Government to make Cook Strait ferry announcement today
Friday, 17 July 2026
The Government will be making an announcement today on its plan to replace the ageing Interislander ferries.
It was announced last year the Government would be buying two 200 metre-long rail enabled ferries with upgraded port infrastructure at a cost of $1.86 billion, with the taxpayer shelling out up to $1.7b for the project.
The new ferries are set to arrive in 2029.
Rail Minister Winston Peters has previously told The Post that port agreements between Ferry Holdings Limited ‒ the state-owned company running the project ‒ CentrePort and Port Marlborough would be signed in the middle of this year.
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Questions have also loomed around whether KiwiRail would continue to run the Interislander into the future.
In May Peters told The Post the Interislander will remain taxpayer-owned, KiwiRail is doing a good job and operator decisions will not be taken until port agreements are signed mid this year.
“All of those statements put together should indicate a favourable outcome for KiwiRail remaining the operator but getting the order right of decision-making matters for taxpayers who are our priority.”
He said “people with business experience accept that sign on occurs once the costs of running a business are finalised”.
KiwiRail has said it was the service’s default operator and wanted to run it for another 60 years, but ultimately “it is a decision for ministers”.
On Tuesday The Post reported Interislander ferry passengers will spend about three years using a temporary terminal in Wellington while the current building gets an upgrade ahead of the new ferries.
CentrePort lodged a resource consent application with Wellington City Council and it was expected the temporary facilities would be completed by November.