Port consortium pushes on with shorter Cook Strait journey pitch

Friday, 26 September 2025

A port consortium promising to cut the Cook Strait crossing time to two hours is pushing on with its pitch, hoping for an Interislander contract.

CB Port Ltd, which is behind the so-called North South Express and proposed $900 million ferry terminal at Clifford Bay near Blenheim, has this week published back-of-the-envelope calculations of the potential benefit of the project, compared to Transmission Gully.

The CB Port Ltd proposal has so far been pushed aside by the Government as it plans a redevelopment of ports in Wellington and Picton for new Interislander ferries, to arrive in 2029.

However, a “market led proposal” put to NIFFCo, National Infrastructure Funding and Financing, the Government’s agency for private investment for public infrastructure, is being considered.

CB Port Ltd director Stephen Grice said the comparison with Transmission Gully benefits, based on calculations contained in an Infometrics analysis published last week, showed a port at Clifford Bay was an “absolute no-brainer”.

“You're bringing our two major islands an hour-and-a-half closer together in sail time, and our connection between our major cities [Wellington and Christchurch] two-and-a-half to three hours closer.

“That should be a priority for anybody that's looking at how this country develops economically.”

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CB Port Ltd has taken the outcome of the Infometrics analysis of the benefit of Transmission Gully, which has reshaped north-south State Highway 1 travel from Wellington to the Kāpiti Coast, and used it as a basis of comparison for the proposed benefit of the unrealised project.

Where Transmission Gully saves drivers an average of nine minutes a journey, CB Port Ltd said a North-South Express from Wellington to a Clifford Bay port would save 150 minutes.

On an annual basis, that was an estimated 1.9 million hours saved via Transmission Gully to 3 million hours for the proposed ferry route.

Using roading death and accident data for the drive to Picton, the Clifford Bay port could save 3.2 deaths per year and 4.4 serious accidents, CB Port Ltd claimed, figures greater than that saved by Transmission Gully.

At an estimated $900m capital cost, the port would also be cheaper than the $1.25 billion Transmission Gully.

This cost estimate included the building of infrastructure, including rail, to the new port, but not the cost of ferries that would cross the strait.

Grice described his organisation’s planning as “more advanced” than preparations to redevelop the Picton ferry terminal for new ferries. An agreement with winemaker Yealands was also in place for use of its Clifford Bay land for the port.

“To make this a bankable prospect, we're seeking to have a commercial contract with [Interislander owner] KiwiRail as a foundational customer,” Grice said.

“I don't see that as a potential issue.”

Nonetheless, Rail Minister Winston Peters declined to further consider the CB Port Ltd proposal after meeting Grice and economics adviser Tim Hurdle in June this year, the Government having decided to proceed with works at Picton.

The proposal has also been previously dismissed by Marlborough Mayor Nadine Taylor, whose council owns the Picton port, as “an academic exercise, and it's a distraction at this point”.

The NIFFCo process was separate to the ferry replacement project being undertaken by Ferry Holdings.