Aratere Ferry Failure Final Straw For Residents, Farmers And Truckies

Monday, 24 June 2024, 8:11 pm
Article: RNZ

Ruth Hill, Reporter

Engineers are today probing the stricken ferry Aratere, as the government weighs up the costs of replacing the country's ageing interisland ferry fleet.

The grounding of the Aratere on Friday night has once again exposed the fragility of the critical link between the North and the South Islands.

Maritime New Zealand's detention order remains in place and the Aratere will not sail until it receives clearance - but KiwiRail cannot say when that will happen.

As authorities scramble to come up with a solution, people who rely on the crossing are voicing their frustration.

Jan Piper, who has lived in Picton 42 years, said residents were fed up.

"We're living in chaos and we feel very much forgotten, we're not being informed. And whatever we're getting, we've lost our trust and faith, basically."

Elaine Fisher, who was booked on the Bluebridge to Wellington today, said a string of ferry breakdowns in recent years had flow-on effects for the whole country.

"It's the state highway between the North Island and the South Island and causes so much disruption."

Federated Farmers transport spokesman Mark Hooper said the free flow of stock and goods between the islands was critical for his sector.

"And so if there is a downgrading in terms of the service and the quality of that service, then that has quite serious implications."

It was fortunate timing that the grounding did not happen last month, when stock movements were usually at their peak, he said.

"If you'd had a ship full of livestock stuck for 48 hours, you can imagine the animal welfare implications of that. It would have been horrible."

The Aratere was on Monday moved to a wharf usually reserved for logging ships to free up the main wharf to allow Kaitaki to keep passengers and freight moving across Cook Strait.

All passengers booked on Aratere to the end of Friday have been shifted to Kaitaki sailings and KiwiRail said it was working to accommodate freight with help from the private operator, Bluebridge.

The Aratere, the only ferry with rail capacity, had its steering overhauled just three weeks ago, and was also on a go-slow due to problems with its gearbox for which it was awaiting parts.

Last week, government ministers received a report from an independent advisory group on replacement ferries.

Its details are still under wraps, but reportedly include a recommendation for smaller, non-rail enabled ferries.

Finance Minister Nicola Willis - who cancelled the previous contract for new ferries after the budget quadrupled to nearly $3 billion - has previously expressed her preference for reliable ferries equivalent to a trusty but "not flashy" Toyota Corolla.

National Road Carriers Association spokesperson James Smith said the government should leave business to the business sector.

"Get out of running ferries, stick to regulation and policy settings and let commercial operators take over."

However, a former minister of railways, Richard Prebble, said ditching rail ferries could mean the end of New Zealand's rail freight altogether, as moving freight on and off trains would not be economic.

And that would cost exporters, importers, industry, tourism and by extension the entire country, he said.

"Without the rail, we'd be putting thousands of extra heavy trucks on our roads, which aren't built to take it.

"The country's roads cannot take the heavy trucks that would be needed to shift freight from the North to South Island. It would cost hundreds of millions of dollars in extra funding for our roading network.

"From an ordinary motorist's point of view, if you think it's hard being behind a heavy truck today, you're going to be stuck behind a queue of heavy trucks all the way from Auckland to Christchurch."

University of Otago business lecturer Dr Rob Hamlin said the government did the right thing cancelling the order for new ferries and terminals after the costs blew out.

Such cost overruns were not unique to KiwiRail but had become the norm in this country, he said.

"Just look at Dunedin Hospital, State Highway 1 Northland, Auckland Light Rail, Christ Church Cathedral and the police computer systems, to name but a few.

"The problem is that in the neo-liberal era, contract supplies to the government for all sorts of things have been rewarded for not delivering on budget and not delivering on time.

"When people have a cost blowout, what traditionally has happened is the government has met that cost blowout without any sort of penalty or any kind of question.

"So what you have is a situation where it's become advantageous to have a cost blowout, because that way you make more money."

Governments needed to start doing proper scoping of major infrastructure projects - or do the work themselves as in previous times, Dr Hamlin said.

Meanwhile, KiwiRail's third ferry, Kaiarahi, is on schedule to return to service on 6 July.

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