The Government's independent advisory group has recommended brand new Cook Strait ferries, similar in size to the current fleet, 1News understands.
Last week, Ministers received a report from the group in which it's understood options were laid out for the specifications of the new ferries and when they could arrive.
The group has recommended that the ferries be smaller than the proposed iRex ferries and not rail-enabled, although rail would still be able to be shunted onto the vessels as often happened now.
It's understood secondhand ships were not an option on the table. But Ministers were said to be considering whether KiwiRail would buy the ferries or a different entity would handle the purchase.
Ministers have been handed a report laying out options for the specifications of the new ferries and when they could arrive. (Source: 1News)
The Ministerial Advisory Group, chaired by Nelson airport boss Mark Thompson, was set up to give the Government independent advice after Kiwirail's iRex project was scrapped last year.
The project would have delivered two much larger ferries by 2026 but the cost blew out. In December, Finance Minister Nicola Willis announced it wouldn't give KiwiRail the extra $1.5b it was asking for — saying the total cost of the project could be as high as $3.2b.
Willis said at the time: "Ministers do not have confidence that there will not be further increases and are concerned about the continued significant cost blow-outs and the changing nature of the investment they are being asked to make".
The need to replace the current fleet of aging ferries has been underlined by a series of incidents in 2023 and 2024, the latest being the grounding of the Aratere on Friday night.
At a press conference in Auckland on Sunday, Prime Minister Christopher Luxon spoke of the need for new vessels on the channel between the main islands.
"This Government is absolutely committed to ensuring that we can get great new ships on the Cook Strait, it's a critical piece of infrastructure and it's important that that happens," he said.
"We are determined to make sure that it's right size, that it's the right ferries for the right sort of challenge that it's got and the model that was before really didn't work."
Luxon said an announcement on what would be done about the ferries would be made when it was appropriate.
"As of at the end of last week, the Ministerial Advisory Group has put forward a submission about the ferries and procurement of new ferries that is sitting with shareholding ministers, they'll digest that, we'll have a further conversation with Cabinet and announce that in due course."
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