Editorial: No choice but to fork out more to upgrade Cook Strait travel

The Interislander Cook Strait ferry Kaitaki docked at CentrePort in Wellington Photo / Mark Mitchell

As summer holidays approach and people up and down the country prepare to cruise across Cook Strait, it’s understandable if some are worried about whether their ferry will actually make it.

It’s been a year to forget for our ferries, starting with a mayday call in January, when Interislander’s Kaitaki lost power with 864 people on board and started drifting dangerously close to Wellington’s south coast.

In August that same ship was once again out of action, after a large wave crashed into it during a sailing damaging a door onboard.

Last month, both Interislander and Bluebridge had ferries damaged after hitting the wharf in Wellington - one while leaving, the other arriving. A “weird coincidence”, according to the harbourmaster.

On top of that you’ve got the never-ending disruption caused by strong winds and large swells, exacerbated by old ships struggling to battle a tricky voyage.

It’s no secret both the ferries and the portside infrastructure are in desperate need of an upgrade. In fact, KiwiRail’s been working on this for years, known as the Inter-island Resilience Connection project (iReX).

It’ll see our increasingly unreliable and ageing Interislander fleet replaced with two new rail-enabled ferries.

The last publicly available cost estimate for this was $1.45 billion, but it now seems that’s nowhere near going to be enough. In fact, the cost has “skyrocketed”.

It’s not the new mega-ferries that are in doubt - they’re on track to arrive in 2026. It’s the portside infrastructure, such as terminals, that will enable them to operate.

Greater Wellington Regional Council chairman Daran Ponter told the Herald last week that KiwiRail “must be s***ting themselves” over the escalating cost, and said his understanding was that “lower service standards are now planned”.

Ponter said the Government needs to be “eyes wide open to what is being delivered and commit the necessary funding to ensure reliable passage across Cook Strait as a critical part of New Zealand’s transport and tourism infrastructure”.

And he’s right. We should all be extremely concerned by this turn of events and what it means for the future of trade, tourism and travel in this country.

We are an island nation, and Cook Strait is our State Highway One of the seas. It’s a vital link between our north and south, a critical trade route and the main passage connecting New Zealand.

It’s a crucial tourist route for visitors exploring by campervan and rental car, it’s a journey steeped in history.

Finance Minister Nicola Willis has called the situation “extremely troubling” and said the new Government is “still taking advice” about what to do, with decisions yet to be made.

KiwiRail has also said it will take time for new ministers to consider the project and be brought up to speed.

But no matter how much time they take for consideration, incoming ministers have no real choice but to stump up the extra money needed to deliver this project.

Without it, how can they deliver the desperately needed safety and reliability improvements for those sailing Cook Strait every day?