Jon Reeves: Public Transport Users Association National Coordinator on the costs of maintaining the Interislander ferries

The state of New Zealand's transport is becoming embarrassing according to a public transit advocate. 

The business case for two new Interislander ferries suggests maintenance costs for the current fleet will continue to rise and could soon reach $65 million a year. 

Plans for new ships were called off by the Government due to ballooning costs. 

Public Transport Users' Association National Coordinator Jon Reeves told Mike Hosking that he hopes it can be re-negotiated. 

He says a $100 million penalty fee would still be worth it to start building ships. 

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Yes, Dad, five hundred thousand people in America are legally
and Big Joe says, come on in, and you wonder
why it's an election issue. Richard Arnold with more on
that shortly. Meantime. Back here, the focus this week has
been on old planes. Don't forget about the old fairies.
We've got some of those as well. Kee we Rail
now estimate annual maintenance costs for the inter Islander could double.
The sixty five million dollars. Is the greatest thing the

(00:20):
inter Islander ever did that jingle family? Yes, this was
peak fairy, wasn't it. I mean it wasn't there. The
fairy was never any good, but at least the song
was okay there for a while. Public Transport Uses Association
National coordinator John Reeves as well us John, very good morning.

Speaker 2 (00:37):
To you, Very good morning to you, Mike.

Speaker 1 (00:39):
When were you last on the faerry?

Speaker 2 (00:41):
Well, finally enough, I'm booked on for next Wednesday and
I'm hoping it will go.

Speaker 1 (00:46):
Are you a regular or not?

Speaker 2 (00:47):
Really? About once a year I use.

Speaker 1 (00:50):
It, and of your recent experience, I mean I haven't
been on for years, and it used to be of
moderate excitement and you could buy a drink and some
biscuits and watch television and then see the big swells
and the cook straight and all that sort of stuff.
Is it still fun when it goes well?

Speaker 2 (01:03):
I've been fortunate every time I've used it, I haven't
had the huge swells. I've had quite sunny experiences. Now
I'm not sure what's going to be like next week,
and I'm touchwood hoping that it'll actually leave.

Speaker 1 (01:15):
What do you pay for that? By the way, how
much is a fairy crossing.

Speaker 2 (01:17):
That moving a car across. It's about two hundred and
twelve dollars.

Speaker 1 (01:20):
Wow, that doesn't seem bad to me. Anyway, back to
more important matters, the sixty five million. Are you one
of those people you said we should have gone with
the three or four billion dollar project that the government cancel.

Speaker 2 (01:29):
Look, yes and no, yes and no yes. For the boats,
the boats were a steel at five hundred and sixty
million for the pair. It's really the landside infrastructure which
was just going out of hand, and I agree with that.
Part of what the government's decision was was to cancel that.
They could have upgraded the existing infrastructure. However, canceling those boats.
They were a steel and we simply cannot get even

(01:51):
a used Corolla that's that's usable on that cook straight
for those sort of prices.

Speaker 1 (01:56):
I'm glad you said that. We talked to the unions
earlier on and we came to the same agreement. So
the inside was the problem. Get the fairies. If you
can get some decent feries, that solves our problem for now,
because rightly or wrong that we just don't have three
billion dollars.

Speaker 2 (02:09):
That's right, that's right, So we've missed. Oh look, I
hope the government could renegotiate with HYLANDI right now and
just say yes, maybe we're going to have to pay
an extra one hundred million penalty, which still would be
the cheapest option, would go back and get the fairies
back on construction.

Speaker 1 (02:23):
Exactly because it's getting embarrassing, isn't it with the fairies
in the seven five to seven this week, which is
a yeah you could we look third world?

Speaker 2 (02:31):
Yeah? Well the seven five sevens, right, they actually typify
the same issue with the Entirelanders, except it's easier to
replace the seven five sevens than it is the Entirelanders.
And New Zealand's global image, specially tourism, is tarnished with
very bad and Thailand ferries.

Speaker 1 (02:45):
And of course it's directly linked with tourism as well,
and enjoy trip next week, John, appreciate your time very much,
John Reeves, Public Transport Users Association National Coordinator, Twenty minutes
Away from seven For

Speaker 2 (02:56):
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