SUGGESTION: MSE to review Ferry pricing

PolishBigSpender

Snaggles wrote: »

Oooh, yes, please do....crossing to anywhere except Calais is just ridiculously expensive, much more than the price of the holiday itself. I agree that there's so little competition they can just charge what they like.

Do you understand the level of investment required to operate a ferry service? Even to buy a small cat like what Speedferries were using will cost you around 10 million pounds second hand (and that's in a buyer's market). Then fuel and crewing costs (particularly if you operate with UK-based staff) will cost you a tidy sum too. And then, let's not forget docking charges, onshore facilities and more.

P&O are building two new ferries for Dover-Calais. The cost? 360 million Euro.

So please, get a sense of perspective when talking about ferry prices. You don't have to travel, after all.

mardatha

We have one ferry only up here, runs from Rosyth to Zeebrugge, 18 hours.
A new boat for this year but prices still very high. Only other thing we can do is drive down to Newcastle or up to Aberdeen.

PolishBigSpender

mardatha wrote: »

We have one ferry only up here, runs from Rosyth to Zeebrugge, 18 hours.
A new boat for this year but prices still very high. Only other thing we can do is drive down to Newcastle or up to Aberdeen.

Only one?

http://www.calmac.co.uk
http://www.stenaline.co.uk
http://www.poferries.com

Caledonian MacBrayne in particular are very very cheap to the Western Isles since the introduction of RET.

mardatha

Yep only the new northlink one from Rosyth. (Used to be Superfast).The rest are too far from me. I did hear that Calmac were to be cheaper this year, if we can get up there then that would be lovely..

PolishBigSpender

mardatha wrote: »

Yep only the new northlink one from Rosyth. (Used to be Superfast).The rest are too far from me. I did hear that Calmac were to be cheaper this year, if we can get up there then that would be lovely..

They're quite a bit cheaper on the Western Isles routes, though the Clyde ones aren't included in the trial (yet! politically, it may still happen).

Where are you, if you don't mind me asking? You can often get really good prices on P&O from Troon to Larne if you book far enough ahead.

HariboJunkie

PolishBigSpender wrote: »

They're quite a bit cheaper on the Western Isles routes, though the Clyde ones aren't included in the trial (yet! politically, it may still happen).

..

They are still prohibitively expensive for many of us who regularly use the Hebridean routes.

mardatha

I'm about halfway between newcastle and edinburgh.. If Calmac lower their prices then I will be up there like a shot !