Rip-off ferry prices

catnia

I agree that the costs are very high - it may help any of you needing to tavel on the overnight ferry to liverpool to know that Groupon have a voucher today that can be used when booking the ferry. It costs £5 but is worth £50.

warmhands.coldheart

Blame it on Fuel prices like everything else. I wouldn't fancy filling up the tank on one of those ships!!.

tightasaduck's

Parisien wrote: »

I have to go to GB mainland again this summer, sorta unexpected...cheapest is £248 via Stranraer (42 miles away)and £290 via Dublin (66 miles)

How can they justify these stupendous prices when the crossing from GB to France (25 miles away) can be had for £25-40 each way?

Not a happy bunny!!

Supply and demand, I'd say.

Tsk! I can remember when you'd regularly get offers like a Car + 4 return for about £99 or less.

I would price flights on budget airlines and if you need a car, hire one at the other end - could well work out better.

Trixxie

warmhands.coldheart wrote: »

Blame it on Fuel prices like everything else. I wouldn't fancy filling up the tank on one of those ships!!.

A Stenaline employee told me that the vessels use 40,000!! gallons of fuel on the Stranraer-Belfast crossing so the cost of fuel is definitely a factor. Stena are selling their current vessels and buying hopefully more economic ones for the future.

absoluteutopia

We take stock cars over to the mainland and it's getting to the point where we cant do it anymore. Couple of years ago £200 quid return got everyone on the nightboat now its closer to £800. Would be cheaper leaving a car over in england full time

x12yhp

It is pretty extreme... I just don't take the car now days unless I must. Jump on the plane for a fraction of the price.

yorkie98

Same here, used to take the car on the ferry Dublin-Holyhead to visit family in East Anglia but now the price of ferries and fuel make it far cheaper to fly into Stansted and hire a car for the week.
The ferry companies are losing out to this, and don't seem to want to be competative, I guess they have enough guaranteed, stable income from freight that they don't need to worry about the passenger services.

BOBS

Have you tried ringing Nutt travel in Coleraine - they always had competitive rates - cheaper than online with Stena.. This would be my 2nd option after the Tesco vouchers which have saved us a smal fortune over the years.

36square

It's not completely fair to compare with the Channel ferries. The volume of traffic is massively greater across the Channel with a far higher frequency of crossings which only take one hour compared to more than two for the routes to Scotland. That means the same vessel can make several Channel crossings a day instead of only a couple. They can also generate revenue from duty-free sales on the Channel which they can't crossing to Scotland.

Nickynoo1

36square wrote: »

. They can also generate revenue from duty-free sales on the Channel which they can't crossing to Scotland.

Duty free was stopped with the EU in 2002.