Photo: RICKY WILSON/STUFFFriday's grounding of the Aratere Interislander ferry shores up long-time calls for investment into the ageing fleet, Marlborough mayor Nadine Taylor says. The Cook Strait ferry is grounded at Titoko Bay near Picton and will likely remain there until Sunday after efforts to refloat the vessel were abandoned. "Both as the Marlborough District Council, who has the harbourmaster authority here, and just as a Kiwi, we want to know that we've got a safe and resilient inter-island ferry service. Friday's event comes on the heels of criticism of KiwiRail by the Transport Minister Simeon Brown about the standards of its ferry maintenance. "We've been talking about the need to provide certainty around what the future of safe, resilient, inter-island travel looks like.

Source: Stuff June 22, 2024 11:53 UTC