KIWIRAIL will retire Interisland Line’s only rail-enabled Cook Strait ro-pax Aratere in order to work on new infrastructure for the 2029-expected replacement ferries.
Chief executive Peter Reidy announced today [30 April] that KiwiRail had been advised that work on demolishing Aratere’s decaying wharf in Picton could begin later this year or early next year.
“Aratere requires specific loading and unloading infrastructure so it cannot use the other Interislander wharf in Picton. Building a temporary berth for Aratere would be too expensive in a project where tight cost control is a priority, and risks delaying the necessary infrastructure work in Picton,” Mr Reidy said.
“Therefore, Aratere will be retired this year, and we will work through the detail of that decision - firstly with our own people, especially our Interislander crews. The ship has been a workhorse of Interislander, giving huge service to freight customers and passengers alike since it entered service on Cook Strait in 1999,” he said.
“Moving from three ships to two will mean the loss of some roles but the exact number will depend on the outcome of a consultation process that we will run with our people across Interislander.
“KiwiRail is committed to fully supporting the smooth and successful introduction of the two new ferries, and their required infrastructure, while maintaining safe and reliable freight and passenger services for our customers.
“We will also be talking to customers and other parties about operational arrangements for the transition period to new ships. This will include developing a workable ship maintenance programme once we move to two ferries, and de-risking impacts for the Cook Strait market for the four-year transition until the brand new, larger, rail-enabled ferries arrive. We are committed to continuing to run a safe and reliable service for passengers and freight throughout that period using Interislander’s remaining two ships, Kaitaki and Kaiārahi.”
Aratere is currently due to leave Wellington in late June to go to dry dock in Singapore but KiwiRail is reviewing that plan as and says it will work quickly to give staff, passengers and freight customers certainty as soon as possible.
Although Aratere is currently Interislander’s only rail-enabled ferry, KiwiRail already carries rail freight on Kaitaki and Kaiārahi using an effective road bridging process, the company says.
“Until the new ships arrive, we will continue to move rail freight using road-bridging, but we will invest to super-charge this operation to ensure that all rail freight will be serviced at the levels our rail freight customers need and expect,” Mr Reidy said.
“We are well advanced in planning for a two-ship road-bridged ferry service and we will be consulting with the freight market throughout May on operational arrangements to ensure that we have those plans right.
NZ deputy PM and Minister for Rail Winston Peters supported the KiwiRail board decision, as does the government-owned special purpose company set up to management the replacement program, Ferry Holdings.
“We will not waste one tax dollar on shuffling infrastructure to keep the vessel in service for the sake of it or add any infrastructure risk to our objective of completion in 2029. That would have cost $120 million.
“Building marine infrastructure while ferries are berthing there can't be done. The Aratere berth in Wellington requires work to be done on it, saving the taxpayer considerable money compared to iReX’s brand new infrastructure,” Mr Peters said. “The Aratere berth in Picton will be demolished and a new, double lane linkspan will be built in its place to serve road and rail for the next 60 years.”
“KiwiRail has briefed us on their plans to serve the market in the interim. Goods will still get from A to B by shifting freight on to the Kaitaki and Kaiārahi, making use of coastal shipping for some heavy freight such as grain, and adapting their rail and ferry schedules to best suit the market.
“Passengers will still have capacity, and we may see some evening sailings being busier than normal around Christmas and Easter.
“We know that job losses are hard. KiwiRail advise us that voluntary redundancy will be offered across the wider Interislander team, and they will be seeking redeployment opportunities where possible,” Mr Peters said.