Latest news with #Aratere
Scoop
28-05-2025
- Automotive
- Scoop
Poor Roads And Ferry Delays A Major Risk To Safety And The Economy
The road freight industry is warning the poor state of New Zealand's roads are having a serious impact on the safety of road users. And there are major concerns delays over replacements for the Interislander Cook Strait ferries could have a big negative flow-on effect for the economy. Billy Clemens, the Policy and Advocacy Head at Transporting New Zealand, says the vast majority (93 per cent) of respondents in the 2025 National Road Freight Industry Survey agreed poor road maintenance is putting truck drivers and other road users at risk. As well, a significant number (84 per cent), believed that regional roads and bridges are neglected, and that delays in replacing the Cook Strait ferries pose a major risk (79 per cent). (The survey was done before the announcement that the Aratere is to be retired in August.) The 2025 National Road Freight Industry Survey of nearly 200 road freight businesses was conducted in March this year by Research NZ on behalf of advocacy group Transporting New Zealand. The survey was also supported by the New Zealand Heavy Haulage Association and Groundspread NZ. It represents the most extensive industry snapshot in over a decade. "The survey painted a gloomy financial picture for business - only 34 per cent of those surveyed expected their financial situation to improve over the next 12 months, and only one in four respondents reported having sustainable operating margins," Clemens says. Health, safety and wellbeing are big concerns for the industry, with 78 per cent of respondents calling for more purpose-designed rest stops for drivers, and 72 per cent saying it was important for drivers to have a good work-life balance. About Ia Ara Aotearoa Transporting New Zealand Ia Ara Aotearoa Transporting New Zealand is the peak national membership association representing the road freight transport industry. Our members operate urban, rural and inter- regional commercial freight transport services throughout the country. Road is the dominant freight mode in New Zealand, transporting 92.8% of the freight task on a tonnage basis, and 75.1% on a tonne-km basis. The road freight transport industry employs over 34,000 people across more than 4700 businesses, with an annual turnover of $6 billion.
RNZ News
23-05-2025
- Business
- RNZ News
KiwiRail weighs 70 job cuts as Aratere ferry retirement looms
The Aratere ferry in the Tory Channel, near Picton. Photo: L C Mortensen CCBY-SA 4 The Maritime Union said KiwiRail is proposing to cut 70 of its members' jobs as it pulls the Aratere ferry out of service. The Interislander's only rail-enabled ship will be retired by the end of August to make way for the construction of new port infrastructure in Picton. Two new rail-enabled ferries are not due to arrive until 2029. Interislander executive general manager Duncan Roy said an employment consultation process was underway. "We will not be commenting on that at this time. Our people have been offered support during this process," he said. "Crewing levels are based on the vessels and the proposed reduction in roles aligns to the shift from three to two ferries." The Maritime Union said the 70 proposed job cuts were in the Aratere's deck and catering departments. Interislander Aratere ferry grounded near Picton on 21 June 2024. Photo: Supplied / Renee Horncastle Further job losses were anticipated for officers and engineers who were members of other unions, it said. Union Wellington branch secretary Fiona Mansell said the announcement was a massive letdown for the crew who had worked hard and delivered on the ageing ferry fleet. "This decision rips the heart out of our maritime workforce, leaving dedicated workers and their families facing an uncertain future. It's a betrayal of the people who keep our country connected," she said. She said the job losses would be a significant blow to New Zealand's seafaring workforce and have a devastating impact on its maritime resilience. "No thought has been given to what KiwiRail will do when it requires more crew for its new vessels in the future," Mansell said. KiwiRail said the pending retirement of Aratere was happening to make Picton's wharf available for redevelopment in time for the arrival of new ships in 2029. "It is no way a reflection of the work of the hard-working crews on our ferries," Roy said. Sign up for Ngā Pitopito Kōrero, a daily newsletter curated by our editors and delivered straight to your inbox every weekday.
RNZ News
20-05-2025
- Business
- RNZ News
Lobby group members raise red flags over ferry fleet's resiliency issues
The Aratere. Photo: RNZ / Samuel Rillstone Members of public and transport lobby groups are raising red flags about resiliency issues resulting in Aratere's retirement . KiwiRail has announced that the Interislander ship will retire by the end of August and has warned that it would affect capacity for the service with their fleet reduced to two ships. The Aratere is the only vessel in the Interislander's fleet which is rail enabled, which means rail freight can roll on and off it. That means it can't use another wharf in Picton, while port upgrades there and in Wellington are underway for two new ferries set to arrive in 2029. It could also reduce jobs associated with the ships. Interislander executive general manager Duncan Roy advised passengers to book their trips early, especially for peak season around Christmas time. "We don't have full ferries all the time with three [ferries], so we'd expect to have fuller ferries and, probably, people will be travelling at non-traditional times - earlier in the morning, later in the evening," he told Morning Report. Roy would not say whether prices would increase after the Aratere retires but assured there would be no price-gouging. "Nothing considerable... there could be a price increase anytime, but we watch our prices and monitor them like any good business. We work hard to keep the cost down." Interislander executive general manager Duncan Roy. Photo: RNZ / Marika Khabazi RNZ asked Wellingtonians what they thought of the news. Jenna said that it would be annoying to have to travel at less popular times. "Nobody's going to wake up early to go on transport to get somewhere, that's just really annoying actually." She said it would make her think more about flying across Cook Strait rather than sailing. Jackie told RNZ the decision to retire the ferry was short sighted. She said the Interislander ferries were an essential link and it needed to have appropriate levels of capacity. "Really important, and really important that its rail enabled." Evan told RNZ the ferries sailed at "pretty odd times" now. "So, if they are reducing the fleet, it's only going to make things worse." He said it could make people look at other travel options and he was concerned about prices on the service going up. Transporting New Zealand chief executive Dom Kalasih told Midday Report the lower number of ships could have flow on effects if one is taken out of service suddenly. "It is almost a given that a ferry will be out for unplanned reasons and so it's what sort of disruption is caused then and how that's managed." Kalasih said it was not clear yet whether the cost of freight would go up, but that there was increased risk of price increases. New Zealand motor caravan association Bruce Lochore said the Aratere's retirement would make travelling across the Cook Strait "a little tougher". "It's going to be at capacity just about full time and the risk of one breaking down is a concern." Lochore said the fact that there was less capacity meant there was more risk of prices increasing. "We'll just have to watch that, but we haven't had any indication from Interislander that they are looking at price rises at this point." Sign up for Ngā Pitopito Kōrero , a daily newsletter curated by our editors and delivered straight to your inbox every weekday.
Scoop
20-05-2025
- Politics
- Scoop
The Aratere And The New Zealand Main Trunk Line
Government-owned Kiwirail is supposed to be presiding over the New Zealand Main Trunk (Railway) Line, from Auckland to Invercargill. As such it runs a ferry service (The Interislander) between New Zealand's North and South Islands. We are being told by Kiwirail (and see today's report on Radio NZ) that the only rail-enabled roll-on roll-off ferry – the Aratere – will cease operations in August this year, five years before its putative successor ferries will commence operations. At the same time, rail is being revitalised in the South Island, with the Hillside workshops redevelopment. (And see the following on Scoop last Friday: New Hillside Workshops Officially Opened and Rail Workers Celebrate Hillside Workshops Rebirth.) How can this be: simultaneous expansion and contraction of New Zealand's trunk railway under the governance of the same government? There is a simple conceptual solution, which covers both the short run and the long-run. Kiwirail could relocate the Interislander's South Island terminus to Lyttelton, the rail-accessible port of Christchurch. Indeed this should have become policy after the dramatic 2016 Kaikoura earthquake which destroyed both railway and highway around Kaikoura, halfway between Wellington and Christchurch; both road and rail main trunk. Not only is the present route precarious, but also it is so much 'greener' for both road and rail traffic between the North Island and the southern 85% of the South Island (by population) to travel by sea between Wellington and Christchurch. That is, the bulk of interisland vehicle travel undertaken directly by sea is more sustainable than a journey by sea between Wellington and Picton followed by a long 340km Picton to Christchurch land journey. The suggested solution is that The Interislander should operate out of Lyttelton from about 2030, leaving Bluebridge to service the Wellington Picton route. If that were to happen, then the Aratere could stay in service until 2030; because the new facilities suited to the new ships – at least the South Island facilities – would not have to be on the same site as Picton's present rail-ship facilities. Last year I wrote to MPs from all five parties, before it was too late to cancel the shipping order for the cancelled iRex project, including the Labour MP for Lyttelton. Only the Green Party bothered to reply to me. And even they were unenthusiastic about the idea of the Interislander shifting to Lyttelton; their lack of interest came across as more a matter of political priority than as an argument about economics or sustainability. Maybe I am stupid, and I simply cannot see the obvious reasons why a shift back to Lyttelton cannot happen. But I really think we should have a national conversation about the restoration of ferry services between Wellington and Lyttelton; and with the current consciousness about the future of rail being a very important stimulus to that conversation. After all, for over 100 years, before 1960, Wellington to Lyttelton was the essential 'main trunk' link between the two islands. The change-around happened around 1960 because the previous Wellington to Picton service had become so run-down that something had to be done about it. And that there just happened to be a relatively new railhead at Picton. After 1960, the Lyttelton service was doomed to fail when it became a one-ship service in 1968, after the tragic demise of the then state-of-the-art Wahine. Why don't we have national conversations anymore? Everything seems to happen as a fait accompli, narratives driven by unimaginative back-office accountants with short time horizons. And mainstream academics and media simply accept this under-democratic state of affairs. We are still suffering from the infrastructure backlog that escalated in the early 1990s when Finance Minister Ruth Richardson forced many of New Zealand's unemployed and underemployed to emigrate, especially to Australia; all in the name of 'fiscal responsibility'. Some of those people who left for Australia just as its banking crisis was unfolding – especially their children – are drifting back to New Zealand in the 2010s and 2020s as '501' deportees (see Product of Australia, Stuff December 2019, and noting in a chart that more than half of the 501s deported to New Zealand from 2015 to 2019 were aged 26 to 40). Those young (mainly) men could have been building New Zealand; instead, too many became criminals in Australia. And the New Zealand economy regressed for the best part of ten years (from 1985), while the rest of the world was progressing. That period is the source of the now-entrenched Australia New Zealand differential in living standards. Keith Rankin (keith at rankin dot nz), trained as an economic historian, is a retired lecturer in Economics and Statistics. He lives in Auckland, New Zealand. Keith Rankin Political Economist, Scoop Columnist Keith Rankin taught economics at Unitec in Mt Albert since 1999. An economic historian by training, his research has included an analysis of labour supply in the Great Depression of the 1930s, and has included estimates of New Zealand's GNP going back to the 1850s. Keith believes that many of the economic issues that beguile us cannot be understood by relying on the orthodox interpretations of our social science disciplines. Keith favours a critical approach that emphasises new perspectives rather than simply opposing those practices and policies that we don't like. Keith retired in 2020 and lives with his family in Glen Eden, Auckland.
RNZ News
20-05-2025
- Politics
- RNZ News
Midday Report Essentials for Tuesday 20 May 2025
sport transport 21 minutes ago In today's episode, Parliament is staring down the barrel of a protracted debate this afternoon surrounding the proposed penalty for Te Pati Maori MPs who performed a haka in parliament earlier this year, a controversial collision event, called Run it Straight is holding competitions across Auckland this week prompting outrage from opponents, Reduced sailings may mean Interislander passengers have to pay more to cross Cook Strait when the ferry Aratere is pulled from service in August, and a rally on Parliament grounds this afternoon is reminding the Prime Minister of a pre-election pledge - to lower the country's free bowel screening age.
