WELLINGTON District Court has fined KiwiRail hundreds of thousands of dollars after the company pled guilty to charges laid by Maritime New Zealand over the 2024 grounding of rail/ro-pax Aratere.
The Cook Strait ferry slid up on rocks at the base of a cliff at Titoki Bay in Picton Harbour on 21 June 2024 during a night sailing from Picton to Wellington. At the time there were 39 crew and 8 passengers aboard, none of whom was injured.
The ferry was refloated the following evening. There were no oil spills and no breaches to the vessel’s hull because of the grounding. A Transport Accident Investigation Commission investigation found the grounding followed changes to a safety‑critical steering system on Aratere.
In June 2025 Maritime NZ prosecuted KiwiRail for breaches under the Health and Safety at Work Act 2015 and the company pled guilty to charges under sections 48 and 36. KiwiRail was sentenced yesterday [4 May] in the Wellington District Court, with the judge ordering KiwiRail to pay a fine of NZ$375,000 and $25,000 costs.
Maritime NZ’s investigation found failures in KiwiRail’s change‑management processes and organisational controls, including training and familiarisation, documentation, control of critical steering functions, and bridge resource management.
“Steering systems are safety-critical. The crew must have a clear understanding of how the systems work and how to override any automatic commands,” Maritime NZ director, Kirstie Hewlett, said.
“In this case, there was a clear knowledge gap about how the newly installed steering console worked, including in an emergency.
“This event sends a clear message to operators to ensure Masters and crews are properly trained and provided sufficient time and opportunity to familiarise themselves when introducing safety critical equipment, so that they can correctly undertake all safety critical actions on the vessel.”
Aratere was withdrawn from service last August and sold by KiwiRail to UAE intermediaries for scrap in India. However, renamed Vega, the ship remains at anchor off Nelson awaiting import/export clearances, leading to concerns for the international crew that’s now been on the ship since October.