‘It’s inaccurate for the Island’s MP to accuse Wightlink of having a slow pace of investment’ – those are words of Wightlink’s Chief Executive, Keith Greenfield, on Bob Seely’s recent ferry report. The boss of the cross-Solent ferry operator has responded to Mr Seely’s report, which looks at how the Island can secure better ferry services and pricing, with suggestions of robust arrangements to hold ferry services to account – including regulation. Keith Greenfield has insisted that in the past 12 months, just 1% of the 35,583 scheduled sailings have been cancelled. He has also raised that the average age of Wightlink’s ferries is just 18 years, compared to a design life of 35 – although St Faith is fast approaching that milestone. In his response, Mr Greenfield has said:
“Wightlink welcomes debate about how ferry services can be further improved for the benefit of Islanders and understands that the topics of fares and timetables will always be important discussion points. “Wightlink engages consistently with customers by conducting thousands of surveys every month and holding regular Island Link Forum meetings. In direct response to customer feedback, Wightlink has recently increased the number of sailings in 2024 on the Yarmouth-Lymington route, introduced a cap on NHS travel fares for travel at any time of the year and enabled discounted Multilink tickets to be used more widely across households on sailings throughout the year. “However, it is highly inaccurate for the Island’s MP to accuse Wightlink of having a slow pace of investment, with ships that are ‘subject to repeated mechanical and technical faults.’ “Out of 35,583 scheduled sailings in the last 12 months, 215 were cancelled (less than 1%) a performance which puts Wightlink among the most reliable transport operators anywhere in the UK. “We have invested more than £90million over the last 10 years giving us one of the most modern fleets in the country – including the UK’s first large hybrid electric ferry, Victoria of Wight, launched in 2018. The average age of our ferries is 18 years, compared to a design life of 35 years. “We are always open to ideas on how ferry services are run, but for this process to be constructive the MP also needs to recognise Wightlink’s starting point is not as he describes. Our customers have already done this by voting us into first place as Best UK Ferry Operator in 2023 in the British Travel Awards, the country’s largest customer travel survey.”
The drawing is obviously anatomically incorrect. Fin whales lack teeth but instead have baleen plates to filter food from sea water, such as krill, small schooling fish, and squid.
You must be the saddest boring lonely person on the island.
You are obviously a moronic caulkhead and treat those who have knowledge with fear and trepidation. Get back in your cave and chew on your own arm.
Wightlink engages consistently with customers by conducting thousands of surveys every month and holding regular Island Link Forum meetings. In direct response to customer feedback, Wightlink has recently increased the number of sailings in 2024 on the Yarmouth-Lymington route, introduced a cap on NHS travel fares for travel at any time of the year and enabled discounted Multilink tickets to be used more widely across households on sailings throughout the year.
And yet you still make millions each year so why not reduce the fares for Island residents even if you charged £30 for a car you would still make money
That’s about what they do charge for a car! I and my family never pay more than £34 for our car, driver & 3 passengers. We normally visit the mainland at least every other month because of the good value.
£34 what’s that with blue light or council discount not everyone gets that I have just been on line and it’s £123.65 for a day return tomorrow
Cheaper fares is what us Islanders want.
Its what everybody wants .
He says only 1% were cancelled, but how many were delayed or rescheduled???
That would be 35,583 then They are simply not reliable
That’s an easy one to answer. Wightlink need to stop treating Islanders as cash cows. Fair fares need to be to be implemented, not the extortionate ones they demand now!
Handbags ready ladies ! Shall we begin .
It’s all very well him saying only 1% of sailings were cancelled, but that equated to 212 cancelled ferries. That’s 212 times that ferryloads of people were left stranded. Simply unacceptable.
Not forgetting that the real figure is actually much higher because the ferry companies don’t cancel services, they run a “revised timetable”.
Not fooled, Wightlink. Not fooled.
Lower the prices absolute rip off
Wightlink’s CEO. Says Wightlink engages consistently with customers by conducting thousands of surveys every month”
I would love to see these ” thousands of surveys”!!
Really good point, I travel regularly and have never been asked to complete a survey, has anyone on here actually completed one?
1st off all drop the prices…..
Look after Islanders. Please We are the the dregs if we buy a book of tickets. Our life line is the Ferry. We do not mind your prophet. But please respect. Our needs. We need sailing times compatible with .needs. Ferry’s in Hong Kong. Could teach you as a company. Respect for Traveler’s .
Every business has got to make profit we know that ,but you don’t piss the people off who are making your profit , by robbing them for one and secondly until now being unapproachable , look after the hand that feeds you .
And yes there is room for concession prices for islanders considerable reduction looking at the profits made.
Reliability is another key factor too as 1% or 10% it’s all numbers belonging to the amount of crossings which actually causes mayhem to people who rely on the service in many ways
Cheaper fares would help for starters
Start accepting cash again in onboard cafes
Cash is legal tender, although they say they will not accept it, they CANNOT, offer to pay with cash, if they refuse, ask to see the boss in charge, if they still refuse to accept cash, walk off with the goods, you have offered to pay and THEY refused.
retailers have the right to accept any form of payment or method of payment they wish to – the only law is that they must pay taxes due in pounds sterling.
if wightlink only wish to accept cards they can – you can pay in sticks if they will accept it.
That’s a great idea.
If they refuse cash they are disrespecting King and Queen
it’s their face on the money and it states I promise to pay the bearer.
I use to frequently visit the Pearl Centre for food until they stopped
taking cash.
I have also stopped visiting Shanklin Chine for the same reason.
In my eyes they are breaking the Law of the country!
You do realise gary that “promise to pay the bearer” actually means nothing these days.
It is only on the notes as a nod to the original reason – our money was originally promissary notes, that were given to the depositor of gold. Rather than carry around gold, they deposited it safely and then kept the notes, which were also used to obtain goods and services. The holder of the note presented it at the depository, whereby the staff member read “promise to pay the bearer the sum of….” once redeemed, the amount of gold was handed over.
today, if you take a £20 note to the bank of england and say “it says promise to pay the bearer” – they will say yes, it is worth £20 – in otherwords, meaningless.
At PMQ’s in parliament in June 2023..
Do businesses have to accept cash?
Currently it’s down to the business what specific payment methods they accept – and there is no legal obligation to accept cash.
Some confusion can stem from the fact cash is often described as ‘legal tender’, however this doesn’t mean it’s your legal right to use it in a shop.
The Bank of England says legal tender has a ‘narrow technical meaning’, which has no use in everyday life.
It means that if you offer to fully pay off a debt to someone in legal tender, they can’t sue you for failing to repay
Offer discounts all year round like Red Funnel do.
At least bandits wear masks when they rob us.
What they dont realise it will eventually get to them, the amount of money its costs to get on and off this island is criminal, the cost is getting higher and higher and eventually businesses are going to have to charge more to compensate the cost for getting product on the island and it will slowly price people out of coming here or even living here. Ive never been one for the bridge or tunnel but what choice are we going to have? how much is the straw that finally breaks the camels back?
You tell us, how much are you prepared to pay to use the ferries then? How much would you be prepared to pay to cross a bridge/tunnel?
Personally, I think the £34 (car & 7 passengers) for regular users is a fair price. Even cheaper sometimes with their discount booklet for Islanders.
What a load of Betty Swallox
if your comment is not just total bullsh1t, I presume you’re a shareholder & not only get massively discounted fares, but a pocket full of cash as well….
the fares you quote are NEVER available to general IOW resdents
I take it you either work for Shitelink or know something the rest of us don’t? With most fares quoted at £200+ return I’d love to know how to get those cheap fares you claim you get?
If labour win the expected landslide, nationalisation will be on the cards eventually, or at least regulation. If current figures are true and borrowing is needed for investment, it could well mean the government buyout is cheaper than we’d think.
nothing will change at all -didn’t under the last labour government and won’t under any government – these are private businesses and unless the taxpayer is going to subsidise the ferries, which means paying the owners taxpayers cash, then there won’t be any unprofitable later services.
they have to generate excess cash to provide for unexpected costs and replacement/upgrades to the ferries
I thought you were a business owner karen – clearly you know nothing about sustaining capex/capex and ensuring that the cash runway is as long as possible to ensure business sustainability into the future.
Total nonsense, the days of nationalisation went out with the labour party being run by the kremlin, there is insufficent money available to nationalise at curent worth of companies and there would be far more pressing needs than a ferry compnay.
How about a island stakeholder on the board of directors to represent islanders views.
Plus a island rate for locals.
Islanders should pay a maxim return fare of £25.00
You are joking, Dream on!
return fare of £25.00 is probably unrealistic & would require massive subsidy from somewhere..
but making it £50-60 return, for Island Residents, for any duration (not just a day return), would not be unreasonable.
it makes absoltely no difference to their operating costs, whether you’re away for a few hours or a few weeks,… charging massivly increased fares for longer trips is just pure profiteering….
Car with 2 passengers, standard return. £340. Could not believe my eyes. Even with economy tickets, channel tunnel is cheaper.
I didn’t know the Channel tunnel linked to the Isle of Wight!
It doesn’t exactly encourage tourism to the Island does it..! Even visiting family is becoming an expensive exercise.
Both operators run a service that is disrupted more than I can ever remember.It is a service which is essential for island residents not a money making machine .
that is where you are wrong terry, they are “for profit” enterprises, offering travel to and from the isle of wight ..they are not paid to provide lifeline services
I think what you mean Terry, is that it SHOULD BE an essential service for island residents not a money making machine…
but of course as Jade points out, these are ‘private companies’ whose overriding legal responsibility is to make proffit for the shareholders…
generally they do this by providing a service to the public, but the overriding ‘raison d’etre’ is to make proffit.
Unfortunately, the principle of making as much profit as possible for as few people as possible (aka the rich get richer & the poor get poorer), is core Tory ethos…don’t like it, don’t vote for them…
(but it’s far too late for the majority of what should be the ‘public sector’, like water companies and these ferries)
They really are like the Tory party – ignorant of everything other than their own little world.
10 years ago we would use the ferry with our car at least once a month and family would visit us about 6 times.
This year we only plan on using the ferry once (out of season) and I tell my family please don’t visit as they have far more important things to spend their money on.
I would guess there are many island families in the same boat (literally) but the ferry’s still seem to be making a huge profit so they are finding paying passengers somewhere.
Not on topic but the rail network is equally as eye watering expensive. £200 return Portsmouth to Coventry for one person… with no guarantee any of the connections would run or be on time.
over £50 for a one way trip in a taxi from Ryde to cowes, weekdays during morning commuter times.
Wightlink is more expensive than Red Funnel but it has less distance In miles to cross the Solent and it’s fast Cat service runs at reduced speed to conserve fuel but again more expensive a single passenger ticket for over 60s is £16.50 a day return is £1.70 more so they have you over the barrel
Anyone see Seely’s Oscar winning performance in parliament yesterday ???
So impassioned was his performance in delivering his ‘report’ that I thought he was going to cry at one point…
So anti- the business / company ownership model of Wightlink and Red funnel, that I almost forgot he was a Tory for a minute or two…. calling for government interventions and regulation….
And when he had finished,.. the (deputy) minister stood up and said (in effect)
“Na… we (conservatives) like private companies that make massive profits,.. it fits the conservative ethos,.. so if you don’t like it,.. you’ll just have to do something about it yourself”.
Bob Seely,.. about as much use as chocolate fire-guard
Firstly I would lower the prices for island residents, as at the moment these prices are extortionate.
Tunnel ,bridge ,monorail.