NEW Zealand’s KiwiRail is putting in place alternative Cook Strait freight coverage during the forthcoming absence of its Interislander ro-paxes for wet- and drydockings.
The company is reactivating NZ Connect, described as a managed coastal shipping service for selected freight types, which was last used in the aftermath of 2016’s Kaikōura earthquake which severed the rail line south of Cook Strait services’ southern terminal at Picton.
According to details released late last year, KiwiRail will be forced to run a one-ship service during winter, from 22 June until 26 September while Kaiārahi undergoes in-water maintenance for three weeks and then Kaitaki sails for drydock in Singapore.
There will be a similar, 102 days of one-ship service in 2027 and likely again in 2028, before the replacement rail/ro-paxes are due for delivery from Chinese builders in 2029.
KiwiRail says NZ Connect “provides a simple, end-to-end alternative for moving freight between Auckland and Christchurch including container receival at Southdown in Auckland, cross-town rail transfer to port, coastal shipping, and delivery through to Middleton Yard in Christchurch.
“The service also offers preferential rail rates and access for Interislander customers, weekly scheduled sailings and a single point of coordination, booking, and billing through KiwiRail.”
Despite local speculation NZ Connect involves what would be a resurrection of the former Pacifica container/ro-ro service between Lyttelton and the North Island, the 2026 version will utilise space on ANL-CMA CGM container ships.
KiwiRail executive general manager, freight markets, Alan Piper, said the decision to restart the NZ Connect service was made earlier this year amid planning for the upcoming maintenance period.
“All we're really trying to do is, in a constrained capacity environment, to provide New Zealanders and New Zealand freight customers another option to move freight,” he said in an interview with Business Desk. The NZ Connect services were an “Auckland-centric” offering, which works for ANL as well, “because we're helping them relocate empty containers that they need in the South Island.
”Moving freight through this route should take about seven to nine days, whereas rail freight between the islands takes two or three days.
“There's no doubt that it's slower, but what it's going to do is help people in a period of constraint. It's giving people another option to consider.”
In a newsletter to freight customers KiwiRail said with Kaiārahi in wet dock from 22 June to 13 July and Kaitaki in dry dock from 18 July to 26 September, “we’re working closely with our domestic and commercial vehicle customers to manage freight demand and maintain movement across Cook Strait".
“Capacity during this period will be allocated based on existing demand, with priority given to contracted and time sensitive freight. We acknowledge the recent Interislander Kaiārahi disruption.
“Interislander reliability is at 98.8% for the year and we remain confident in our maintenance programme under which we have:
Increased planned maintenance time • Reduced sailings when required to complete essential work
Engaged independent experts to review key ship systems and risk management
Strengthened how we identify critical equipment and monitor performance, enabling earlier intervention when risks emerge.
“Nevertheless, we’re realistic about old assets and the fact that one-offs will occur. As is our practice, we’ve reviewed learnings from this incident and have increased the lane metres we’ll reserve for freight recovery during peak in the next financial year.
"We continue to strengthen BCP planning and are maintaining an active register of available vessels to ensure we can move quickly should we need to bring down additional capacity in the event that we have an extended outage with one ship in service.”
Separately, crew from Bluebridge’s Livia were able to deploy a rescue boat and quickly recover a person who had gone overboard from the ro-pax in Cook Strait yesterday morning [27 April]. Bluebridge did not make further information available.