Government urged to intervene in Cook Strait ferry woes

By Bill Hickman of RNZ

• Marlborough Chamber of Commerce says uncertainty over the service is hurting the region’s business and tourism
• Stephen Waters says the Government needs to clear up what it’s going to do
• Maritime Union says only luck prevented a tragedy from occurring on the unreliable ships
• Marine consultant John Riding says the shutdown could have been “much more difficult to resolve”

There are fears lives could be lost if the Government does not step in to bring the country’s ailing Cook Strait ferry services up to scratch.

The Bluebridge ferry Connemara drifted for nearly two hours after it lost power on Thursday night.

There were 24 passengers and 13 freight drivers on the overnight sailing when the power cut out just after 10.30pm.

Wellington tug boat Tapuhi was towing the Connemara back to Wellington by 2am today, but it took nearly five hours before passengers were able to disembark at Pipitea Wharf.

Maritime Union national secretary Carl Findlay said it was just luck that prevented the worst from happening, “and also probably the skill of the workers on board those vessels and their knowledge and skill and professionalism”.

Findlay said union workers were anxious about the continuing problems on the ferries and felt the Government was ignoring their pleas to step in.

Across the Strait, the head of Marlborough’s Chamber of Commerce said the unreliability of the ferries was impacting the region’s economic performance. Stephen Waters said businesses were having to look at other ports and means of transport that would bypass Picton and ultimately lead to higher transport costs, which would be passed onto consumers.

He said it was time for the Government to make a clear statement about how it planned to sure-up the beleaguered service after stepping back from the iReX ferry project.

“It’s just not good enough really. The Government has not come out with certainty on how they’re going to solve this problem. They’ve cancelled the project that gave us certainty and now there’s a big void.”

Transport Minister Simeon Brown and Finance Minister Nicola Willis have been approached for comment.

The Bluebridge Cook Strait ferry Connemara had to be towed back to port last night after losing power. Photo / Mark Mitchell

Lucky location

Marine consultant John Riding said conditions were calm when the Connemara lost power and the ship was drifting with the tide at less than 5km/h (two knots) towards the middle of the Strait. He doubted the ferry was ever in danger, but if the fault had occurred at a different point along the route the situation could have been more serious.

“The most difficult part of this route is Tory Channel entrance where the currents are much stronger. A breakdown there is much more difficult to resolve because tugs [which] have to come from Wellington take longer.”

Passenger Glenn Iles was stuck on the sailing for nearly 12 hours, but had nothing but praise for how the crew handled the situation.

“They’ve been brilliant. They’ve bent over backwards to sort everybody out. They were going to put us up for the night and everything, I said, ‘I’ll go walk on for the next ferry and you guys deliver my car and boat over when it can come off’.”

Earlier this month, KiwiRail was forced to pay $432,500 after being found guilty of exposing passengers to risk when the Kaitaki Interislander ferry lost power with more than 880 people on board.

On the streets of the capital, Wellingtonians said they felt for the passengers who found themselves suddenly adrift without power in the middle of the night.

Wellington man Jamie said the incident showed both service providers needed to invest more to ensure the ferries were a safe and consistent link between the North and South Islands.

“Personally, I think it just needs a complete overhaul. I think we need to look at actual proper terminals, proper ferries that aren’t a million years old. Just more reliability, really.”

Bluebridge said it was investigating the cause of the fault.

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