KiwiRail has confirmed its intention to sell the freight-only Valentine ferry to free-up crew and funding to increase investment in reliable freight and passenger ferries.
KiwiRail initially leased the Valentine to provide additional freight capacity when the Kaiarahi went out of action for an extended gearbox repair in 2021 and was subsequently purchased at the end of the lease in January 2023.
General Manager Interislander Operations Duncan Roy said Valentine had served its purpose to the Interislander fleet over the past eighteen months, providing additional capacity but had not been required consistently.
Keeping her ready for sailing and crewed is taking funding and resource that could be better invested in strengthening reliability in the rest of the fleet.
“With our fleet back up to full strength, we have sufficient freight capacity on the other three ships, so now is a good time to sell the Valentine and realise the financial benefits. It makes good commercial sense,” said Roy.
“It is not operationally practical or commercially viable to have the Valentine on a regular sailing or to maintain her on standby ready for short-term outages.
Roy continued that it already has several measures to enhance resilience in its fleet. Its ship inspection and maintenance programme included more frequent scheduled maintenance breaks, where it takes its ships out of service more regularly for maintenance checks in wet and dry dock environments, and it was instituting a new approach to managing its assets and fleet.
“Having additional crew and funding available from the sale of the Valentine will support the increased focus on delivering reliability in our core fleet until the new ferries arrive in 2025 and 2026.”
KiwiRail would now actively explore market interest with a view to concluding a sale of the Valentine.
