Winston Peters is tip-toeing around whether New Zealand First will get the rail-enabled Cook Strait ferries it campaigned for.

The Government has announced it'll set up a new company to procure new Interislander vessels - and has made Peters the Minister for Rail. 

It's almost a year since the coalition scrapped Labour's contract for buying two mega-ferries that would have joined up rail across the two islands.

Nicola Willis says the new ferries will be smaller and rail-capable, but not fully rail enabled.

Peters says he's conceded nothing.

He says he's taken on railways in the past - and dramatically turned them around - and people should ask the Maritime Union if they have confidence in him.

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