Interisland Line
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| Part of state-owned enterprise | |
| Industry |
Rail transport in New Zealand Ferry transport |
| Founded | 1962 (as a division of NZR) |
| Headquarters | Wellington, New Zealand |
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Area served
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Cook Strait, New Zealand |
| Services | Inter-island ferries |
| Parent | KiwiRail |
| Divisions | Interislander (passenger) Interislander Freight (freight) |
| Website | www.interislander.co.nz |
The Interislander is a road and rail ferry service across New Zealand's Cook Strait, between Wellington in the North Island and Picton in the South Island. It is owned and operated by state-owned rail operator KiwiRail. Three roll-on roll-off (RORO) vessels operate the 50 nautical miles (93 km; 58 mi) route, taking three hours to complete the crossing.
Interislander was started in August 1962 by KiwiRail's predecessor, the New Zealand Railways Department (NZR). The service primarily provided a RORO rail link between its North and South Island networks, allowing NZR to compete directly with coastal shipping companies for inter-island freight. It also provided the first RORO road link between the two islands, which saw the Interislander compete with, and then completely replace, the Union Company's Wellington–Lyttelton ferry service. Today, the service is still well patronised despite competition on the Wellington–Picton sea route with Bluebridge and from airlines, carrying around one million passengers and 230,000 vehicles per year on 5,500 sailings.
Before 1962 the North Island and South Island rail networks were not connected, and the New Zealand Railways Department struggled to compete with ships for inter-island transport. In the days before containerisation, rail freight between the islands had to be railed in a wagon to Wellington, unloaded and transferred onto a ship to Picton or Lyttelton, then loaded into another wagon before being railed the rest of the way. The Union Company ran an overnight ferry between Lyttelton and Wellington using steamers.
The Cook Strait Inter-Island Rail and Road Service (as it was known) started on 11 August 1962 with the roll-on roll-off ferry GMV Aramoana. The service dramatically increased efficiency, since freight could stay in the same wagon the whole journey, reducing time and money. Aramoana took just 3 hours 20 minutes to cross Cook Strait, dramatically decreasing time between the two islands for cars and passengers - Wellington to Christchurch travel time was reduced from 11 hours on the Union ferry to 9 hours by Railways ferry and road. The initial service was one sailing each way per day, Wellington to Picton in the morning and Picton to Wellington in the afternoon.
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Wikipedia