Two new rail-enabled ferries but price under wraps
Monday, 31 March 2025
Two new rail-enabled ferries are promised for the Cook Strait for 2029 – a year that will see the current fleet working right up to its use-by date.
Rail Minister Winston Peters on Monday pledged the ferries would be “significantly cheaper” than the past Labour Government’s iRex project, but he would not say by how much or whether the project was more expensive than the plan Finance Minister Nicola Willis produced in December.
The savings would be around Wellington port infrastructure, Peters said. He did not reveal the new cost.
The two ferries would enter service in 2029 – the same year the current fleet is estimated to reach its end-of-life. Cabinet had agreed to the package, Peter said.
Prime Minister Christopher Luxon, speaking on Monday afternoon, said Peters had produced “a better plan, and that’s a good thing”.
“As Winston explained ad nauseam … I’m not going to talk about the [funding] envelope, all I can reassure you about and all New Zealanders about is that we have got a deal that is infinitely cheaper, markedly cheaper, than what we saw with the Labour Government's proposal under IREX.
“But I won't go into numbers.”
Each ferry would take 1500 passengers and be able to take 40 rail carriages. There would be 2.4km of lanes for road traffic. Each would be about 200m long.
“Road and rail ferries mean we shunt large freight volumes in a single movement that saves time, and time saves money,” Peters said.
A competitive tender process had shown that “road-only came out as more expensive than road-and-rail ferries”. He promised costs would be revealed once port and ship agreements were signed later in 2025.
Wellington’s port had life left so would be modified and reused while Picton would be replaced, he said. Terminal buildings in Wellington and Picton would remain as they currently were.
“While some may regret the absence of a Taj Mahal in Picton and the Sydney Opera House in Wellington, the people paying their taxes will not.”
The road connections in Wellington and Picton would also be improved, in discussion with local councils.
The Ferry Holdings Board would now shortlist shipyards with the goal of awarding a contract later in 2025.
The current fleet has been give the tick to safely keep operating, with servicing, until 2029.
Labour transport spokesperson Tangi Utikere said additional costs of $1.16 billion could have been avoided if Willis had not cancelled the iRex deal the Labour government had for two new ferries. The iRex ferries were due in 2026.
“All Winston Peters has announced today is that New Zealanders will be waiting another three years for ferries and still have no idea how much they’re going to cost,” he said.
Greater Wellington Regional Council chairperson Daran Ponter was “extremely pleased” with Peters’ plans but said each extra year serving the Cook Strait heightened the risk of issues in the existing three ferries.
“The big issue for me is, what happens when they break down in the Cook Strait,” he said.
The Future is Rail chairperson Roger Blakeley said rail-enabled ferries were a “no-brainer” while Maritime Union national secretary Carl Findlay hailed Peters’ announcement as a “victory for common sense”. Port Marlborough chief executive Rhys Welbourn called it a “significant step forward”.
The National-led Government ditched Labour’s iRex project in December 2023 due to a cost blowout in portside infrastructure. At the same time it cancelled an order for two large rail-enabled ferries and the Government has been working to develop a new plan to replace the Interislander ferries since.
New Zealand’s need for new ferries was highlighted in January 2023 when an 18-year-old part broke on the Kaitaki, which lost all power in Cook Strait with 864 people aboard. It was almost driven onto rocks off Wellington’s South Coast.
While that was the most serious of the issues, the state-owned fleet has a chequered history of issues including the Aratere losing a propeller in the Strait in 2013.