Finance Minister Nicola Willis says she has already met twice with KiwiRail bosses over a "major cost blowout" in the project to replace the Interislander ferries.
Fascinating that the cost of the boats themselves is well under half the total cost of the project, I didn't realise this was such an expensive project.
The infrastructure will still be there long after the ferries have been replaced, of course.
Is that what happened? I only got vagueness from the article but it sounds like the boats aren't the cost blowout, but rather either scope creep or poor planning of the port/dock part of the project.
That's right, the boats aren't the issue, it's the port infrastructure. With the cost increases, the infrastructure at each end will be equivalent to the cost of both boats.