Billy Clemens: Transporting NZ Policy & Advocacy Lead on the upcoming Cook Strait ferry announcement

Transport operators are waiting with bated breath for the Cook Strait ferry announcement expected today. 

It's understood the Government will finally share plans for the future of the Interislander service after cancelling the previous project. 

While Transporting New Zealand's Billy Clemens won't speculate on the Government's plans, he told Heather du Plessis-Allan he's hopeful it will ensure the longevity for the vital service. 

He says there must be a competitive market. 

There are also hopes rail is a key aspect of the looming announcement after the Government scrapped plans for rail-enabled mega-ferries a year ago. 

Rail compatible means carriages can be transferred on and off, rather than trains themselves.  

Clemens du Plessis-Allan that operators need a reliable way to transport rail. 

He says rail compatibility would still allow for flexibility but would cost less to build than the previous rail enabled ferries. 

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
So the cook straight ferry d Day has finally arrived.
We should find out this afternoon what fairies the government
plans to buy in order to replace the labor ordered
Korean fairies that they've canceled, you know the ones I'm
talking about this at three billion dollar deal. Joining me
now is Transporting New Zealand's policy and advocacy lead Billy Clemens,
he Billy Ohm or Leada what are you hearing? Are
you hearing two smaller ships at a cost of nine

(00:20):
hundred million bucks with a break fee of about three
hundred million for the existing contract.

Speaker 2 (00:25):
Oh, look, we are reserving judgment on the outcome until
we hear that this afternoon. But look, I think that
what we have been hearing from the government is fairly promising.
Is that the overall costs will be lower than that
of the IRAS projects that hopefully will continue to see
a competitive market across the Strait, and we will also

(00:46):
continue to see rail compatibility across the Strait, even if
that's not rail enablement.

Speaker 1 (00:51):
What does rail compatibility mean? Isn't that what we've already
got where you basically just take the stuff off the
rail cards and put it on the fairies and then
load it back on the other side.

Speaker 2 (01:00):
That's right essentially, So whereas rail enablement will have those
built and rail tracks on the vessels. Yeah, rail capability
and still ensures some degree of fixibility, but it doesn't
have some of those higher higher costs that railed enablement means,
which ultimately result in the i REX project costs, you know,
one of the factors that led to those costs continually

(01:22):
glowing up.

Speaker 1 (01:22):
Believe, if the reports are accurate, nine hundred million for
the new fairies, three hundred for the break fee, then
we're at a cost of one point two billion dollars already, right,
so we're still shy of the three billion, but we
have to still upgrade the port infrastructure, don't we.

Speaker 2 (01:36):
Yeah, look absolutely. I think that the over all i
REX cost was about twenty percent was the firies and
eighty percent was port side costs. So he had Treasury
pointing out that year this is essentially a port side
instructure project with some with some furies tacked on.

Speaker 1 (01:52):
And so if we do the port side to just
you know handle medium sized firies and just you know
not fall into the sea, how much is that going
to cost?

Speaker 2 (02:01):
Well, it'll be the cities that we've had from the government,
as it will be significantly less than that three billion
dollar figure. I think that ultimately what was really expanding
the cost of those facilities was first of all that
rail enablement and the fact there were very very large
vessels that were coming in, but also the fact that
you had one hundred year design life of those facilities,

(02:21):
and so we might expect that to come down somewhat,
but ultimately we hope that we still see a reasonably
well future proof facility because that's that's important for not
just for Intrialander, but for any other competitor operating on
that route. You've got straight en zed at the moment,
which actually got a slightly greaterst year of the overall
commercial vehicle market.

Speaker 1 (02:41):
So Billy really appreciate talking to you. Thank you, Billy Clemens,
Transporting New Zealand policy and advocacy, leading for more from
the mic Asking Breakfast.

Speaker 2 (02:48):
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