{"id":524983,"date":"2026-07-14T04:24:07","date_gmt":"2026-07-14T04:24:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/524983\/"},"modified":"2026-07-14T04:24:07","modified_gmt":"2026-07-14T04:24:07","slug":"peters-asked-kiwirail-to-investigate-backup-interislander-ferry-two-weeks-after-rejecting-idea","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/524983\/","title":{"rendered":"Peters asked KiwiRail to investigate backup Interislander ferry two weeks after rejecting idea"},"content":{"rendered":"

At the time, Peters was asked whether any interim measures to increase capacity were being considered before the new ferries arrive in 2029<\/a>, like in 2021 when KiwiRail leased an additional ferry to secure the key Cook Strait link<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt would not make sense to access a spare vessel for short-term disruptions,\u201d Peters said in a statement on March 12, noting disruption at the time was only planned to be for a few weeks, unlike the months of disruption years earlier.<\/p>\n

\"TheThe Valentine ferry (left) was leased in 2021 to boost freight capacity after Interislander was reduced to one ferry. Photo \/ Mark Mitchell<\/p>\n

But a letter released to the Labour Party under the Official Information Act revealed Peters wrote to KiwiRail on March 24, requesting the organisation \u201cmaintain a constant market assessment of additional tonnage options for the Interislander\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cInterislander customers expressed their concerns directly to us and through the road transport lobby Transporting New Zealand, following the recent Kai\u0101rahi disruption,\u201d Peters wrote.<\/p>\n

He asked that KiwiRail provide an outline of capital and operating costs of a potential additional vessel.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are aware of freight-only vessels on the market in Australia and that the sister ship to Kai\u0101rahi is also on the market\u201d.<\/p>\n

In response, KiwiRail chairwoman Suzanne Tindal said they had earlier told freight customers they did not intend to lease a ship \u201cbecause it was uneconomic to do so\u201d.<\/p>\n

Tindal provided estimated costs for the purchase or charter of an additional ship, based on fortnightly updates and advice from brokers, but the figures were withheld citing commercial sensitivity.<\/p>\n

Labour\u2019s transport and state-owned enterprise spokesman Tangi Utikere said Peters was \u201cnow shopping around for an insurance policy\u201d after \u201cinsisting a backup ship wasn\u2019t needed\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf everything was on track, there\u2019d be no need for one,\u201d Utikere said.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Government\u2019s ferry replacement programme is nowhere near as secure as ministers have claimed.<\/p>\n

\u201cNicola Willis really put the ferries down the gurgler, and now Winston Peters is quietly trying to find a Plan B because he knows the lemon he was handed,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\"Labour'sLabour’s transport spokesperson Tangi Utikere says Peters is being “sly” in looking for an insurance policy. Photo \/ RNZ<\/p>\n

Asked why he instructed KiwiRail to look into an additional ferry, Peters told the Herald there was \u201cnothing wrong with being ready for anything\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn fact, that\u2019s what the public expect of the Interislander. It is right and proper for a ferry business to have its finger on the pulse of the market in case a good deal comes up, hence our letter,\u201d he said in a statement.<\/p>\n

\u201cTo be clear, getting a backup ferry and crewing an empty vessel would be absolutely foolish behaviour, you would only seriously look at that if you\u2019re staring at a prolonged outage, like when KiwiRail got the Valentine vessel in 2021 after the Kai\u0101rahi suffered a gear failure and was out of service for an entire year.\u201d<\/p>\n

Peters said Interislander reliability had climbed to near 100% since he took over the portfolio, thanks to a \u201crobust asset maintenance regime\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat contrasts sharply with reliability of 81% in 2021 and 83% in 2022, but we seriously doubt the previous Government wants to acknowledge their performance.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Interislander service will be down to one ferry for around 80 days while its ageing Kai\u0101rahi and Kaitaki vessels undergo wet dock maintenance in Wellington and hull inspection and maintenance in Singapore respectively.<\/p>\n

Ethan Manera<\/a> is a Wellington-based journalist covering Wellington issues, local politics and business in the capital. He can be emailed at ethan.manera@nzme.co.nz<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"At the time, Peters was asked whether any interim measures to increase capacity were being considered before the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":524984,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[259819,35678,74,13916,42700,16421,138,4194,47117,9641,210643,114726,676,17747,7494,5812,6722,111,139,69,6729,140606,7241,207,18844,39023,2552,215364,14042,131,61,1237,4518,6728,6730],"class_list":["post-524983","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-business","tag-acquiring","tag-additional","tag-after","tag-asked","tag-backup","tag-bolster","tag-business","tag-cook","tag-ferry","tag-idea","tag-insisting","tag-interislander","tag-investigate","tag-kiwirail","tag-less","tag-make","tag-minister","tag-new-zealand","tag-newzealand","tag-nz","tag-peters","tag-privately","tag-publicly","tag-rail","tag-rejecting","tag-sense","tag-service","tag-strained","tag-strait","tag-than","tag-to","tag-two","tag-weeks","tag-winston","tag-would"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/524983","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=524983"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/524983\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/524984"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=524983"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=524983"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=524983"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}