Wightlink Sell Off

[Wiggo]

A snippet in todays (30th January 2005) sunday Times.

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/printFr...462017,00.html

Wiggo..........

[Craig]

One thing I cannot understand is why no-one like Speedferries has not moved in on the IOW routes. Short route to offer a lot of rotations each day, a guaranteed market that is begging for lower prices - indeed with lower prices the market could increase as more could afford to commute to mainland for work, relatively sheltered area less prone to weather.

Am I being to simplistic, or perhaps people are waiting to see how the Speedferries model performs before emulating it elsewhere ?

[Unregistered User]

We have a nasty feeling at the back of our minds, that there is some form of, shall we say, gentleman's agreement between certain parties that nobody else will get a look in on the services to IOW . Can remember vaguely that the "Virgin" empire tried to get in a few years ago, but were blocked by some organization. We have always said that these services are a grace and favour duo-monopoly. Just ask yourself this question: Why don't Whightlink and Red Funnel compete with each other?

Micheil & Jacqui

[Millsy]

Don't know about gentlemen's agreements etc. but wonder if these services are protected a bit by their railway history and the fact they operate from terminals owned by, or leased to, the operators exclusively? For example BR owned Ryde Pier (I still have a ticket issued in 1975 when they used to charge a toll for just walking up and down it!) Any new entrant denied the use of these berths would be hard pushed to find alternatives in Pompey. For passengers the only other point used to any extent, historically, was Clarence Pier. A pre-condition for competition has to be open access terminals or developement of new ones - a capital investment likely to deter most.

That said, about 30 years ago there was a short lived passenger Hovercraft service from Portsmouth to East Cowes (the terminal office there if I remember rightly was a wooden pre-fab)and remember that there's still a similar service from Clarence Pier to Ryde now - with useful transfer bus from Town station.