Dire Strait is an investigative series on how our inter-island ferries came to be in such a state of disrepair - and how the situation can be fixed.
One in five Interislander sailings were cancelled last month amidst a difficult period for the Cook Strait ferry service - but it was significantly worse last year, the Herald can reveal.
In March 2022 twice as many sailings were cancelled - two out of every five.
The disruption figures were provided to National’s transport spokesman Simeon Brown after a written parliamentary question.
“The reliability of the Interislander ferry service has been an embarrassment for our country considering it is a critical link between the North and South Islands,” Brown said.
Meanwhile, the Commerce Commission has now received 16 inquiries relating to services by Interislander and rival operator Bluebridge, including the complaint lodged by Consumer NZ claiming they are misleading passengers about their rights.
KiwiRail said the disruption figures were based on planned sailings and may not capture extra sailings put on to accommodate passengers. The data does not reflect sailings where capacity on existing services was increased.
The disruptions at the beginning of 2022 reflect the fallout from when the Kaiarahi’s gearbox was catastrophically damaged, taking the ship out of action for an entire year.
“Timetables are set a year in advance and a ship not being available has a material impact on the figures,” KiwiRail said.
Cancellations also spiked in August and September when the Interislander was reduced to just one passenger service. The Ararete and Kaitaki needed maintenance and the Kaiarahi’s gearbox still hadn’t been fixed.
Disruption in February this year came after all four engines on the Kaitaki shut down and the ship drifted a nautical mile (1.8km) towards Wellington’s south coast before the ship’s anchors held and power was restored.
Passenger sailings on the Kaitaki were put on hold for five weeks before KiwiRail announced they would resume. However, a problem with one of the Kaitaki’s gearboxes was identified the next day taking the ship out for at least two weeks.
KiwiRail operations general manager Duncan Roy said like any sea-faring service, sailings could be affected by any number of things, including weather, Covid-19 impacts on staff and mechanical problems.
Interislander has processes and procedures in place to deal with this, Roy said.
“External factors such as weather affect sailings, and we won’t sail unless it is safe to do so, with passenger comfort always a consideration.
“In terms of mechanical issues, we have regular maintenance and inspection procedures, redundancy systems should an issue occur, monitoring of systems while the ship is operating, regular scheduled maintenance periods including wet and dry docks, independent checks by the Class Authority and Maritime New Zealand, and highly trained crew.”
Roy said crewing levels met maritime regulatory standards and Interislander does not sail below these levels.
Interislander was actively looking to promote within its workforce, as well as recruiting internationally for key positions, which was paused during Covid-19, he said.
“This will add further resilience to Interislander’s operational reliability.”
Interislander’s on-time performance was 74 per cent against a target of 88 per cent in the 2022 financial year.
Brown said the Government needed to proactively work with KiwiRail officials to ensure the service was operating as reliably as possible so that people and freight could move efficiently around the country.
“The Minister of Transport also needs to talk to the Minister of Immigration to ensure the Interislander is able to access the workers it needs to provide a reliable service. Otherwise, the Cook Strait will continue to be the biggest pothole in State Highway 1.”
Transport Minister Michael Wood, who is also the Immigration Minister, has acknowledged how frustrating the situation is for customers and said it was the result of the age of the vessels in the fleet.
“When we came into government we moved quickly to replace the vessels, with work now under way on two new vessels now in Korea.
“Unfortunately not all governments have been willing to tackle the hard issues, so we have to work with the current fleet until the new vessels begin coming into service from 2025.”
Wood has also met the KiwiRail board to seek assurances it is taking the situation seriously.
Commerce Commission fair trading general manager Vanessa Horne confirmed the agency has now received 16 inquiries relating to the Interislander and Bluebridge.
“We are currently assessing the information, which looks at the nature of allegations and whether they potentially raise a concern under the Fair Trading Act. Following our assessment, we will decide whether to open an investigation,” Horne said.