It has been revealed that a former banker from Seaview is considering starting up a new cross-Solent ferry firm to rival Wightlink and Red Funnel. Island resident Nick Wakefield is said to be exploring the opportunities for introducing a public ferry service between the Isle of Wight and the mainland. Mr Wakefield is the director of a company called Rydeport (2000) Limited – described as providing ‘service activities incidental to water transportation’. It was incorporated in December 2021 with 2 other directors listed; John Fisher and John Clewley. It was in October 2021 that Island Echo reported that a consortium of Island businesses and key figures were working on plans to introduce a community ferry service to and from Portsmouth. But nothing has come of this in the 2-and-a-half years since. Isle of Wight MP Bob Seely revealed Mr Wakefield as being behind future plans to Parliament on Tuesday, during a debate on cross-Solent ferries. Mr Seely revealed that he is trying to support 2 potential competitors entering into the market – a passenger ferry and a potential car ferry – but named only Nick Wakefield. The MP noted that it is a difficult situation though because the existing ferry firms also own the ports. During his speech to the House of Commons, Bob called on the Government to support new operators, to help break the duopoly of Wightlink and Red Funnel. He said it would also break the monopoly of a ‘corrupted private equity-style investment system’. Mr Seely asked whether or not the Department for Transport has an opinion on supporting new ferry firms.
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1, the island doesn’t need another ferry company. It needs a tunnel.
2, what’s to say a new ferry company won’t get ‘into bed’ with WL and RF and still charge eye watering amounts?
3, there is nowhere on the north coast of the island for another ferry terminal.
4, it’ll be the same old reliability issues with the same old excuses.
And finally,
5, Bob will be gone soon hopefully. I just prey the island doesn’t go from having 1 MP as a clown to having 2 instead.
For goodness sake the tunnel idea is boring and now out of date. It would take up to 30 years for an agreement
building and finance for the project to take place. This is the real world why would the tax payer want to
spend 10’s of millions for the sake of 130000 people with at least half not even wanting a tunnel
Billions not millions. The money does not exist and there is no economic justification for building a tunnel to the island.
If there was said tunnel I would expect the population of the island would increase and the age demographic decrease. People could aspire for better paid jobs with 24/7 access. Instead we have and island full of NIMBYS that won’t think forward. Either that or they are in the age range that costs the council tax payer more as they’re a rely on adult social care, or they moved to the island for abit of peace and quiet. Either way, the island is a giant retirement home thats on its knees and something needs to be done soon.
Well your be alright then when you retire you’ll be right at home. Makes me laugh how people like you mock the aged population as if your going to have everlasting youth . It’ll come to all of us. I hope the younger generation then will have more empathy and compassion when your turn comes or maybe by then something will be done as you put it .
What a load of tosh you speak
A tunnel brilliant idea, at present 2 ferry companies run car ferries to 3 different ports on the north of the island.
If there was a tunnel it would probably be a dual carriageway something like the Hindehead Tunnel and would come out at one spot on the island, the traffic congestion would be horrendous!!
I worked for the construction company that built the Hindhead tunnel, it took 5 years to survey before we even started digging, then a further 6 to complete. It won’t happen overnight.
Nothing happens on the island overnight
Well nothing good anyway.
And you could build another island with what you dig out
How about a feasibility study to find out then. What harm can it do? Why are the council not supporting this or our MP if things are as bad as he says.
Feasibility studies don’t come cheap and what’s the point if it never going to be a runner
While I do not agree with all your points an aternative transport option even the suggestion of me what have a marked impact on the existing companies, competition is always good unless you are a labour supporter where nationalisation and one provider supplying a third world service is your mantra for everything.
So, you admit there’s no room for another ferry terminal on the Island, but you somehow think there’s room for a tunnel exit, toll booths and all the road infra-structure that goes with it?
Be a bit more specific and tell us where you’d site this on the Island and where you’d route the new roads etc and how much this would all cost. Because, if you can’t do any of that, then it’s you who sounds like the clown, not the Island MP.
A tunnel exit is very different to the harbour and waters needed for a ferry terminal.
Look at Faroe Isles. In the last 4 years they’ve completed 2 10km tunnels. Costing under £100mn, funded by tolls of around £10-15. Around 2-3 years to plan, 4 years to build. That sounds like a good option from where I’m standing.
If people are going to be set against it (and I am genuinely open to any option which basically works – the current set up doesn’t), the onus is on them to show that it can.
If you’d bother to take a few minutes to look into things abit deeper I don’t think the plan was to have a tunnel entrance or exit along the coast. There is a website with what the intentions would be and how much it was cost. But because you clearly can’t be bothered to get off your fat arse and look that’s not really my problem.
I do struggle with the lack of thought when we talk about a tunnel. Where do you start digging the tunnel Fishbourne car park? and come up at Gunwharf Quays? No you would have to start tunnelling in the Arreton Valley, how many houses would you disrupt in the process where does the tunnel come out at? That would be Waterlooville or Havant. It’s pie in the sky.
Bridge Tunnel has been quoted for years . How would it be justified they can’t even get one across the Medina let alone to the mainland
Well said. Look at the diversions when the iow Festival is on. Our roads are not built for the amount of extra traffic you would be getting. It would be gridlock and chaos.
Why do folk want to keep going to the Mainland
I am surprised that you mention a tunnel…not possible in a flat earth world which you appear to inhabit!
What’s that Bob? Is it a band wagon I see? Best jump on it, what with an election around the corner and all.
Where there’s a camera .. so will be Pop-Up .. same as night follows day..
Somebody has to do something, Wight link and red funnel are very obviously struggling, whether it be manpower or financial.
The people who need And reply on these services including me are fed up with canceled crossings,no late night sailings and incredibly high prices.And in spite of many promises of improvements absolutely nothing is changing.
Many will remember that someone tried to help with a passenger service from Cowes to Southampton a good few years ago, so red funnel under cut them drove them out of business then hiked the price back up.
This cannot be allowed to happen again.
Everyone who uses these ferries deserves more than the shoddy service they’ve been having to use.
And where are these ferries going to run from as there is no berths for them
More bollocks..next
Bob the builder good name for you that explains alot not
Lol
It would be nice IF we had a honest, prudent, decent council who could run a ferry service and any profit used to ease our burden of the council tax.
But IF is a big word, and they imo are far from honest, decent or prudent. so the reality is, it would be another floating bridge disaster, with invisible friends and family with greasy palms, and ultimately cost us all far more in both fares and council tax.
Shame society is so vile now.
IW Council could not run a bath, yet alone a Ferry service
Look at their Floating Bridge, another Island fiasco.
It’s not society that’s vile it’s the human race that’s vile the world would be a awesome place if humans didn’t exist
Most all real Islanders were really nice and most British people were too.
A lot have changed in recent years and time now will only make it ever worse.
You first – Byeeeeeeee
Religion, patriotism and aggressive countries like th USA, are the problems with this world
The IWC running a ferry service to the mainland. Wow now that would make the Scottish ferry debacle look like a success. The IWC can’t even run the blinking floating bridge, and that’s only a couple of hundred feet and it’s on chains!!!
Keep the IWC well away from this sort of thing.
Totally agree with you. A tunnel/bridge has been talked about for the last 50 odd years. If it was going to happen it would have already. We need the two ferry companies to give us a SERVICE! And allow competition, which is what a fair market should be, and price match them so we, the islanders, get the service and prices we deserve. Not run them out of business which is illegal on so many levels. We might then have 3 reliable ferries to get us off and on the island. Pipe dream I know but wouldn’t it be great.
It’s not only the Island residents that deserve a cheaper and better ferry service. The extortionate prices and unreliable ferry service is killing the tourist trade which a lot of island businesses rely on.
I live on the mainland and would come over much more often with a decent reliable and affordable ferry service
Tunnel, bridge, there is no point in either. The rate at which housing developments are going, in about 30 years the island will simply be a car park!
Now the people who invented corrupted private equity style investments are asking to break the monopoly of such. Can satan cast out satan.
I can remember the owners of Scoot having big plans, and what happened to them .
I watched a seaplane land yesterday at Colwell.
That’s what we need instead of wasting breath on crying for a tunnel or bridge.
A fleet of seaplanes (built in Cowes) would do the trick as it will only be the rich that can travel on and off the Island once the next proposed government get in and bankrupt the already broken country.
> break the monopoly of a ‘corrupted private equity-style investment system’.
So how will this new competitor be different? It will not be a private equity of that banker? It will be run 100% publicly by DfT and banker is only helping to manage it? Or what am I missing?
Ferries are expensive to run, so they won’t be any cheaper, and they will still be affected by weather. Like it or not, the only answer to a fast, reliable, affordable crossing, is a fixed link! Everyone needs to realise this and stop wasting time thinking something else can be done!
Absolutely agree, boats are like holes in the sea in which you throw £50 notes.
To be fair the only way to even start this off either way is to have a vote for or against including others who may live in the landing area on the other side, after all we are supposed live in a democracy!
There are plenty of keyboard warriors stating that “most” people don’t want a bridge / tunnel but they actually don’t know most people, then we have the many Structural Enginers Warriers that really don’t know either, & finally we get to the many Finance Warriers these are the ones who think they know how many billions such a project would cost, but in reality nobody can just guess.
Eh, I just don’t think fixed link is possible. UK can’t even finish HS2 on the ground and we’re talking about tunnel under the Solent? I’d love that dream to come true but let’s be honest, most of our infrastructure is much worse than that of Netherlands or Germany. Much more realistic dream is that one day my bus stop will cease to be a patch of slippery grass, perhaps it will even get a roof, and in 50 years or so I may even get a cycling path. A massive tunnel? I wouldn’t put my head on a chopping block.
It will also cost way more than IOW can afford. You don’t need to know exact figures but this one is for sure. This will need central backing. And we all know how central government has been great with that; *cough* council tax.
A fixed link would come out at one spot on the island and would likely be a dual carriageway imagine the traffic
So, in your world of a tunnel under the Solent, where exactly would you have this emerging here on the Island?
And then, what would you do with all the traffic emerging? You’d need a completely new road system to take cars, lorries etc away from the tunnel exit. At the moment, that system already exists from the ferry ports, where traffic only arrives once every half an hour. With a tunnel, it would be all the time. You would need new dual carriageways or motorways on the Island and on the mainland, plus room for all the toll booths etc. Where are you suggesting this would be located?
Maybe, instead of simply saying ‘we need a fixed-link’, fill it in with some details about how and where it would work, and the cost too.
A banker and not riping people off! Haha haha
If you’re mates with Barton manor and have the money Barton bay with some work would make a nice port
Former Banker…. Is that a spelling mistake ? 🙂
The island is full or Bankers, another spelling mistake
You don’t understand that they don’t want you to drive, when we are living in 15 minute cities, cars will be for the elite. Just wait and see what the WEF as in stall for you.
The last thing we need is yet another operator, even if that were practical. Dr Seely MBE MP is incapable of understanding that the government (his government) needs to grow a pair and exercise some authority over the existing shambles.
And who is this “John Fisher”? Not “Danny” FIsher, doyen of the Island establishment and currently presiding over a less-than-successful business?
Still, anybody from Seaview can be presumed to have deep pockets.
The first thing we need is another operator, providing they are put in the position that they have to compete for the same service. One of the problems at the moment is that we travellers have no choice. Choice means ferry compnaies competing on the basis of levels of service and price, on both of which we have no choice at the moment.
The Isle of Wight doesn’t need another ferry service or tunnel, the ferries should be, and have in the past have been, more than adequate.
The issue is with their financing. Nobody objected to them making a reasonable profit from a well run business but when venture capitalism became ‘respectable’, asset value, possibly, inflated and profits taken as interest payments by loading on unnecessary dept, the notion of providing a service evaporated.
It is only a matter of time before the bubble bursts, as is about to happen with the water companies, and our MP would better spend his time on considering and managing that eventuality rather than sponsoring another fanciful ferry service.
Bankruptcy followed by nationaliation mightn’t be so bad?
If a company is too greedy, it deserves to go bust and many do. If there is anyone out there who think they can provide a ferry service and make a profit, they will do. If not, it means that ferries have to be subsidised as a public service by us taxpayers, if they are to exist at all. That’s what happens in Scotland. The problem they made was nationalising the building of ferries. That can be done and has been done this year, by the Scottish govt buying commissioning a ferry from Turkey 2 years ago and which will be taking passengers and cars by the end of this year.
Why are we not just building a bridge, no more ferries.
Bridge is impossible (have you not noticed the rather large boats between the Island and the mainland?) and tunnel just isn’t financially viable.
I would really like to agree with you….but I can’t!
If Sweden & Denmark can build the Øresund Bridge & tunnel System for 16km & throw in a man-made island midway have thousands of vehicles & trains cross it, anything can be done over a handful of miles……A bridge or a tunnel is not impossible!
Changing peoples outlook and negativity is the real obstacle, as well and the need versus cost, if we as a country can waste billions and billions on silly failed issues An infrastructure that would be used, would be a drop in the ocean (pardon the pun).
Here’s something radical, how about the IOW Council keeps the land that’s a failed investment in East Cowes, start a bridge from Castle Road, curve it around towards Fawley / Lepe area, but have a sliproad section with an opening bridge section down to Bridge Road in Cowes…..no new floating bridge to buy, land already owned by the IOW council, Red Funnel won’t last with a bridge so potentially more land. Prevent large vessel sailing down the back of the island..Just saying!
So who sold the ports to the ferry companies? It’s like selling the rail infrastructure to the train operating companies. Ridiculous.
Practically a non-starter for a new car ferry company then.
The problem with the Isle of Wight ferry service is the Isle of Wight people who do not want to bridge a tunnel. The Isle of Wight is allergic to bridges old fashion people. I hope the Isle of Wight dies of death is a shit hole anyway
Instead of slagging off the island if you don’t like it MOVE OFF. No we don’t want a bridge or tunnel that’s why it’s called an Island
What a muppet! Is the Isle of sky no longer an island becouse it has a bridge?
I used to live on the island, how ever as I found it was pretty much run by people with funny hand shakes, I quickly found out, that no matter what you know, it’s only people you know that would let you succeed, thw repression of wages, with the mainland UK cost if living is just down right criminal, you people that say you don’t want thw riff raff coming over from the mainland, what will you learn that the island council have been importing “problem families” for years!
Please leave the island that you obviously hate so much!
Never going to happen load of crap must be 1st april fools day..
Bollocks just a load of bollocks..
As the topic is about boats maybe more accurate to say it is a load of old rollocks…..
I sense a bit of a con in the air, where are they going to run to as neither Portsmouth or Southampton will give them berths, we had all this years ago when a private fast service was run between Shepherds wharf and Southampton after being denied a berth the Red Funnel hydrofoil service was started
Build the birth from Portsmouth, Southampton to Dock at Shanklin and Sandown avoiding all the chaos on the roads .
Just stop and think for one brief moment about what you wrote there.
Where exactly are you suggesting that car ferries dock at Shanklin and Sandown?
I would suggest it’s April Fool’s Day, but that was yesterday.
I’m sure all these pro fixed-link comments are well-intentioned but, really, do none of them actually think things through?
April Fools joke right !!
A tunnel brilliant idea, at present 2 ferry companies run car ferries to 3 different ports on the north of the island.
If there was a tunnel it would probably be a dual carriageway something like the Hindehead Tunnel and would come out at one spot on the island, the traffic congestion would be horrendous!!
Five greedy failing railway services were brought back into government control and are now surviving nicely. Thames Water looks set to follow soon. Buses in London and Manchester same. In all cases the monies when private was siphoned into offshore accounts far much more than was ever put back into said services. Our ferries are a similar necessary transport system for which there is no viable alternative. As Labour will be in next year and will be looking at railways, I think it’s time to notify them about ferries too.
Its a Tunnel or Bridge we need and a bridge instead of the floating bridge.
Its all outdated this ferry and floating bridge its 2024 not 1954 for goodness sake look into it and stop wasting time and money.
WE need to get off here in a timely manner at an affordable price.
WE don’t want a ferry anymore.
We want to drive across to Cowes not drive around Newport to get to it or wait for that heap of trash to be working.
MOVE FORWARD.
There is already an underwater tunnel in existence under Southampton Water. It is two miles long, three metres in diameter and runs from the old Fawley Power Station to Warsash and was built between 1962 and 1965 to take power cables. It was estimated to cost three million pounds at 1969 prices. This is a good example of what could be built as a light railway passenger-only tunnel from Ryde to Portsmouth, but it would cost a huge amount of money and in Broken Britain it’s not going to happen.
This idea will go the same way as every other new ferry company has over the last 50 years. Straight to the bottom of the sea. At best they’ll last a year before they are muscled out by the other two. The answer is to privatise both Red Funnel and Wightlink. The other thing to consider is if Sideshow Seeley has any involvment in any new enterprise it’ll be a more expensive service than the big two are already. Seeley=disaster and in any event, he’s bad news for anyone stupid enough to listen to him and is about to be sacked anyway.
Can I just point out the island has three services,
Hovertravel might not be great but they exist.
Privatise? They are already privately owned. Nationalise one and run it on a not for profit basis for the sole benefit of it’s users. The other will soon fall into line then.
A tunnel could prove a useful means of escape for residents if large sections of the island start to fall into the sea
Will island roads build the tunnel?
Why all this talk of a third company, just make an offer for one of the existing ferries then undercut the other one.
If the big problem is the fery operators owning the ports, perhaps Mr Seely will agree with me that it is a shame that the publicly owned British Rail who ran Sealink Ferries (now Wightlink) were sold off by a Conservative Government
Bring on the flying taxis
6 years to build the short Hindhead tunnel?
The Italians recently constructed 74 kilometres of motorways with two lanes in each direction. The construction included several tunnels much longer than the Hindhead tunnel.
From start to finish it took 7 years.
The motorway is the A1 directissima that links
Florence with Bologna.
Conclusion.:- If you need a tunnel to be built, ask the Italians. They know how to build them, pot hole free as a bonus
Regards Ken. IOW
What is needed is government subsidy not another private company. Red Funnel and Wightlink are struggling because the numbers are not there since Covid and so many people realised they preferred to work from home. What is going to be different with a third company. The article says he is doing a feasibility study, I’m afraid that’s as far as it will go. And stop talking about a tunnel, it’s never going to happen. Please put all that wasted energy into lobbying for government subsidy
Much sensibler to build a tunnel near Lymington to Yarmouth charge people tow fee to use it channel tunnel was much more harder