Dear Correspondent  

 

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Minister of Foreign Affairs and Minister for Racing.  

 

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The Office of Rt Hon Winston Peters

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References

Visible links
1. https://www.dia.govt.nz/Proactive-Releas...

Dear Phillip Hart,

I acknowledge receipt of your Official Information Act (OIA) request dated
4 January 2025, in which you requested the following: 

As Minister for Rail, could you please provide the following information
regarding the volume of freight crossing Cook Strait on a ferry

the total annual volume of freight moved across Cook Strait via a ferry
service the total annual volume of freight moved across Cook Strait via a
KiwiRail ferry the total annual volume of freight moved across Cook Strait
on rail wagons the percentage of annual total Cook Strait ferry sailings
that are 'rail enabled'

the percentage of annual total KiwiRail Cook Strait ferry sailings that
are 'rail enabled'

We received your request on 4 January 2025. We will endeavour to respond
to your request as soon as possible and in any event no later than 13
February 2025, being 20 working days after the day your request was
received. If we are unable to respond to your request by then, we will
notify you of an extension of that timeframe.

If you have any queries, please feel free to contact our office. If any
additional factors come to light which are relevant to your request,
please do not hesitate to contact us so that these can be taken into
account.

Kind regards, 

Private Secretary.

Office of Rt Hon Winston Peters
Deputy Prime Minister

Minister of Foreign Affairs

Minister for Rail

Minister for Racing

Private Bag 18041, Parliament Buildings, Wellington 6160, New Zealand

 

 

 

 

 

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Dear Mr Hart
Please find a letter attached regarding your recent request for
information under the Official Information Act.

Thank you.

 

Hei konâ

Angus Hodgson

Private Secretary – Rail | Office of Rt Hon Winston Peters 

Deputy Prime Minister | Minister of Foreign Affairs | Minister for Rail

Minister for Racing
Email: [1][email address]  
Website: [2]www.beehive.govt.nz

Private Bag 18041, Parliament Buildings, Wellington 6160, New Zealand 

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References

Visible links
1. mailto:[email address]
2. http://www.beehive.govt.nz/

Good afternoon Philip

 

We are responding to an OIA request received from the Minister for Rail’s
office and asking for:

 

o the total annual volume of freight moved across Cook Strait via a
ferry service
o the total annual volume of freight moved across Cook Strait via a
KiwiRail ferry
o the total annual volume of freight moved across Cook Strait on rail
wagons
o the percentage of annual total Cook Strait ferry sailings that are
'rail enabled'
o the percentage of annual total KiwiRail Cook Strait ferry sailings
that are 'rail enabled'

Please find our response below.

 

Total volume for freight – KiwiRail does not hold this information, and
Strait Shipping is a private company and not subject to the OIA. However
you may be able to get some data from any shareholder updates that have
been released.

Also, the Ministry of Transport produced data on freight movements around
New Zealand which can be found here - [1]Freight and logistics | Ministry
of Transport

 

Total annual volume of freight carried by KiwiRail – this information can
be found in KiwiRail’s annual report here -
[2]Annual-Integrated-Report-2024-KiwiRail.pdf (page 18 onwards) – last
Financial year, Interislander carried over 1.2 million lane meters of
freight.

 

Total annual volume of freight moved on rail wagons, and percentage of
ferry sailings that are rail enabled.

The Aratere is the sole rail enabled vessel in the Interislander fleet,
and Bluebridge have no rail enabled ferries.  Aratere has 30-32 rail
wagons capability on the rail deck, and up to 24 road units (truck and
trailers) on the road deck per sailing.

The total amount of rail and road units moved by the Aratere, and thus the
percentage of sailings will vary in any single year as a result of the
following:

•            Market demand and growth patterns

•            Number of sailings per day – 1 return, 2 returns or 3 returns
per day

•            Number of total sailings per week per vessel

•            Time of the year – summer peak demands vs winter demands

•            Whether the Aratere or one of the other vessels on the Cook
Strait are out of action for maintenance – both Interislander and
Bluebridge vessels have an impact on this as they all have mandated dry
dock inspections which take vessels off the run for extended periods.

 

As such the total amount of lane meters, and percentage of rail enabled
sailings in any year will vary – depending on the above.

 

The figures on the exact lane meters carried is declined under Section
9(2)(i) commercial activities, as we compete on a commercial basis with
Strait Shipping. However, we can advise that Aratere carried over 650,000
lane meters of freight in the last financial year, and the split between
rail and commercial vehicles on Aratere is roughly 60/40 in favour of
rail.

 

This information has been provided under the OIA, as such you have the
right to seek an investigation and review by the Ombudsman of this
decision. Information about how to make a complaint is available at
www.ombudsman.parliament.nz or freephone 0800 802 602.

 

Kind regards

 

Dave

 

Dave Allard  | Senior Government Relations Advisor

DDI: 027 201 8182
Level 4, Wellington Railway Station, Bunny Street, Wellington 6011 | PO
Box 593, Wellington 6140, New Zealand

[3]Description: Description: cid:image001.png@01D46098.E77643D0

[4]www.kiwirail.co.nz

 

References

Visible links
1. https://www.transport.govt.nz/statistics...
2. https://www.kiwirail.co.nz/assets/Upload...
4. http://www.kiwirail.co.nz/