First British Columbia Ferries, then Washington State Ferries and now New Zealand’s failed ferry services.

In NewstalkZB today:

If you’re an Aucklander, or a visitor to Auckland, you know the Waiheke Island Fullers ferry service is unreliable, often fraught with maintenance, or staffing or scheduling issues. Locals who regularly commute on and off the island by and large hate it – but they’re trapped as Fuller’s has had a monopoly and been their only means to get across the Gulf… up until now, with a new player in town. And God speed to Island Direct that they can make a go of it, get well patronized, and give Fullers a run for their money. But for years now, Fullers has been it and it’s been a rubbish service.

Then we have the Cook Strait ferries. I mean, where do we start? Who would take the gamble of getting on board one of those ferries and expecting that you’d actually get to your destination?  The interislander ferries are notorious, and then just yesterday, we see the reports that “a Bluebridge Cook Strait ferry had to turn back after it hit a wharf as it was leaving Wellington.”  

How does a professional operation whose job is solely to get passengers from wharf to wharf, actually smack into the wharf? So that whacked the wharf and now has a dent in the hull and a hole. A tired and old fleet of ferries doesn’t help, but as reported back in April this year, under the headline, ‘Chaos on the Cook Strait’, “there’s been a decades long history of things going wrong here. 

So how is our infrastructure and maintenance so dire? Why has not enough proactive investment been done? It feels like our approach in this country is wait until stuff breaks, and people are leaping up and down, until you do something about it. That’s certainly how it’s been with the roads too.  

https://www.newstalkzb.co.nz/on-air/early-edition/opinion/kate-hawkesby-when-do-we-give-up-on-public-transport/

As for Scotland’s ‘government-owned CalMac ferries, how are they doing? Well around 500 sailings a day to 50 ports with 33 vessels, average age 23, in far stormier waters than British Columbia, Washington State or New Zealand, 95.4% seasonal average reliability.

Best in the world? Factcheck: https://talkingupscotlandtwo.com/2023/10/01/factcheck-calmac-probably-best-comparable-ferry-service-in-world/