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Courtesy MattO - Minister for NSW Transport Safety...  

Via SMH:

New Manly ferry suffers another steering failure near Sydney Heads



Matt O'Sullivan
November 20, 2022 — 2.12pm

A new Manly ferry has suffered another steering failure near the entrance to Sydney Harbour less than two months after a similar incident forced the operator to urgently pull the catamaran and two sister vessels from service.

Multiple sources said the Fairlight’s steering system failed near Sydney Heads on Saturday morning while carrying passengers from Manly to Circular Quay.

Control of the steering was eventually restored and the ferry continued onto Circular Quay, but the vessel has since been pulled from service and tied up at the Balmain shipyards.


The Fairlight ferry is tied up at the Balmain shipyards on Sunday after suffering another steering failure.CREDIT:EDWINA PICKLES

The second-generation Emerald-class ferry had only just been cleared to resume passenger services early last week after almost two months out of operation.

The Fairlight had a steering failure near Fort Denison in late September, a day after a sister vessel – the Clontarf – suffered the same problems, forcing French company Transdev, which operates the government-owned ferry fleet, to pull all three new Manly ferries from service.

Transdev confirmed that the Fairlight experienced a “system issue” while carrying 42 passengers on Saturday morning, and said an investigation was underway to determine the root cause of the problem.

“Fairlight returned to service last week after obtaining clearance from the Australian Maritime Safety [Authority]. At this stage, there is no evidence that this problem is related to previous steering issues which occurred in late September,” the company said.


The three new Manly ferries were initially withdrawn from operation on September 26.CREDIT:OSCAR COLMAN

Labor transport spokeswoman Jo Haylen said the government and safety authorities needed to determine the cause of the steering failures before a serious safety incident occurred.

“This is now beyond a joke. The government told the public they had found and fixed the cause of the periodic steering failures that have plagued these overseas-built ferries after they’d been grounded for weeks,” she said.

The Australian Maritime Safety Authority said it had been notified of the Fairlight’s steering failure on Saturday and would be working with the operator to identify and fix the problem before the vessel was returned to service.

“Based on information provided to AMSA, the latest failure is different in nature from the previous failures,” the regulator said.

Action for Public Transport spokesman Graeme Taylor said the three second-generation Emerald-class ferries should be grounded until there was a clear diagnosis of the latest steering failure.

“The potential for injury and fatality is really high because you never know when it is going to lose control,” he said.

The three new ferries are at the centre of a fierce debate over whether they can handle large swells as capably as the larger Freshwater-class vessels they are designed to replace on the Manly-Circular Quay route.

The government plans to retire two of the four Freshwater ferries.

The Narrabeen has been mothballed while the Collaroy is slated for retirement next year, leaving just the Freshwater and the Queenscliff, which is undergoing major work in a dry dock at Sydney’s Garden Island.

Taylor said an expected surge in demand over summer highlighted the need to keep a third Freshwater-class vessel as a back-up ferry to handle the crowds.

The problems dogging the new ferries come as the government offers commuters fare-free train travel this week in a move aimed at avoiding rail workers taking major industrial action, which would have crippled Sydney’s public transport network.

The fare-free travel from Monday until late Friday applies only to Sydney Trains, NSW TrainLink and Sydney Metro services. People who travel on ferries, buses and light rail will continue to be charged.

  

MTF...P2