Ia Ara Aotearoa Transporting New Zealand

It’s been a rough time for the ferries getting between the islands this year.

Lately it’s been the turn of Bluebridge to have trouble on the water and the safety and reliability of the Cook Strait ferry services is again being questioned.

In September, the Bluebridge ferry Connemara lost power after leaving Wellington Harbour and had to be towed back to port. It was the latest in a string of mishaps involving the ferries, the previous one being when Interislander ferry Aratere ran aground in the Marlborough Sounds in June.

The prompt response with tug assistance and the professionalism of the Bluebridge crew meant no one was at risk, as I understand ...

It’s all about the roads at the moment, which I am pretty thrilled about.

There have been some things I haven’t been that thrilled about. For instance, I was up in Hawke’s Bay recently talking to local bodies about some roading initiatives I felt were less than helpful, such as plonking large flower planters on road lanes. But more about that later.

The big deal has been the release of NZTA Waka Kotahi’s National Land Transport Programme 2024-2027 which aims to future-proof our roading network and boost productivity. The investment of $32.9b is the largest of any NLTP. Arguably money should have been spent sooner and we’ll still be behind the eight ball.

It’d be a brave person who would ever think winter is a quiet time. That can be a good, and a not-so-good thing.

For instance, we had our South Island seminar in Twizel in June, which has been described by a number of folks as the best industry gathering they’ve been to in years.

There were great presentations, interesting points of view, a bit of banter with the crowd, and a lot of good times. In fact it was so popular, we had to close off registrations early. Our next one, in Napier in early October, looks like being just as informative and fun. 

But while we were in Twizel, things went a bit stern-shaped as the Aratere found itself on dry land...

There may have been no immediate action from the government following the election – New Zealand’s MMP electoral system means it takes a little while for the exact make-up of the new government to be announced – however, in the meantime, Transporting New Zealand has been flat out working on issues that affect our members.

We’re very much looking forward to working together with the new government to get cracking on fixing the transport problems our members have been telling us that impact them the most.

In the months prior to the election, we developed the Election Platform 2023 showing our   position on key transport areas. We also had one-on-one meet...

Transport, especially roading, has become a hot political issue this election – just as we predicted it would. That’s a positive for our industry. However, it’s a shame we have to keep pointing out to government that having a resilient transport network is vital for communities and the wider economy – and having such a network requires investment.

Already, we have seen an array of political promises on transport projects, and we will evaluate them in more depth as the election approaches. Two questions to bear in mind are: Are the proposed projects what we really need or are vital details missing? And: Who will pay for them?

Government Policy Statemen...