Dire Strait: Ferry passengers waited 5 hours on the phone to Interislander

Some ferry passengers had to wait on the phone for five hours to get through to Interislander when Kaitaki sailings were cancelled for weeks on end, the Herald can reveal.

On January 28, the ferry declared a mayday with 864 people on board when it lost power in Cook Strait and started drifting towards Wellington’s South Coast.

After being given the all-clear to take passengers again for the first time in five weeks, Kaitaki was back sailing for less than 24-hours before a problem with its gearbox was discovered on March 4. Passenger sailings finally resumed on April 12 after repairs.

A ministerial briefing from KiwiRail chief executive Peter Reidy, released to National under the Official Information Act, has revealed some customers waited up to five hours on the phone after their sailings were cancelled.

This was in the initial stages of the disruption and the average call wait time was down to 40 minutes when Reidy provided the briefing on March 20.

“The pressure point for the disruption is managing passengers. This is due to wholesale and freight customers being more flexible with fewer contact points to rearrange sailings,” he said.

The timeframe for Kaitaki’s gearbox repair was uncertain and Reidy said the return to service date was being continually reassessed as new information came to hand.

KiwiRail’s approach to cancelling passenger sailings was to do so in tranches, every two days, and about four days in advance of scheduled sailings.

This was so Interislander’s call centre had the capacity to book alternative sailings or give refunds to passengers.

“Cancelling bookings in larger batches would negatively affect customers who are closest to sailing, as their rebooking call wait times would be significantly longer,” Reidy said.

“Cancelling bookings before a decision can be taken on the likely reinstatement date would also negatively affect customers who would not have needed to be disrupted.”

Interislander operations general manager Duncan Roy told the Herald their external call centre provider was contracted to boost its capacity and eventually doubled the number of operators available.

Depending on the demand, Interislander had anywhere between 3 and 15 people taking calls each day, he said.

Wait times were reduced to less than an hour and by the last week of cancellations to a matter of seconds, Roy said.

“At the same time, we worked to rebook customers on alternative sailings in order to avoid the need for them to phone the call centre and rebook.

“This reduced the pressure on the call centre, and waiting times for customers. During this period we succeeded in rescheduling 76 per cent of our affected customers onto other sailings.”

Interislander was working through options for increased call centre capability for surges caused by any future disruption, Roy said.

National’s transport spokesman Simeon Brown said the fact Interislander customers had to wait up to 5 hours on the phone to rebook following cancellations showed how chaotic the situation has been for the service.

“The Government has spent $8 billion on Kiwirail but has failed to ensure they are focused on the basics of running a safe and reliable service causing significant disruption for thousands of commuters and one of New Zealand’s most critical transport connections.”

Last week Auckland and Wellington train commuters were thrown into disarray due to separate faults and scheduling issues on KiwiRail’s network.

The Government has launched a rapid review into KiwiRail and whether it is appropriately focused on delivering reliable commuter services.

“The disruption of Wellington train services this week is not good enough and follows other similar instances of service disruptions to commuters on KiwiRail’s network,” Transport Minister Michael Wood said at the time.

The Government has also invested $430 million in two new mega-ferries to replace the increasingly unreliable Interislander fleet. They are due to arrive in 2025 and 2026.