 jobs will be cut from track machine teams across New Zealand in unspecified locations.
KiwiRail's chief executive Jim Quinn said meetings with staff across the country would continue until the end of the week and he hoped some staff would take voluntary redundancy.
"It is hoped that the required numbers will be achieved via this process and reports to-date suggest some staff have already shown interest in this option," he said.
Mr Quinn said KiwiRail was making the cuts because the economic climate was uncertain. KiwiRail would still spend $750 million on the rail network over three years.
Last month the company announced it would cut between 170 and 220 staff from the unit.
Rail and Maritime Transport Union general secretary Wayne Butson said he would not comment on the job losses until the end of the week when the meetings with staff ended.
"We get a lot of flack from members who say 'why am I hearing this in the media before I hear about it face to face from the boss'," he said.
He said it was difficult for KiwiRail to meet staff across the country at the same time, so meeting had to be held over a week.
Labour Party transport spokesman Phil Twyford said staff cuts were a false economy and part of a deferral on track maintenance.
Minister of State Owned Enterprises Tony Ryall would not comment.
- By Kate Shuttleworth, APNZ
