Albert Tatlock Posted November 10, 2007 Share Posted November 10, 2007 In terms of offering better deals and cheaper prices, I think they would do better by bringing back the frequent traveller rewards of e.g. 1 free trip in 5. For me, working between the island and the UK, this discount is very useful, and when they stopped it, I found the frequency of my travelling actually more than halved. They could also do with setting up some better deals at the port in Heysham, where, for example, if you don't want to bring your car/van over, but want to drive to Heysham to come over for three or four days as a foot passenger (avoiding hefty train fares and a £10 each way taxi fare to/from Lancaster to Heysham), then you can add around another £20 to the price in parking fees. A deal with a Lancaster taxi firm offering a discount or better still a lower fixed price - and advertised to foot passengers on their ticket - would be another good offer and not hard to negotiate IMO. Also instead of ramping up the price for last minute trips (the price practically doubles if you leave booking to one or two days before the trip - even if the boat is pretty empty, which it often is at 02:15am on a winter morning), then what they should do is keep the booking price the same. I often resent the logistical nightmare of having to plan trips up to a week ahead, which is difficult to do when you are subject to workload changes and can't fly in the evenings (hence the 02:15am preference) - and when I do travel last minute always feel very ripped-off, especially when there are few on the boat. And how the heck is this 'fuel supplement' calculated? Overall, if you can plan your journey a week or so in advance, it often works out cheaper to fly - especially when you take into account all of these additional charges involved in getting to/from Heysham and additional food spending over the time it takes to travel. At least they open the Heysham terminal up early these days - having gone over for a football match taking my two kids when they were both under 11 - I shall never forget spending around two hours waiting at Lancaster railway station, refusing to leave to wander with them around the drunk-filled streets of Lancaster around midnight or stand outside the Heysham terminal for an hour in the cold and pissing rain until it opened. I have done very many trips over the past five years with the SP, but at least travelling from Liverpool cuts out most of the associated crap travel and high costs people have to deal with getting to Heysham. The worst six months of my travel life was when I was based in Sheffield - suffering from the poor service of Central Trains (breakdowns, late trains) trying to get from my place of work there to Liverpool for the Friday evening boat, where on three occasions the trains were late or broke down, forcing me to travel up to Heysham for the 02:15am - with a total journey time to the island of around 16 hours, in the middle of winter. I had to adjust my travel time to allow up to two hours leeway. When I travel as a foot passenger - I always feel like I am some sort of scum that has to be tolerated and has to go through some sort of 'adventure game' just in order to get to the boat. But once on the boat, out of all those trips, I can still not say a bad word about the staff - except for the recent tendency to give the food and shop the 'hard sell' over the speakers at all times throughout the journey (which I don't think is down to them). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
homarus Posted November 10, 2007 Share Posted November 10, 2007 The user agreement only covers the linkspans in Douglas Harbour ,not the piers in Douglas or anywhere else in the Isle of Man ( including Queens Pier Ramsey if it were ever to be upgraded). This being the case, there is nothing to stop another operator using the Manx route if they wished to . Unfortunatly ,the fact that they cannot use the linkspan would seem to make any such proposal financialy unattractive?. This to my mind leaves the manx Govm't(god Help us!). As has been said before 'The sea link to the U.K. is much too important to be left in the hands of only one operator', . So what is to stop the Govm't chartering (or buying and staffing ) a vessel ,suitable for the Irish Sea in winter, preferably sideloading to enable it to carry and unload vehicles ,passengers and freight on to the Pierside,I'm pretty sure they've done it in the past?. A reliable and affordable link to and from the U.K. should be seen as a necessity not a luxury!,and as such should be viewed in the same light as any other public service ,subsidised if need be?. If only we had enough brave,decisive people in Gov ?????? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mama Posted November 10, 2007 Share Posted November 10, 2007 Maybe we are heading for a new capital expenditure exercise, one which will even rival the IRIS project in consultancy fees and mishaps etc. Like this perhaps: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/scotland/4114195.stm Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
homarus Posted November 10, 2007 Share Posted November 10, 2007 Maybe we are heading for a new capital expenditure exercise, one which will even rival the IRIS project in consultancy fees and mishaps etc. Like this perhaps: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/scotland/4114195.stm For gods sake ,don't be giving them ideas! A govm't that is capable of sanctioning a project ,that pays out £500.000 per year in electricity charges just to pump shit uphill in order for it to roll back downhill again ,is capable of anything! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Newsbot Posted November 11, 2007 Share Posted November 11, 2007 Changes to an Isle of Man ferry company's winter schedule are to be discussed in the House of Keys. Source : http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/rss/-/1/hi/world/...man/7089678.stm Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ans Posted November 11, 2007 Share Posted November 11, 2007 I expect the question will just be raised, answered vaguely and forgotten about, but well done to Amadeus for at least raising the public profile of the changes to the winter timetable. There are people out there who missed the original announcement, but have become more aware of it from this subsequent media attention. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Amadeus Posted November 11, 2007 Author Share Posted November 11, 2007 Well, it's a start BBC even mentions MF this time. Over 1800 people have signed it by now, which is a pretty staggering number considering that it's only online and anyone without interwebnet won't be able to sign it as it is. The majority have left comments, and knowing that it is being read by the SP and the powers-that-be, hope remains that this sort of pretty much unprecedented feedback might cause some people to listen up and that something good will come of it - but then, I've always been a hopeless optimist.... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
caprineus Posted November 13, 2007 Share Posted November 13, 2007 Some hitherto unpublished news appeared in the News Bulletin dated November 04 on the Irish Sea Shipping web site. http://www.merseyshipping.co.uk/news/2007/11_2007/112007.htm It appears that a company known as Seaside Shipping has lodged a Petition of Doleance against the Department of Transport, effectively challenging the Steam Packet User Agreement in the Manx Courts. This seems to be a very important step forward, which we should welcome and support, since if successful it takes control away from the Manx Government. Furthermore it introduces competition in the form of a new shipping company and breaks the Steam Packet monopoly. This is confirmed in the CHANCERY PETITIONS 2007 list. The only references to Seaside Shipping that seem to come up are for a dutch registered company of the same name. However, that could be meaningless, because you could pick any name for a company over here not necessarily reflecting the true owners, and getting people digging in all the wrong places. It will be interesting to see how this one pans out. If the petition were to be successful, then possibly other interested party's might start appearing. I see the petition has now hit 1731 signatures. Well now we know who is behind Seaside Shipping Ltd! God luck to him. http://www.iomtoday.co.im/news/Steam-Packe...aces.3479287.jp Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Twitch Posted November 13, 2007 Share Posted November 13, 2007 Be careful what you wish for...! On a related point, I think the Steam Packet's PRhas been pretty dire over the last couple of weeks....I kind of yearn for the good old days of Geoff Corkish who never shied away from a live radio interview or hid behind a carefully worded press release. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
grant Posted November 13, 2007 Share Posted November 13, 2007 What can they really say, apart from "we've only got one boat suitable for the Irish sea, so we're stuffed. Much as we would like to provide a reliable service, we can't because we aren't buying another boat." Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Amadeus Posted November 13, 2007 Author Share Posted November 13, 2007 What can they really say, apart from "we've only got one boat suitable for the Irish sea, so we're stuffed. Much as we would like to provide a reliable service, we can't because we aren't buying another boat." Ah..GC would have spun it around with unrivalled ease - once he had made his point, you would have felt guilty for asking about the cancelled sailings. All of their boats could have sunk at once and he would have sold it as good news - and everyone would have believed it Legend... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
feelslikeitshould Posted November 14, 2007 Share Posted November 14, 2007 The answer to all our prayers! Or maybe not quite...I don't know what to make of this really. The weekend service is still the same, they've lowered the price to £25 return inc. fuel surcharge, which is a....gesture of some sort I'm sure but what are you supposed in Liverpool until your midnight coach transfer to Heysham? Fully laden with Primark and JJB sports shopping bags, rich pickings for the scallies on the run up to Christmas! I don't think the Steam Packet have fully grasped the meaning of 'day trip'. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The Voice of Reason Posted November 14, 2007 Share Posted November 14, 2007 Going out at 8am one day and returning the next day at, what 6.30am doesn't constitute a day trip in my eyes Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tugger Posted November 14, 2007 Share Posted November 14, 2007 It's insulting to us all that they even bothered to present this as a "day trip" package Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Albert Tatlock Posted November 14, 2007 Share Posted November 14, 2007 2007 signatures now. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Archived
This topic is now archived and is closed to further replies.