National road freight association Ia Ara Aotearoa Transporting New Zealand has welcomed the Government’s announcement that a Crown-owned company will be established to procure two new Cook Strait ferries, but says freight operators will be disappointed by the lack of certainty offered.

CEO Dom Kalasih says that the Government must move with urgency to establish the Crown-owned company and progress the project.

“Frankly, a year on from the cancellation of the iReX project, we would have expected more progress to have been made towards the procurement of new vessels and portside infrastructure.” 

“We appreciate that the Government has had advice from a Ministerial Advisory Group, Ministry of Transport and transport stakeholders to consider, but today’s announcement leaves a lot of uncertainty for the transport sector, including around cost and rail capability.”

Kalasih said that there were positive features in the announcement that the road freight sector would welcome.

“The establishment of a new Crown-owned company to manage the procurement should allow KiwiRail to focus on the maintenance and safe operation of the existing fleet, which needs to be an ongoing priority.”

“We’re also pleased to see the Government inviting the private sector to put forward alternative proposals for a ferry service during the first stage of the process, up until March. We should be open to different ways of delivering a competitive Cook Strait service for the country.” 

Kalasih says that Transporting New Zealand looked forward to working with Minister for Rail Winston Peters and other key stakeholders to ensure the ferries and portside infrastructure delivered a resilient and cost-effective Cook Strait connection.