The rail ferry announcement by Finance Minister Nicola Willis today gives little away, but the announcement that Winston Peters is the new Minister of Railways is a promising indication for the future of rail.

However both were vague about absolutes refusing to openly discuss costs or whether the ships will be rail enabled.

Positives are that they will be new ships as second hand ships are unavailable and that they MAY be rail enabled. Willis also says that the costs will be managed and that the project will be cheaper and has been budgeted for.

Of concern is that the ships, at this stage, may NOT be rail enabled, and one has to question whether two only will be enough.

Willis asserts that KiwiRail is “OK’ with rail capable ships, but Niall Robertson, national coordinator of TRAC says, “This is actually not true. KiwiRail planned for high productivity rail enabled ships, and gave a clear list of down sides to not having rail capable ships at the recent parliamentary transport and infrastructure select committee hearing. This included extra handling costs and time, difficulties transferring new wagons, locomotives, track machines and welded rail between the islands”. Robertson added that KiwiRail cannot say that they won’t cope with the alternative as that would put customers off.

TRAC asserts that the new ferries must be rail enabled to maintain a smooth New Zealand Main Trunk Rail journey throughout the country to keep rail traffic flowing freely between the islands.

Hopefully, Minister Peters realises how important this is to his supporters and will see that sense prevails.

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