How would NZ’s vital freight system handle a big earthquake? Our study sounds a warning

New Zealand relies heavily on ferries to move freight between its islands — more than five hundred trucks cross the Cook Strait daily, carrying five and a half million tonnes of cargo annually. A University of Waikato study examining what would happen if those terminals were knocked out for three months by a major earthquake finds a troubling gap: the alternatives are surprisingly limited. Air freight is expensive and already stretched thin; coastal shipping lacks the vessels and trained staff to suddenly absorb the load; remaining ports are already strained. The Conversation reports that researchers traced the underlying problem not to the earthquake itself, but to years of under-investment and policy choices — lengthy permit processes for port expansion, uncertainty around marine fuel policy, and workforce shortages in shipping and transport. The study identified forty-three constraints linking back to eighteen root causes across six policy areas. That suggests New Zealand's freight resilience depends less on how fast infrastructure is rebuilt than on the policy decisions made long before the ground shakes.

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