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Taxpayers to dig for £20M for Liverpool Dock


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17 minutes ago, ballaughbiker said:

Read on another forum (twitter) that someone here on holiday had to change their foot pax return due to a rail strike day being called since their booking.

They tried to find alternative bus travel from Heysham to a remote bit of the Peak District (Edale), which proved impossible at a weekend, so were forced to change their booking to a day earlier. This caused a 43% increase in their fare which they pleaded to no effect.

Paraphrasing the SP (whom I normally defend) "Read the t&cs to which you agreed. A rail strike is not our fault and you need to claim our rebooking change charge from the rail companies". 

They appealed in writing which was also rejected.

This is a very poor look for what's left of our tourism. Sure, if people just 'change their minds', that is their choice and option and an extra charge is appropriate, but when a national rail strike forces the change ?

C'mon SP. FFS .... ! 

Please realise that social media can be a powerful positive or negative force depending on your attitude to customer service.

To be fair they'd get the same response from any airline in the world.  And if anyone could pay no more by switching to a more expensive sailing, then everyone would be booking the cheapest and then transferring.

That said, given that most sailings don't fill up with foot passengers (usually car space runs out first), then you'd think the Steam Packet could do more to promote them, especially from Heysham, and flat rates and flexibility would be one way to do it.  But the sort of fast response marketing that such offers require isn't really what the Steamie does.

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26 minutes ago, John Wright said:

She’s on charter to Condor. Was due back yesterday or today. SPCo did bring some freight in on something else.

Would be odd to dispose so quickly. I’d always thought they’d end the Condor charter once Manxman was in service, and use Ben for freight back up. When they bought Arrow I did wonder if they’d sell the Ben, or long charter. There were rumours of Cook Strait, but Connemara is going there. A long charter to Condor would make sense.

On the other hand, if SPCo have found another charter until TT, and Condor are desperate, they might pay over the odds.

Condor are in a mess, freight wise after their freight roro sank the fishing vessel. Things a bit backed up. And the fast craft isn’t sensible all year round. The conventional RoPax was having to go the long way round to avoid the search area, for several days. Didn’t do the schedules any good.

Honestly, if we think our service, and the poor communication by SPCo, is bad, the Condor situation is dire. GSY still looking at funding or assisting fund, an additional boat.

Arrow may have had the Condor charter extended by a day or two following Condor's freightship's incident. She was still working in the Channel Islands until yesterday. The freightship has been allowed to resume services, and Arrow is now on her way to her "now normal" resting place in Larne. She's expected to get there at lunchtime tomorrow.

Agreed, it would seem to be a bit silly for the Packet to sell her before Manxman is "up and running".

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9 minutes ago, monasqueen said:

Arrow may have had the Condor charter extended by a day or two following Condor's freightship's incident. She was still working in the Channel Islands until yesterday. The freightship has been allowed to resume services, and Arrow is now on her way to her "now normal" resting place in Larne. She's expected to get there at lunchtime tomorrow.

Agreed, it would seem to be a bit silly for the Packet to sell her before Manxman is "up and running".

Plus there’s a ready Scottish Islands market with CalMac, who are also in a mess with several increasingly unreliable 40+ year old ferries and the two much delayed new RoPax

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31 minutes ago, John Wright said:

Plus there’s a ready Scottish Islands market with CalMac, who are also in a mess with several increasingly unreliable 40+ year old ferries and the two much delayed new RoPax

This is well worth reading. The CalMac ferry scandal – is it more than SNP incompetence? - Think Scotland

And then read: CalMac ferry crisis could lead to new Highland clearances, warns NFU Scotland - Scottish Daily Express

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Just now, GD4ELI said:

I’m well aware. I’ve posted about it regularly on here for at least 3 years.

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Even the work force at Fergusons seem to think that the two ferries will never be accepted by CalMac Marine Assets, and never commissioned.

Glen Sannox still doesn’t have the windows cut into the bridge steelwork. So the workers have painted on windows.

Two green valves for the LNG fuel system were overlooked and haven’t been ordered. There’s a 40 week wait for orders placed today.

Lots of bought in bits and pieces ( some quite big ) have hung around the yard for so long that they are out of warranty or can’t be used.

 

31F3167F-8D3A-4B7D-B966-B09B2793F6FC.jpeg

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