Transport giant Mainfreight wants rail on new Interislander ferries

The Interislander Cook Strait ferry Aratere. Photo / Mark Mitchell

The managing director of one of New Zealand’s largest logistics firms has warned that replacing the Interislander ferries with non-rail-enabled ships could mean longer, more expensive freight travel throughout New Zealand, putting further pressure on our pothole-riddled roads.

Mainfreight managing director Don Braid told the Herald that his business had invested heavily in connecting its logistics hubs around the country to the rail network. It means that a container can be put on a rail wagon at Mainfreight’s Penrose site in Auckland and seamlessly travel to another rail-connected site in Christchurch, thanks to the rail-enabled Aratere ferry, which currently sails the Cook Strait.

The Aratere is due to be replaced by the end of the decade, along with the other two Interislander ferries. Labour had planned to replace them with two new rail-enabled ferries, but the new Government effectively axed that project by declining Interislander owner KiwiRail a funding injection when costs hit $3 billion.

The Government is currently mulling how it plans to replace the ferries, with a decision promised before the end of the year. Whether the ferries will or will not be rail-enabled is controversial. The rail component of iRex, rather than the new ferries themselves, was blamed for iRex’s astonishing cost increases because the rail components of the new ferries needed large amounts of resilient portside infrastructure built.

But Braid is among rail’s many defenders. KiwiRail itself warned that without rail on the new ferries, New Zealand’s single rail network “would be broken in two... with a separate network in the North and South Islands”, which could have a serious impact on rail’s viability in the south.

Braid told the Herald non-rail enabled options seemed impractical and might add cost and time.

“If they run with a non-rail served vessel... it needs to connect or be able to connect with rail services within the North Island and the South Island,” he said.

Don Braid, managing director of Mainfreight. Photo / Natalie Slade

“In other words, you would have a rail transfer from rail to some other method and then back on to rail at the other end, which seems highly inefficient and costly, when if you had rail-serviced vessels, none of that would occur.

“The time efficiency could reduce the number of sailings available.”

Braid said adding additional time and cost to the crossing would make rail less competitive and see more freight shipped on road to the detriment of the nation’s state highways, which might groan under the weight of more truck traffic. He noted that the inland route between Picton and Christchurch had deteriorated quickly when the rail line via Kaikōura was put out of action by the 2017 earthquake.

“Our roading network, no matter how much you want to spend on fixing potholes or whatever, just would not cope with the volume that would transfer from rail to road if we didn’t have a rail network,” Braid said.

“The amount of traffic destroyed that road between Blenheim and Christchurch,” he said.

Nor was Braid convinced that axing rail enablement would save a significant amount of money. Braid said the state of Picton’s port will require significant investment whatever happens, and “bridging” the practice of taking freight off a train and on to a wagon to put it on to the ferry will require a large amount of portside space, just like the original rail-enabled proposal.

Braid said uncertainty surrounding the ferry decision meant the future of the rail network is vulnerable.

“You’d almost have to say the total rail network is vulnerable,” he said.

Rail freight has declined despite investment. Graph / Transport GPS

Braid noted Treasury advice from 2015 recently published by the Herald that revealed Treasury had advised ministers to at least consider shuttering rail as a means of freight entirely or reducing rail freight to the golden triangle between Auckland, Hamilton and Tauranga.

“That would be disastrous for the whole country,” Braid said.

“A rail network is vital for this country’s transport infrastructure.”

While the Government does not appear to be shutting rail down, its rail plan is directed towards the golden triangle. Transport Minister Simeon Brown’s Government Policy Statement on Transport said the Government would “continue to invest in the national rail freight network”, however it sounded a note of scepticism, including a chart that showed rail freight had been falling, despite considerable investment.

“This Government’s focus will be to invest in maintaining the network between the busiest and most productive parts of the existing rail network – between Auckland, Hamilton, and Tauranga,” it said.

Thomas Coughlan is Deputy Political Editor and covers politics from Parliament. He has worked for the Herald since 2021 and has worked in the press gallery since 2018.