In a previous life I undertook some Polytech studies around Town Planning. The one aspect of such bureaucratic nonsense that exercise ordained me with was the powers endowed upon almost all graduates is their programmed thinking would almost always unravel when facing “Market” reality.

Today people can become drones around the entry of the hive by undertaking a study of Town Planning, they graduate and are then added as a burden on resource matters around Planning for a local body or government outfit where the greatest need by far is a far more comprehensive understanding of issues, much wider than their study gave them, for example including any amount of common sense.

Common sense is now seriously threatened to a degree equivalent to the Black Robin, a native bird that human encroaching has almost done in just as fashion did for the Huia before anyone could intervene.
Sense that was once a very common attribute for basic survival has just disappeared from the environment to be replaced with an arrogance resulting from the parchment creation division at places of higher learning.

Town and country planning has developed, as has Economic expertise, where it is said if every economist was laid end to end they would not reach a conclusion! In actual fact the now well established acceptance that the graduate with the framed parchment too often becomes a greater threat than an alternative simpler solution.

The recent Polkingham Murder trial is another glaring example where so called experts cannot agree on some very simple and basic concepts, they just wander off into their little cloistered world where an inherent belief in their personal understanding is placed before the world as undisputed facts. The reality is, as science demonstrates regularly to any one with an open mind, such opinion is not a fact it is merely just an opinion.

New Zealand is not alone in becoming a hostage to such planning disasters that become very expensive and complicated when time passes and the data that supported a previous seemingly well thought out concepts becomes overtaken. The population become disassociated and a bunch of bureaucrats become the sole arbiters in settling on a solution. Crats with barely an ounce of the now long deceased Common Sense between them, announce their desired outcome and tax payers and rate payers become further encumbered with the resulting mess.

Possibly one of the biggest conundrum such behaviour unleashes is still unravelling over the transport link across the Cooks Strait.
Kiwi Rail the government owned operator of the Rail network New Zealand repurchased from Toll Holdings Australia in a somewhat bizarre casting of money into the furnace of stupidity by a departing Labour Finance minister, a Mr Cullen, finally evolved into a board of political appointed members who between them had zero experience in actual operation of a sea going vessel. They are in control of over 4000 kms of rail and the over 100 Kms of marine operation to connect Wellington and Picton
That governance body in conjunction with their commercial management arm decided to contract for two replacement Ferries for the aging three vessel fleet from a Korean Shipyard.
On paper the thinking was to reduce the fleet to two from three and replace them with two larger vessels.
All well and good but no single person settling on that policy gave any thought to how much larger a vessel could still operate in the quite constrained by geography, sea lanes at the Picton end.

Possibly having major problems to turn the bigger vessels around and the sheer size leading to a longer trip avoiding Tory Channel and entering Queen Charlotte direct further west from the strait. as likely outcomes.
Also no factoring the salient factor that all sea going vessels require a regular maintenance survey that does at times impact Bluebridge with its two vessel operation and can be managed to a degree by Interislander with its three boat fleet. An advantage they would lose with the reduction to a two boat system.

Not many years ago an entrepreneurial chap made an attempt to improve the Three and a half hour crossing that is effectively more like four and a half for a vehicle driver, by using faster lighter vessels from Wellington to Picton, to cut the cross strait time to a little over an hour and a half. Brooke Mckenzie ran up against a Mob, the wash from his boat was too much for both ends of his planned fast ferry with wash from the boat the biggest problem. The experiment lasted over a decade but by the early 2000s was put out of its misery after eventually discovering the time spent in the sounds and inner Wellington harbour at reduced speed, brought his dream nearer the current reality consigning “fast ferry” to history.

Beware Experts, they often turn out to be drips under pressure and little else.