What the Aratere Grounding Means
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4:24 pm, June 22nd, 2024 - 67 comments
Categories: assets, national, Politics, privatisation, same old national, simeon brown, transport -
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The grounding of the ferry Aratere is potentially a political gift to National.
In January 2023, the Kaitake lost power inside Cook Strait while it had 880 people on board. It was caused in part by Kiwirail not replacing key parts.
In August 2023 the Kaitaki had to turn back mid-Cook Strait due to steering issues, with many having to stay overnight on board.
Earlier this year, all sailings of the Kaiarahi were cancelled due to maintenance issues.
In 2013 the Aratere had one of its propellers simply fall off. It was poorly fitted, and had to go to Singapore for 6 months.
And yesterday the steering on the Aratere failed about 15 minutes after it had set off from Picton.
It’s not much of a stretch to consider what losing steering of the Aratere when it was full in the school holidays and while in the middle of Cook Strait would have looked like: potentially at least as bad as the sinking of the Wahine in 1968. That’s the calibre of bullet this government just dodged.
Kiwirial had agreed a fixed price contract with Hyundai MIPO from confirmed funding from the Labour government to replace the 3 ageing ferries with 2 ferries that were 50% bigger each. The change in size required major upgrades to the ferry and rail facilities in both Picton and Wellington. It was called Project IREX. By September 2023 it was nearly fully designed, long-lead materials were ordered, and the hundreds of workers on the alliance teams to construct them were all ready to get going on construction.
Labour were doing the responsible thing of preparing, funding, and executing the replacement of a core piece of infrastructure that keeps New Zealand connected as an actual country. As they had up and down the country for 6 years.
When the new Minister of Finance killed the project in December 2023, it became clear that the Ministry of Transport and Treasury were preparing advice that the Cook Strait Ferry business was being prepared for sale:
Given the difficulties KiwiRail have had with Project iReX, and the fact they have a range of core rail issues to address, raises the question of KiwiRail’s suitability to run the Interislander business in the medium to long term.”
“The Interislander business could be separated into another State-Owned Enterprise or sold via a trade sale.
“KiwiRail would be expected to contract with this business to provide freight services across the Cook Strait, but how this is achieved would be left as a commercial decision between parties.
Treasury documents acknowledged the risk KiwiRail would quit the ferry business altogether if it could not go ahead with the project, but the Treasury deemed this “overstated”.
We have not seen any substantive evidence that not progressing KiwiRail’s preferred big ship approach to Project iReX would materially impact KiwiRail’s ability to continue with its current Interislander operating model.”
“Even if KiwiRail did indicate its preference to exit the market, ministers could, at that time, consider options to ensure an ongoing resilient inter-island connection, either involving KiwiRail or other providers.”
The Treasury advice leading up to the Ministers’ December decision is here.
Naturally Treasury and MoT fail to mention that while the big upgrade was going to cost nearly $3 billion for a multi-decade underinvestment in renewals, the Interislander service carries about $15 billion in trade every single year. In both trade and travel, it is as core to the connection of New Zealand as a country as the Transpower Cook Strait cable. So New Zealand might just miss it when National fail to invest to keep it going.
Once the operational crisis is overcome in the next day or two, Ministers Willis and Brown will simply agree that Kiwirail are not competent to run the ferries, and will propose that the private sector could do a more efficient job of it. They will sell it for what they can get which will be nearly scrap.
Until the Interislander business is sold, and then until the private sector can find the billions required to upgrade the terminals and ferries at the same time, and run a profit, and then after several years build them and run them, that is an entirely untested assumption in which a national transport and logistics lifeline is put at risk to the marketplace.
That means more very high risk Interislander failures will fall on this government, and it will be their fault, and they will get roasted for it.
Some may remember the result of the 1993 sale of NZRail to Wisconsin Central Transportation, Berkshire Partners, and Fay Richwhite for $328m. It was run into the ground, and finally bought back by the next Labour government for $1.
It has taken nearly 3 decades since then to revive rail in New Zealand. Ready for sale again.
The Minister of Finance is clearly seeking further savings across the entire public sector. Kiwirail, unlike NZTA, is run as a commercial business. No one took the step to protect Kiwirail from sale by integrating the two networks into a single entity so that they could act in the common good of New Zealand.
But in the merciful absence of mass deaths and a sinking this week, the failure of the Aratere and the death of IREX’s replacement programme is a singular political gift to this government.
And if they can prepare so early to sell Kiwirail in chunks, then Transpower is next.
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All the Government has achieved from its announcement today is to continue to push responsibility back on councils for its own lack of action to help bring down skyrocketing rates. ...5 days ago
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Labour is urging the Prime Minister to walk the talk and support legislation combating modern slavery. ...1 week ago
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The Government has done the right thing in moving to ban greyhound racing. ...2 weeks ago
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When nat supports (I've had 2 today) parrot the line that we couldn't afford irex and the ferries point out that basically its 100 kms of movable highway,railway and bus way, all in 1, , and that national have $16 billion for rd building.
The OP is a reasonable take on what National (plus ACT) may want to do, but would Winston wave it through? It would be his final legacy, a deeply ironic and contradictory ending to his career. So, I doubt it.
Not quite sure what you mean there ob. Are you saying Winston will not be prepared to "wave it through" because it would be a negative ending to his career? I despise the man but would be prepared to upgrade my opinion of him [ever so slightly] if he did prevent it from happening.
Yes, I'm saying Winston would block it.
Back in the day, Winston was prepared to bring down a government about the sale of Wellington Airport shares. Now, the Council is selling out its remainder.
Back in the day, Winston made a huge deal about building rail to Marsden Point. Now it's mothballed.
And Jones is outnumbered in Cabinet.
This ditch crossing is iconic to kiwis. The others are not.
https://x.com/meco78526/status/1804328966372888757/photo/1
Winston Peter's 2020
for those without to access elmo's site
TY
Iconic within critical infrastructure like "Toyota"
https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/tide-starts-to-turn-on-nicola-willis-over-kiwirails-cook-strait-mega-ferries-georgina-campbell/Y34AG3V6ZVFO7PPFS4KEMKHYM4/
I'm I the only one that think she sounds like an idiot still using here Ferrari/toyota sound bite?
I know; it's delicious in its political stupidity.
I was at a dog trail dinner recently and she popped in ,you'd think very safe ground for a lead nat pollie, one hardcase yelled at her , why are my interest rates so high, causing rapid departure. 😁
Wasn't me btw
https://archive.li/PlZcf
Clues
KiwiRail maintaining safe standards and government investment in new ships, but no guarantee of future KiwiRail management or state ownership. This is an indication of a continuance of rail freight capacity. But no more.
https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/kiwrail-and-interislander-bosses-to-front-media-after-vessel-runs-aground-in-south-island/ZTI5DATV6VBYHD6664YZTKRDDM/
Doesnt help that the govt can point to Bluebridge who seem to have far fewer issues.
I do think Kiwirail needs a clean out, seemed even Grant Robertson was getting more than irritated at the endless cost blowouts and requests for more money for Irex. It seems to me Kiwirail were behaving in a fairly underhanded way to get what they wanted, or they set out to start a project that they new would never survive a change of govt…
Probably they won't point too closely. Bluebridge started new ships on the route in 2010, 2015, and 2023 and replaced their older ones.
If the National party had been competent at running our national infrastructure then they would have financed the replacement of port rail facilities that are nearly as old as I am, and started the upgrade on ferry services in during the Key years.
Instead the Key government wasted infrastructure resources on roads of significance to National (ie economic white elephants). Looks good to the economically incompetent, wear out fast with heavier trucks, requires continuous expensive and major maintenance payments from car owners, and provide virtually no economic value. Pays not to drive in the left lanes of the older sections of the Waikato expressways with their truck ruts.
Since there is no actual progress towards decent ferries from the incompetence of National, I'm expecting the passenger and truck transport should be dumped within a few years by Kiwirail as the existing ferries go past end of life.
Kiwirail should just concentrate only on their own business of rail and only look for rail transport ferries. The safety issues diminish on old gear when passenger freight is removed, and I can't actually see a need for them to assist their competitors in trucking.
Personally I don't think that any of the the ferries are particularly economic, including Bluebridge, long-term. Coastal shipping is probably more efficient for bulk. Flying is faster for people.
It has always been part of the national infrastructure and should have been treated and funded as such.
The group set up to advise government wants replacements that are not rail enabled.
And it looks like they will set up a new SOE to run them (using them not being rail enabled as an excuse) or a private operator. They would charge rail freight extra because of a greater cost of transfer (thus encourage off rail onto road).
Labour would have to buy them out to use KiwiRails port facility and bring back a rail enabled ferry.
If my memory is correct Kiwirail were going to scrap the electric locos and replace them with diesels until the government (Clark?) told them to pull their heads out. Kiwirail is not run by the sharpest knives in the block.
We need the wise heads of Julie Ann Genter and Dharleen Tana to get this sorted asap.
SPC said above:
https://archive.li/PlZcf
I believe that was while Genter held responsibility in an associate transport portfolio.
Bluebridge did not have many if any problems until it was sold to a Hong Kong ( I think) investment company and the inevitable cost cutting has led to a diminished service. A mate who is a senior marine engineer on the Interislander straight ferries said that the cheap option , particularly in engines from Spain and the cheap option for gearboxes are the main causes for most of the trouble all dating back to the late 90s and quess who was running the country down then.
my bet is that the CCP is lining to buy it as a part of their Belt and Road concept. These incompetent dickheads have to go.
https://archive.li/PlZcf
Bluebridge also didn't have to build it's own wharves, etc.
I'm still of the view good assessments should be done for infrastructure as to a split of private good and public good. Public good to be funded through general taxation and private good through ticket sales, petrol taxes, etc.
The notion that rail has to make a profit just suggests that rail is only a private good which is just plain silly.
Thanks for that SPC.
"Kiwirail sold for $328 million and bought back for $1" I think it might have been the other way round AD. Richard Prebble sold the railway system for a measly dollar and when Helen Clark was forced to salvage the situation the Government paid $328 Million for an asset stripped and unmaintained wreck of a railway.
The National government sale was in 1993.
Cullen bought back the track system for $1 in July 2004.
Very good observation Advantage. As the day wore on, it became obvious to me the Kiwirail Inter Islander is heading for privatisation and this incident will be used as an excuse. Never mind there was a plan for replacement that Nicola Willis scotched and was talking nonsense about Toyota Corollas. Never mind that Bluebridge has not been incident free. (look it up!) , never mind who has to pay for the terminals, never mind that our only rail enabled ferry is now out of use, never mind that we are supposed to be a connected country between North and South on SH1. And of course never mind that we have tried this once before with the sale to Wisconsin, Trans Rail and all the ugliness that came with it.
Isn't this unfortunate incident a perfect opportunity to show voters an alternative way forward?
Highlight what Labour had budgeted for (the two terminals and ferries) a multi generational plan.
Show the narrow and limited the fiscal vision of Willis and co is, let alone the fiscal irresponsibility of scrapping the ferry builds at a cost of $400M so far. I understand the Kiwi taxpayer is paying for storage of the steel sitting in Hyundai's ship builder yards.
Another useful aspect of this, as BG says below, is the contrast of Roads of National’s Significance, $16B vs new port, new ferries at $3B.
I disagree Ad. I think the grounding is a disaster for the government.
They will be seen to have cancelled new fit-for-purpose ferries (including rail enabled) and land infrastructure that would be useful for 2-3 generations, at a time when replacement (and better) ferries were desperately needed.
The new ferries and infrastructure were budgeted at $3 billion which is a bargain when compared with Nationals $16 billion for Roads of National Significance.
This is a major cock-up by the government.
It's refloated already.
The Minister is doing a full offload onto Kiwirail, continuing what he's been doing this year.
https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/interislander-ferry-refloat-attempt-begins-transport-minister-very-disappointed/4HQ4TPI4TJGLNCKB6ZC4GGJVPM/#google_vignette
Brown plays the ball with fast hands.
These are desperate distraction tactics because of the COC's senseless decision to cancel the ferries and infrastructure. The opposition should make hay in the media tomorrow.
Considering the "Megaferries" were each BIGGER TONNAGE than "TITANIC" cancelling was a sane move! AT 40 M longer than existing boats Manovering in the sounds could be CRAZY! & considering the grounded ferry had JUST HAD NEW STEERING! what muppets do we have …& NO operational backup! …was ANYONE "at the wheel?" ??? The channel is VERY TIGHT!
New steering? Reports I've read said Atatere had maintenance but because required new parts were eight weeks away they fitted used parts which seem to have failed.
Yeah, and did ANYONE "hit the brakes?"
//
I've seen some really stupid shit about the ferries over the last 24 hours.
This however, comes close to winning the prize!
They must have been readying for this.
But all the coverage I’ve seen has foregrounded locals sheeting it home in spades to the PM and his government.
Chance to set a marker here and be strong about not selling crucial infrastructure.
Challenge the government to promise to do the same and properly invest in it. Play up that this is State Highway 1. It’s the Main trunk line (but don’t emphasise). It’s 15 billion dollars worth of freight a year. It’s our reputation and credibility as a tourist destination. If New Zealand is held together by a PPP of privatized foreign sticky-tape what happens when it goes wrong? Look at Transmission Gully. Look at all the leaky homes of Auckland. There’s no use now pay later. There’s only pay, pay, pay with PPP and then when the going gets tough they hit the road. They’re there for a buck, not for NZ.
That’s why we have government. The members in the National Party think we’ve forgotten their failings. They think they can sell us the same crap in a new box- it still stinks! They want someone else to do government. It’s all a bit hard investing in the country.
They wanna be like the raiders of the 80s- suck out our money, give it to their mates and then charge us for what we already owned. They want to use NZ like an ATM for their pals once more. Investing in the country is not ill-discipline. Refusing to invest before it’s too late is.
Yes a gift for the opposition here. Lets hope they unwrap this one.
Agree tc….people from Labour and the Greens should be banging on about this on Morning Report tomorrow consistent with my post above.
The new ferries were still years away, kiwirails problems are still well within range of the last government,
Know a couple of ships masters that bring large vessels into NZ incl Welly they are fairly critical with regards the new / cancelled larger ferries. In short they were too big, the increased windage makes them difficult to berth with roughly 60 days of 100kph + winds per year.
Seems to me it would have been better to stick with 3 smaller easier to handle ferries tham 2 larger ones.
Have you seen the size of the cruise ships that come into Welly?
Yep, but they're far less frequent and at a far more favorable time of year weatherwise. If wind makes docking unsafe they'll sit at anchor in the harbor and use a tenders to get passengers to shore.
Ferries running to a strict timetable in Wellington need to be able to dock in 100kph + winds which are pretty damn regular in spring.
I think the new ferries, such as the ones ordered by Labour, would have much better hi-tech maneuverability, similar to cruise ships. My guess is that this would have made them perfectly capable of using the proposed docking infrastructure. This would have been considered as part of the contract.
Having said this, the guy Pete Beech, who just spoke on Midday Report on RadioNZ on behalf of a Sounds watchdog group has a point that using Tory Channel is more dangerous than using the other entrance to Picton.
https://www.rnz.co.nz/national/programmes/middayreport/audio/2018944007/dodged-a-bullet-guardian-of-the-sounds-on-aratere
I worked on a semi submersible oil rig, 30 years ago, it was capable of holding position without anchor in the biggest storms the edge of the artic circle could throw at it, I reckon they can get mid sized boat to dock in a stiff breeze.
This should be obvious.
They need to lease a tug boat that can help out the ferries, this until they replace them with new ones.
There needs to be an ocean going tug of sufficient size in Wellington at all times, yes it will be underutlized but given we're running a passenger ferry in one of the worlds most dangerous waterways is flat out negligent. At the moment the closest big enough tugs are based in aussie, if we're lucky one might be working in the Tarankai gas fields so maybe a days steam away.
They are at least ocean going, but salvage capable?
https://www.stuff.co.nz/dominion-post/news/wellington/131098301/tug-concerns-in-kaitaki-mayday-highlighted-long-before-ferry-drifted-towards-rocks
Not even close to capable in mildly adverse condtions theyre just not big enough. We need something that could hold a ferry in 60knot winds and the big currents in the straight.
They werent big enough to shift the tanker that grounded by farewell spit either. In that case there was a big tug working the gas fields which came to the rescue. We really are courting a maritime disaster not having something capable of rescue / salvage of large ships.
If they had made the decision to relocate the ferry berths to Cloudy Bay, as was once investigated, they wouldn't have to steer through the difficult Tory channel.
Where they planned to put it at Marfells beach is a very exposed coast and would need a huge twin piered breakwater to get the ships birthed.
That Cloudy Bay idea went through a lot of drafts over multiple years, back when it was MED, and various Kiwirail Boards, and Treasury, then MBIE.
What really killed it was the Kaikoura Earthquakes.
It just kept running into problems that were too hard.
They "investigate" that about every 10 years. And the old salts rip it apart. The only trouble is that the old salts are dying off and there are fewer and fewer people with the maritime knowledge anymore to stave off the bean-counters.
What an opportunity just fell.
A justifiable reason to replace the board with loyal Nat buddies, who will throw their hands up in feigned horror, declare that only a private sector owner could possibly make it work, then sell it to other mates for peanuts.
And all in a package the public will believe.
IMHO.
You could well be right ? However the ones that were there, if not Nat friendly, IMO did not seem particularly RAIL (or Ferry either ) friendly !
Also there is this….
How many refreshes ?
In my own experience, and seeing/reading others same World wide (over a long working life), Boards, CEO's, GM's et al are quite often clueless fwits…..who have little if any practical experience..or common sense.
One thing they do excel at….moving on. Very often after some carnage/restructuring : (
But at little personal loss…..
If you're going to ground a ferry then the captain did a bloody good job. Nose on, stern in the deep. I guess they have all thought about where they would put it, if worse came to worse. But they were also incredibly lucky with the weather – flat calm.
A steering failure though? – not sure if humans had any input as to where/hot it grounded.
A few commenters saying the ferries are too big for the sounds. Don't large cruise ships go through the sounds, and also go into Milford Sound, Dunedin (Otago Barbour, quite narrow) and into Lyttleton. Modern ships have very good steering capabilities.
Log ships go there.
Much less manoeuvrable, and much less reserve power than ferries.
I assume the steering system is some sort of rudder system and that they have multiple screws that they can power independently to do some modest steering.
I would presume the crew would train for all conceivable malfunctions in the same way aircrew do in a simulator. Loose power or steering at any point down Tory channel or in Wellington harbour and there would be a rehearsed procedure to safely deal with the situation.
The simulators exist, Nelson Polytech has one
There is.
But no procedure/training, can solve several tens of thousands of tons losing power or steerage at the wrong moment.
Anything mechanical can break down. Ships do have duplicate and emergency steering, and emergency power generation for it, but it takes several minutes to set up and get working.
Any more than you can avoid a crash if your car suddenly loses steering on the motorway. Or a 747 can abort takeoff after V2 if engines fail.
Full astern until vessel stops. Not much more they could do.
I think we all mean Clifford Bay…
After the Kaikōura earthquake they were surprised to find that one of the major fault lines, of 17 or 18 that let go, ran right underneath where the proposed terminal was planned to go…oh bugger. Incidentally during the quake the cape Campbell lighthouse a few kms south of there went up over 9 metres and eventually settled at about 4 or 5 higher than previous. Obviously bugger all geotechnical brainpower went into that little effort. On the plus side sea level rise shouldn’t be a consideration for a few centuries.
Prebble remembers learning two things when a Minister.
1.movement of goods is a clue as to the state of the economy.
2.the importance of rail freight capability
https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/national/520436/aratere-ferry-failure-final-straw-for-residents-farmers-and-truckies
He clearly doesn't remember his complete sell out to all the faithful Labour voters in the 80s.
Jumminy Ricky P
Don’t forget to tell your party
they been out here saying Trains baaaaad woke Trucks goooood maan man