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Any information on the Mersey Ferries can be posted here.
Due to the Olympic Torch travelling on the ferry today, the Pier Head terminal is closed. The ferries will operate from the cruise liner landing stage instead.
I think the Torch will be travelling on the Royal Iris this evening as she has been docked near to Duke Street for the last few days. Quite a number of flags attached to her.
Time for the Mersey Ferries to be scrapped?
http://www.liverpoolecho.co.uk/liverpool...1703327/2/
Annual losses of £1 million, despite already being subsidised by £700,00 from tunnel tolls.
My suggestions:
1) No service September to May
2) Commuter service scrapped entirely, becoming increasingly unreliable with engine failures/poor weather.
3) Seacombe/Woodside terminals closed
4) Explorer cruise service extends further out e.g. closer to New Brighton/Otterspool.
5) Saveaway/Trio/OAP etc no longer allow free travel, but could allow a small discount, (like London riverboat services). This would also benefit the local rail/bus companies as they would then get a higher proportion from the PTE products pot.
6) Ferries run later in the summer evenings.
These recommendations are very reminiscent of somebody elses idea's.
No service september to May now that wont happen for one reason alone Woodside - Pier Head has a charter attached to that particular service and any full closure would require the consent of parliament .
Merseyferries does have three ferry to use not just one , one gets used as the normal ferry boat , one spare and the other is the Canal Cruise boat in the season , so how do you make out that there unreliable.
Come off it you sound like everything revolves around liverpool , no it doesnt we have some interesting history of our own over here , its not all Liverpool .
The Summer cruise turns up beyond Seacombe now , the winter service was brought further down the Mersey as it can be uncomfortable on a ferry in slightly rougher conditions out by the mouth of the Mersey.
Oh you sound one giant killjoy for our older brethren , you dont half like to upset them , some of them will religiously travel on the ferry because they like it in any weather.
Well to run later it may mean a loss in income from private hire of the mersey ferries and master's loss of available hours for those private hires that the masters of the ferries can do.
I believe there has been work on the MV Royal Iris in London has anyonw goa a update - I heard the hull has been fixed and it is now floating???
The losses reported this week DON'T include capital costs so if they are added in, say £300,000 per year, the subsidy per commuter journey wikll not be good VFM.
Take away the tourist/off-peak usage and I wonder what is the actual contribution of the ferries to the city region's travel to work network. I suspect it is very little, very expensive, and shrinking.
Therefore, consider franchise option as a tourist attraction for weekends and summer season with the profits from the tunnels used to improve road and rail services and infrastructure
If they are facing a £1.3million loss per year for what is essentially a tourist attraction, the ferries need massively overhauling.
What makes it worse is they are depriving millions from other forms of transport.
Tunnel tolls could go into the tunnel infrastructure, £700,000 pa.
TRIO/ENCTS money could go into the bus/rail infrastructure, around £1.2m pa.
Perhaps if the question was more like Halton Curve improvement scheme or run the ferries for 3 years...?
In any event, Merseytravel should sell this venture to some sort of private sector operator and not have the tax payer fund it.
The ferries will not last forever mechanically. They will need a refit in due course. How many more millions will need to be thrown into that?
In this day and age, "nice to have" things cost too much.
What they should to do is boost the commuter services , perhaps running 1 or 2 of a morning from Woodside would be useful.. Seacome to woodside, quite a few people commute from the Seacombe area to Birkenhead by bus (usually 411/409), but a ferry would be fractionaly quicker i'd imagine.
Yes its a tourist attraction now as well, but lets not forget the whole point of the ferry is for passengers. Last time i got the commuter ferry it was packed coming back over from the city centre - in all fairness it was a nice day, but it was a full load going back over to Seacombe. Dead from Woodside however with me, a friend , and an old man with a dog being the only passengers.
I'd imagine theyd make more money if there was actually something to do in Woodside, its been dead ever since they built birkenhead bus station
I do agree, its a costly business which doesnt really have a purpose these days, but it is nice to go on rather than the train or bus through the lovely miserable tunnels if the weather is nice! I suppose it can't last for ever, maybe this wirral waters project that starts next year may have a positive impact on the commuter ferries, I'd imagine with all the redevelopment into offices etc etc there might be more demand from commuters. Who knows!
Read in the Echo that some sort of user group has been set up with the hope of implementing services to Festival Gardens/Otterspool during the Summer between April and September
Just wondering whether the "Duck" boat would be capable of replacing the traditional ferry? It could do the Liverpool tour and then do a Mersey cruise?
I think if i remember right in 1984 when the International Garden Festival was on there was services up to Otterspool , but like the services along the Canal is tide dependent due to location so might not be reasonable times on some days .
You have to be joking about the duck boat , the boats even in the dead of winter carry more passengers than the duck boats capacity.
I know the DUKWs are WW2 landing craft, but I really would not like to be out on the Mersey in one of those!
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