James Smith, National Road Carriers, GM Policy & Advocacy:

While the grounding of the Awatere ferry is unfortunate, NRC is pleased that everyone involved is safe and passengers have been able to disembark.

We understand the impact to inter-island freight will be minimal as the freight supply chain is used to operating without the rail-enabled Aratere. For example, adjusting to compensate when the ferry is on extended dry dock maintenance. Any shortfall in inter-island rail freight will be picked up by trucks and coastal shipping.

Supply chain disruptions are a regular occurrence, fortunately the freight and logistics network is highly resilient, and used to working around the fragile nature of New Zealand’s infrastructure.

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