THE NEW ZEALAND Government has admitted it may not make a decision on Interisland Line replacement ferries until year’s end, as opposition grows to the likelihood they’ll have no rail capacity.

The Ministerial Advisory Group, appointed in February to consider replacement options after the government last December abruptly cancelled KiwiRail’s iReX newbuilding project due to ballooning landside infrastructure costs handed its report up at the end of June. But since then there’s been a deafening silence from the government over any decision.

Under the iReX plan two large rail/ro-pax vessels would have replaced the current, trouble-prone Interisland threesome but the freight and tourism sectors, especially in the South Island, have become increasingly concerned rail is not part of the government’s thinking.

Finance minister Nicola Willis – who made the decision to cancel iReX – told a media conference yesterday the government was “still taking advice” about the replacements, amidst suggestions the three-party coalition that comprises the government is split.

NZ First leader and deputy PM Winston Peters is actively campaigning for rail retention while community group The Future is Rail has been holding public meetings warning that with the Cook Strait link “the whole South Island’s rail network is at risk”.

In other lobbying, the Marlborough Chamber of Commerce warned of a rise in freight costs, Canterbury University’s Electric Power Engineering Centre claimed road transport emits four time as much carbon per tonne-kilometre as rail, Mainfreight chief executive Don Braid said the company would have to add more than 5700 truck journey per year, and the Rail and Maritime Transport Union said the omission of rail capability would amount to “economic sabotage”.

Minister Willis said any delay in decision making was because “we’re making sure we get this right – the last government didn’t”.

The government and KiwiRail have yet to reveal if any settlement and compensation has been reached with shipbuilder HMD over the cancellation of the iReX ferries.