Sydney ferries need replacing

Sydney Harbour is looking to replace its ferries with the oldest vessels, the Lady Class, having about three years of service left. The consultants KPMG have been called in to investigate whether to lease, build or buy the next generation. Some local maritime experts, however, believe they already have the answer – streamlining the fleet with a simple, cheap, partially solar-powered vessels that would be able to replace four types of inner-harbour ferries and help out on the Manly run.

There are seven classes, ranging from river catamarans to open ocean vessels, and many are unreliable (JetCats), accident-prone (Freshwater) or do not do what they were supposed to (SuperCats). The range of skills required to keep them in service is a crewing, training and maintenance nightmare.

As part of its review, KPMG is canvassing options such as building vessels, or buying or leasing second-hand vessels from places such as Hong Kong. One idea raised by the last of many chief executives, Rear-Admiral Chris Oxenbould, was a public-private partnership in which a private company would own and maintain the boats.