Brittany Ferries 1 P&O 0

[brianhumber]

If my reading of today's announcement is correct then P&O have indeed chucked in the towel as regards Ferries out of Portsmouth, they are giving up on passengers to Cherbourg, Caen and Le Harve.
Mention is made of ferries being leased to Brittany Ferries, handed back and sold but unclear as to which ie Traditional or Fast Cat.
I am normally EU positive but it does seem that the investment in new Ferries for Britanny paid for by Paris but unchecked by Brussels has been the final nail in the coffin for P&O.
Wonder what this will do for fares etc any bets on 100% upwards increase? or will another operator come in at Newhaven.
My sympathies with the staff at this unsettling time having been there myself

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[Sybarite]

As the reason given by P&O was competition from rail and cheap airlines I don't think there will be much scope for price increases.

John

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[TheBoatman]

Brian
It maybe the final nail in P & O's cross channel routes but I think they want to dump them so that it doesn't drag down their cruse market. Without a doubt their Dover routes are being heavily hit due to the French having put up duty on fags and booze so that the booze-cruisers are now going to Belgium.
All the same I feel sorry for the work-force as getting a job in the shipping industry in this country is going to be difficult to say the least.

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[Twister_Ken]

Sympathy for P&O misplaced

Anyone who has ever tried to book a single foot passenger ticket to or from Cherbourg to pick up a boat will shed no tears over P&O's passing. Rip-off doesn't begin to describe their attitude.

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[robp]

Re: Sympathy for P&O misplaced

I complained about that last year and actually got a full refund!

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[tome]

Re: Sympathy for P&O misplaced

All very well Ken, but how else are we going to find Cherbourg when the GPS packs up?

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[Twister_Ken]

Re: Sympathy for P&O misplaced

>All very well Ken, but how else are we going to find Cherbourg when the GPS packs up? <

If you hurry, you should still be able to find it by following the line of empty beer cans floating mid-channel.

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[brianhumber]

Re: Sympathy for P&O misplaced

Ken
Agree about some of the company's practices, but I was expressing sympathy for say the 4th Engineer, 3rd Mate who had no input into the policies and have just lost their jobs which will not be that easy to replace. If you have a young family what do you do - no other ferry jobs so go deep sea for 6 months at a time or change careers

on a completly different topic when do the forumites stop X channelling. I have sea leave permission for the weekend 9/10th and was pondering a Fecamp/St Vaast/Cherburg jolly.

Bri

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[davehu]

I must say I not surprised. I would expect that brittanny will take over the Le Harve and Cherbourg routes but overall will have fewer sailings on each route, so they may not even need any more ferries. If they halved the frequency to Caen they could provide a cherbourg service with the same ship.

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[Clive_Rigden]

I understand that Mearsk of Denmark are building three (I think I heard) new ferries for Channel routes.

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[Chris_Robb]

Re: Sympathy for P&O misplaced

Brtianny Ferries run exactly - and I mean exactly - the same rate for a one way foot passenger. Cartel springs to mind. However if Britanny Ferries have been subsuidised out of Paris then we should ban them docking - life's so unfair.....

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[oldgit]

Was all expressed by passenger at Waterloo station.

On Radio Kent this morning.'Ferries,who has got the time to use a ferry nowadays'
An american tourist mentioned he was off to Paris for a bit of lunch and then back to London in the evening.


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[Oldhand]

Re: Was all expressed by passenger at Waterloo station.

Well we have. Lunch at home, dinner in St Helier and back around midnight, by ferry yesterday. Ferry cruised at 39 to 41.5 knots, had duty free and each passenger could have about 15 seats. Hate to think how much fuel was used.

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