Viewpoint – Heroic fight for ferry

Warning – this Viewpoint contains references to corporate neglect and bureaucratic arrogance. This is the ongoing scandal of the Gulf Harbour ferry service over the past two years. 

It was only a few short years ago this ferry was an outstanding success – the pride and joy of the public transport system on the Hibiscus Coast. Monthly passenger numbers were over 16,000, the number of sailings increasing steadily anda a cancellation rate barely 5 percent. People were choosing to live in the area because of the ferry.

Fast forward to 2023 and the cancellation rate is an unbelievable 50 percent (the worst performance of any public transport service in Auckland), patronage numbers have declined accordingly and now, to add insult to injury, the agency directly responsible for overseeing this decline, Auckland Transport (AT), put up a proposaal to withdraw the service in 2028. Not fix it, not restore it but remove it altogether. 

The community response to that proposal however has been nothing short of heroic. Public submissions solely on the GH ferry (1352) constitute nearly half the total submissions across the entire Auckland region on public transport (plus a petition of an additional 5600 people). 

What’s interesting about these submissions however is not just the quantity, it’s the quality. They’ve been made by not only longstanding commuters who value the service but by those with real expertise in the maritime industry – boat designers, operators, and crew. Collectively they rebut the unconvincing and constantly changing arguments put up by AT to justify what I consider to be its ideologically driven determination to herd everyone onto buses (including the use of misleading travel time comparisons, ignoring local roading constraints and misrepresenting the true reasons for cancellations – crew shortages, inadequate vessels and the fact AT itself has allowed this service to be used as the sacrificial lamb for substitutions elsewhere on the network).

And AT’s view of those opposing their proposal? Well, prior to consultation, one senior AT official told colleagues they could expect ‘noise’ from the community. What a disrespectful and predetermined attitude from someone overseeing the worst public transport cancellation rate in Auckland’s history – the same people with the gall to now cite ‘unreliability’ as a reason for withdrawing the service when it’s them who’ve allowed it to be run down (including their latest proposal to reduce the service to an appalling 16 percent of its original timetable in October)!

To be honest, it’s that bad there needs to be an inquiry. In the meantime, there are alternative operators and cutting-edge electric boat companies keen to do the Gulf Harbour run (HM September 4). They recognise the neglect that has decimated this once successful service but also know how quickly it can be turned around. They want in. The community wants them. Now’s the time to give them a shot.