Interislander ferries have been suspended after a shunter locomotive and railway wagon plunged into Picton Harbour on Wednesday afternoon.
“KiwiRail is dealing with an incident in which a remote-controlled shunt locomotive, used in marshalling yards, and a railway wagon have this afternoon fallen into the harbour in Waitohi Picton," a KiwiRail spokesperson told 1 NEWS.
"KiwiRail is working with other authorities to manage the recovery of a remote-controlled shunt locomotive and a wagon with two tank containers which fell into Waitohi Picton Harbour this afternoon.
"No-one was injured in the incident and both containers, which had carried chemicals, were empty. One had held sodium hydroxide, a compound used in cleaning. KiwiRail is still ascertaining what had been in the other container. The diesel locomotive has a pressurised tank. A visual inspection of the water before night fell indicates that the diesel tank, and the tank containers remain sealed and intact.
"The wagon is partially afloat and has been secured to the wharf and oil booms are in place around the linkspan area.
KiwiRail chief operating officer Todd Moyle is in Picton overseeing KiwiRail’s role in the recovery.
“We are naturally shocked by this event and have begun an immediate investigation in to what happened,” he said.
“For some reason, the shunt locomotive, pushing the wagon, has travelled across the marshalling yards to a linkspan – a ramp that connects the land to a ship – and fallen in to the water. There was no ship at the berth at the time.”
All regulators have been informed and the port has partially re-opened. Interislander services are due to resume tonight using the company’s second berth in Picton.
Police told 1 NEWS they were alerted to the incident at 3.30pm that a train had gone into the sea.
They said they had since been advised by KiwiRail that it was a "remote-controlled shunter train" with no one on board and that police were not required.
No one was injured but a linkspan was damaged in the incident.
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