Picton doesn’t stack up for ferries

What are we to make of the new monster ferries currently being built in South Korea and due to ply Cook Strait in two or three years’ time?

Concerns have already been aired by a number of parties. As a resident of Wellington who has been a Marlborough Sounds regular since 1949, you can add me to that list as well.

First, it’s helpful to know the dimensions we’re dealing with here.

These new car, truck and rail ferries will be leviathans – almost half a rugby field longer and at least five metres wider than today’s interisland vessels.

They each weigh in at 50,000 tonnes. That’s more than a fully laden Titanic.

You can build new berths to accommodate bigger ships. But there’s nothing you can do to widen the narrow entrance to Tory Channel or change other difficult elements of the waterways they will be navigating.

It’s around maritime safety issues that the red flags start waving with these new ferries. As former Marlborough harbourmaster Luke Rogan summed it up back in 2021: ‘‘Bigger ship, more risk . . . more mess, more cost to clean up.’’

I think the root of the problem is Picton. Picturesque it may be, but it has never been an easy port for larger vessels.

Getting to Picton through Tory Channel and the Sounds is one challenge. The tricky winds that sweep across Queen Charlotte Sound and make berthing hazardous is another. Over the years, there have been more issues and mishaps at the Picton end of the ferry run than at Wellington.

Because of their size the new ferries will have to turn and reverse in to their Picton berths from a long way out. In strong winds that will be no easy manoeuvre, according to mariners who know the port well.

Making things more problematic is the roading, car park capacity and general infrastructure of the little town of Picton itself. How’s it all going to cope with the flood of hundreds of vehicles before and after each sailing?

Alot has changed since the plans for these huge ferries were drawn up. If the last few years of cataclysmic natural events have told us anything, it’s that our road and rail networks are incredibly vulnerable.

One of the more vulnerable sectors would be the coastal route through Kaiko¯ura. And yet, because the majority of the road and rail freight carried by the ferries to Picton is bound for Christchurch and points south, that is the route all this cargo has to travel.

Which all points to this: the case for Picton as the large ferry hub simply does not stack up.

Of course, the die is cast to some extent.

These new ships will be with us in a couple of years. But might there be an alternative way of deploying them? What follows is a suggestion I hope will provoke some discussion.

Why not make the new ferries for cars, trucks and passengers only and open up the Wellington-Lyttelton route to them? It will mean fewer trucks on the road, which has to be a good thing. Picton will not miss out.

Two ferries, even supersized ones, was always going to be a slim fleet. What happens when one is up for maintenance?

So as Lyttelton can’t handle rail traffic due to its tidal conditions, one, perhaps two, of the smaller Picton ferries can continue as usual, serving as rail specialists when it comes to freight.

My desire is to find the best way forward. Because in itself, big isn’t necessarily better. It has to be used in the right way.