KiwiRail considers buying second-hand ships for Cook Strait service
KiwiRail considers buying second-hand ships for Cook Strait service
It has blamed poor project governance in part for cost escalations in its Interislander replacement Project Irex, sunk when the government balked in December at rising terminal rebuild costs.
I was on the Kaitaki, on the way back from a kayaking trip in Abel Tasman, when it had it's breakdown, so I know better than anyone the consequences of these ferries failing, but the project to upgrade them was at more than 2x the original budget, and set to increase further when the new government pulled the plug.
If Labour and Kiwirail had managed to keep the project under budget, we'd still be getting the boats, but the project had blown out by more than the cost of the vessels themselves.
The whole thing is a clown show, to be honest.
The question is why there was a blowout. Was the original bid just a foolish pie in the sky number cooked up in order to get the project approved? Was there some problem discovered during the planning phase that caused a blowout?
Beggar can't be choosers, this is why we can't afford nice things etc.