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.
But if you look at public transport in general in this country, we’ve got buses that are unreliable, have a lack of patronage, routes being cut, delays, driver shortages.. all of that only serves to put people off. Then we’ve got violence at bus stops, vandalism, that’s before we get to the trains. They’re in the same category as the buses, often whole routes cancelled, trains not showing up, unsavoury behaviour on trains, a lack of any general kind of professional service.
Just yesterday somebody texted me about their experience on a bus where the driver was asked to concentrate on the road instead of looking in a bag taking their eyes off their driving, and the driver took umbrage and stopped the bus and started yelling at the passenger to get off. When the passenger refused to, the driver then sped up, driving recklessly trying to intimidate the passenger. They said why would anyone put their life in the hands of a lunatic like that?
Now I’m sure for every lunatic bus driver there’s a great one too, but the point is we need consistency. We need buses, trains, and ferries to work, be on time, run to schedule, not crash, for there to be consistency among drivers and for passengers to want to use public transport. Otherwise, we’re never getting out of our cars are we.
Kate Hawkesby is a journalist and broadcaster who hosts the Early Edition show on Newstalk ZB.
5 comments:
Considering the fortune they have reaped from pensioners swanning to and from Waiheke just for a coffee, would expect Fullers to be very careful not to prompt any cut in official support. Benefit conditions in NZ are so attractive with so many soft jobs like cone shepherding or security there is little incentive for diligence from employees at the basic levels.
I live in Devonport and am a regular user of the Ferries.
It seems that recently Fullers have been forced to increase staff numbers based on the size of the ferry. They have had a lot of difficulty finding staff and frankly in off peak times the number of staff seems unnecessary.
This will be hurting their profitability.
Also the Harbour Master has reduced the speed at which the Ferry can cross the Harbour. Before they could speed up (slightly) to make time if they were late.
Granted the Pensioners and their Gold Cards are producing extra income but they, and tourists, are notorious at being slow getting off the Ferries- leading to the being late.
Its also clear that AT wants Fullers out because they want to have total control and, of course the old mantra of public ownership good, private bad gets trotted out.
This is supported by our left leaning media, in Devonports case, our local paper the Devonport Flagstaff advocates frequently for Fullers to go.
Mind you, they also think trams down Lake Rd will work- lol.
Fullers do a good job under these circumstances which look they are contrived to deliberately make Fullers job harder and thus push the case for AT to take over.
We should be very wary of that as AT are not really known for fiscal responsibility and god knows we pay enough for their extravagances now.
Excessive safety regs and cones for example.
And you.can't even get a jet for $500 one way to wlg. You have to get those scary atr's that bump around the sky scaring the passengers as they.are not able to fly above nz's weather.
Many "Moons ago"(long before the Green Party emerged) - I Lived in Devonport, and I too would commute to Down Town Auckland by Ferry - was the better option that travelling Devonport to Takapuna then "try to merge, onto the motorway, with South bound traffic" into the City.
One wet & very misty/ foggy morning the 7.30 travelers assemble on the Devonport wharf'- awaiting the ferry from the City.
Behold it came to the wharf from the East - hello- it should have come from the West! It tied up and "we found out that the young skipper had left the Terminal at City's edge, motored out in to the Harbour, turned right and next thing found himself along side the former Harbour watchtower - turned around and - sighed with relief when he came alongside the Devonport wharf".
At this point, all of us going to the City started to wonder...??
So what I read here, Kate's comment's - it appears that over the years that one operator has taken control and like Air NZ possibly reluctant to let competition into the paddock, now they want out, and I read that maybe competition is not there or not ready to operate.
So Fuller's go, another takes its place - maybe seeking 2 operators might be a "blessing"?
The Ocean Flyer Seagliders will be operating in NZ from 2026, and should finally create more options in ocean transport for NZers. They operate with their hull in the water and fly above the water when up to speed. So if you want to get to Waiheke Island in 10 minutes or less, this might be an option. However ... media as usual hasn't been interested in a positive story such as this one, but only interested in digging up dirt where they can find it.
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