KiwiRail bosses faced questions about their progress when they appeared before the transport and infrastructure select committee this afternoon.

Green Party transport spokesperson Julie Anne Genter wanted to confirm whether the shipbuilding contract with HMD had indeed been cancelled.

KiwiRail acting chairman Rob Jager confirmed this was the case.

“We are now talking about settling the contract,” he said.

It’s not a good idea to set a timetable for such complex trade negotiations, he said.

“It will take as long as it takes.”

Jager said some areas of the contract were relatively straightforward, but other parts required much more information which then had to be evaluated.

Arena Williams, Labor’s public enterprise spokesperson, asked whether KiwiRail had received any advice on the next stage of the negotiation settlement.

KiwiRail chief executive Peter Reidy said it had received significant specialist maritime legal and technical advice from the UK.

“We’re not yet at the stage of saying there will be mediation – we’re not there at all. In fact, it is still a matter of determining what is commercial and what is not.

Labor transport spokesperson Tangi Utikere asked if there was any indication of how long Kiwis would have to wait for the contract to be resolved.

“This isn’t necessarily going to be something that ends over the Christmas period, is it? » asked Utikere.

Jager confirmed that this would extend into next year.

“With all due respect, these are important contracts.”

Last month, New Zealand’s Deputy Prime Minister and first leader, Winston Peters, told the House: The government would decide on the new plan for ferries by December 11.

“It was always (Dec. 11) or before, so we didn’t move any dates forward at all.”

Prime Minister Christopher Luxon was coy about this deadline and maintained that an announcement would be made by the end of the year.

Transport Minister Simeon Brown told the Herald this week: “The Deputy Prime Minister has made it clear that there is a timetable that we are working towards. »

Asked if this meant the ferry decision would go to Cabinet on Monday, Brown said: “That’s a timetable that we’re working to and it’s obviously driven by the shareholder ministers.”

Brown confirmed the public can expect an announcement by Wednesday.

“We are working on it at a rapid pace.”

Brown also appeared before the Transport and Infrastructure Select Committee earlier today.

Whether the new ferries would be rail-based was a topic of discussion.

Genter asked about the impact on freight costs and productivity if none of Interislander’s ferries were rail-based.

“Four of the five current ferries are not rail,” Brown responded.

“Last time I looked, many freight operators use both Interislander and the alternative to transport their freight between the North and South Islands.”

Genter asked if Brown thought having a rail ferry was the same as not having a rail ferry.

“No, because one is greater than zero, it’s just math,” Brown said.

Freight operators were focused on the most efficient way to move goods and had a range of ways to get there, Brown said.

Georgina Campbell is a Wellington-based journalist with a particular interest in local government, transport and seismic issues. She joined the Herald in 2019 after working as a broadcast journalist.