Isle of Wight ferries

[Meerkat]

The effect of a near-monopoly - the fare is driven by what the market will bear, not by what it costs to provide + a reasonable profit margin.

There are lots of competing ways of getting from Canary Wharf to Central London which limit what people are willing to pay. But not so many to & from Ryde ...

mods note - split from this thread:

Isle of Wight Island line

Just had a good weekend exploring the Isle of Wight railways, national rail and the steam line. We travelled the national rail line a couple of times and nowhere did I see any maintenance vehicles. There are sheds at St Johns Road, maybe the engineering vehicles were there. So how do they...

www.railforums.co.uk

Is Wightlink making big profits or does the fare reflect big increases in fuel and staff costs and maybe greater safety costs now?
As a nationalised company owns the pier is there no legal way the government can restrict its use to a company that charges reasonable fares?

 

[swt_passenger]

Is Wightlink making big profits or does the fare reflect big increases in fuel and staff costs and maybe greater safety costs now?
As a nationalised company owns the pier is there no legal way the government can restrict its use to a company that charges reasonable fares?

AIUI the private company Wightlink actually owns the road pier and pierhead, Network Rail only owns the railway pier. They are completely separate structures for almost the entire length.

 

[Meerkat]

AIUI the private company Wightlink actually owns the road pier and pierhead, Network Rail only owns the railway pier. They are completely separate structures for almost the entire length.

Foiled!
Has there ever been any hint of a monopolies investigation of the ferries?

 

[swt_passenger]

Foiled!
Has there ever been any hint of a monopolies investigation of the ferries?

I‘m not sure. There have definitely always been complaints about the fares, both Wightlink and Red Funnel get very similar criticism. I suspect any analysis would find they’re just very expensive operations, staffing levels must be very high for one thing.

 

[DelW]

Is Wightlink making big profits or does the fare reflect big increases in fuel and staff costs and maybe greater safety costs now?
As a nationalised company owns the pier is there no legal way the government can restrict its use to a company that charges reasonable fares?

Wightlink has been owned by a succession of private equity companies for the last two decades or so, including (at one time) Macquarie, infamous for loading Thames Water with so much debt that it's on the point of financial collapse.

The main aim of private equity companies is to divert as much money as possible into linked companies in tax havens, then into their own pockets. They don't need to publish financial results in the way listed companies do, and they make it nearly impossible for outsiders to see where the money goes, and how much they're extracting from the business.

 

[Meerkat]

I‘m not sure. There have definitely always been complaints about the fares, both Wightlink and Red Funnel get very similar criticism. I suspect any analysis would find they’re just very expensive operations, staffing levels must be very high for one thing.

Oh well, have to wait for the promised dead cheap flying drone taxis. They’re just round the corner allegedly (but then they were promised in the books I had as a kid…….)

 

[Gloster]

About fifteen years ago the matter did get as far as the Office of Fair Trading, but they didn’t do much and it didn’t get passed to the Competition Commission. There have been squawks from the island’s Conservative MPs, no doubt as a result of the regular deluge of complaints to them, but they have never really pushed it as they don’t want to upset the private apple cart. The recently elected Labour MP for West Wight has made an issue of it, but whether he will achieve much I know not.

 

[hermit]

Foiled!
Has there ever been any hint of a monopolies investigation of the ferries?

The Office of Fair trading looked into this in 2009 and decided against referring the matter to the competition authorities on the grounds that competition was working reasonably well. Their only recommendations were that the companies should improve the information that they put out, presumably so that there would be more competitive pressure. Even at the time this seemed a pathetic cop-out, as it was obvious that there was no effective competition on price between the operators (rather similar to the high prices that prevailed on the Channel when P&O and Seafrance had a duopoly).

Since then of course, the financial gouging has only increased, and there is much less blind faith in the ‘magic of the market’ to promote efficiency and economy. A new investigation of some sort is long overdue.

As stated above, the direct costs of providing the service are only part of the reason for the level of fares. There is also a high degree of profit extraction, and the costs of servicing the huge debts loaded on to both Wightlink and Red Funnel are enormous.

 

[Tetchytyke]

Wightlink has been owned by a succession of private equity companies for the last two decades or so, including (at one time) Macquarie, infamous for loading Thames Water with so much debt that it's on the point of financial collapse.

The main aim of private equity companies is to divert as much money as possible into linked companies in tax havens, then into their own pockets. They don't need to publish financial results in the way listed companies do, and they make it nearly impossible for outsiders to see where the money goes, and how much they're extracting from the business.

Macquarie had the Steam Packet for a while. Loaded it with debt and when defaulted on the debt it bounced through a succession of banks who didn’t care. There’s a reason why our government bought the Steam Packet back into public ownership. I can’t see that the Isle of Wight have the same ability.

It’s partly just a fact of life of living on an island. They can charge it, so they do. EasyJet fares from here to Liverpool- a distance of about 70 miles- are often higher than from Liverpool to Spain.

 

[Meerkat]

There is also a high degree of profit extraction

Is this a fact that you can prove, or an assumption?

 

[hermit]

Is this a fact that you can prove, or an assumption?

The convoluted and opaque ownership structure of the company makes it difficult for outsiders to get the full picture, but in simple terms Wightlink‘s 2022/23 figures were revenue of £71m and profit of £15m.

 

[Meerkat]

The convoluted and opaque ownership structure of the company makes it difficult for outsiders to get the full picture, but in simple terms Wightlink‘s 2022/23 figures were revenue of £71m and profit of £15m.

Have you got a link for that please?

 

[hermit]

Have you got a link for that please?

Sorry, not very good at links, but if you Google Wightlink profits you will see reports from Island Echo and Private Eye, inter alia. There is a more detailed analysis on the Wightlink User Group site.

 

[zwk500]

Have you got a link for that please?

Company accounts available on Companies house (Link to PDF)



(Image showing summary table of 2022/23 Accounts for wightlink).

 

[Backroom_boy]

Company accounts available on Companies house (Link to PDF)

View attachment 171024

(Image showing summary table of 2022/23 Accounts for wightlink).

Sounds like a near 20% profit margin? Which is usually considered a high margin. So way more than a TOC but I imagine they have a lot of liabilities and asset renewal that TOCs don't have to worry about.

 

[m0ffy]

It’s a funny old game. Red Falcon (one of Red Funnel’s ferries) ran over a yacht it was overtaking in the Solent a few years ago and her master admitted he wasn’t keeping watch, yet the MAIB only found Falcon at partial fault.

 

[weeklycommuter]

The six services at present connecting the Isle of Wight with the mainland are
Red Funnel Redjet passenger ferry Southampton to Cowes
Red Funnel car ferry Southampton to East Cowes
Wightlink car ferry Lymington to Yarmouth
Wightlink car ferry Portsmouth to Fishbourne
Wightlink fastcat passenger ferry Portsmouth Harbour Station to Ryde Pier Head
Hovertravel hovercraft Southsea to Ryde Esplanade
I assume if Wightlink Hovertravel and Red Funnel all failed the Government would have to take over and run the first five services on the list but the hovercraft service Southsea to Ryde Esplanade would be abandoned There are only 78 seats on the hovercraft compared with 260 seats on the fastcat and the fastcat connects directly with the railway Gosport Ferry and bus interchange at Portsmouth Harbour Station However if Hovertravel alone failed there would be an issue with lack of competition for and possibly capacity on the Wightlink fastcat passenger ferry if this were left to run as a purely commercial service with no regulation

If there is a Government take over of any of the Isle of Wight ferry services I expect they would be run by the new Hampshire and Isle of Wight Combined Authority which is expected to be elected in 2026

 

[Peter Mugridge]

The hovercraft is unlikely to fail; it's profitable... so that would continue even if the five conventional ferry services fell into Government hands.

It may only have 78 seats per craft, but there is enough demand that they often add extra flights at short notice, especially when there are events taking place. It's also only a ten minute crossing so those 78 seats can move more people per hour than it looks at first glance.

 

[Jimini]

Company Update | Isle of Wight Ferry

www.hovertravel.co.uk

Company Update - 22/01/25​

Dear Customer,

You may have read in the media, during early December, that the company started a comprehensive commercial review due to the continued decline in numbers travelling across the Solent since the Pandemic, the ongoing challenging economic conditions, and the measures announced in the recent Budget. This involved all our staff at all levels in each department and was conducted with involvement of our union.

The review is now complete and to provide as much notice to you as possible, we are announcing some adjustments to our timetable:

• From 17th February, our current (winter) timetable will be amended to start with the first departure of the day at 0630 from Ryde and finishing with last departure at 1845 from Southsea on weekdays.
• The weekend timetable will be unchanged in the morning but the last departure from Southsea will be 1845.
• The Summer timetable from 7th April will include the start time of 0630 from Ryde in the morning with the last departure from Southsea at 1930 in the evening.
• The flexibility to add extra services during the day is retained so if customer demand increases, we can add flights as required.
• For later flights such as Victorious and our Pompey home matches we are committed with the support of our staff to be able to offer these as required, full details will be on our website.

Our IT team have started to move customers’ bookings to the new times but if you wish to make further revisions these can be done in the My Hover Account or please speak to our friendly call centre staff.
Whilst the review has been challenging for our teams, it enables our company to look forward to our 60th anniversary which we are celebrating this year.

Finally, you may know one of our hovercraft, Solent Flyer, is at Portchester as part of its annual maintenance and refit programme. The undercover facility at the Griffon Hoverwork shipyard will be used for a variety of maintenance tasks.

The Hovertravel Team

With that new timetable (and very early close of service), I’d imagine Wightlink will do rather nicely out of that.

 

[david1212]

Updated 11/03/2025 @ 15:00

Red Funnel are down one ferry out of three so only a departure each way every 3 hours plus the freight ferry Red Kestrel. A limitation of the latter is that it can only carry 12 passengers.

It is likely there will be delays as often they can not unload and reload a ferry loaded at or close to full capacity in 30 minutes.

Red Funnel’s dedicated freight ferry

Measuring 74m in length, Red Kestrel provides 265 lane metres of roll-on/roll-off freight capacity and space for up to 12 passengers.

The service status is now showing as green since they are operating the updated published timetable for today.
Just like the railway the fact that except late evening and overnight 50% of the main sailings are cancelled against the long term planned timetable does not count.

Red Eagle is away at Falmouth for annual refit / maintenance.
Red Falcon has been to Falmouth and was there longer than expected only returning mid-January but was taken out of service Satuday afternoon.
The Red Funnel website Service Status page currently ( 11/03/25 @ 15:00 ) states Red Falcon is now out of service until Thursday Friday morning

VEHICLE FERRY - 11 March to 13 March

Red Falcon has suffered a suspected failure on an inlet valve, which is causing damage to her forward main engine’s turbocharger. Components have been sent off for further investigation, and in the meantime, we’ve made the difficult decision to withdraw her from service. Whilst this news is disappointing, it is crucial to address the issue immediately to prevent further complications.

With our other vehicle ferry, Red Eagle, undergoing its scheduled annual refit, we’ll be extending a revised vehicle ferry timetable up to, and including, Thursday 13 March.

During this period, Red Osprey will operate the following daily crossings:

Departing Southampton: 03:00, 06:00, 09:00, 12:00, 15:00, 18:00, 21:00 & 23:55
Departing East Cowes: 01:30, 04:30, 07:30, 10:30, 13:30, 16:30, 19:30 & 22:30

To increase available deck space, we will also run additional sailings via our freight ferry, Red Kestrel.

We sincerely apologise for this disruption and are working hard to resolve the issue as quickly as possible. We are in the process of moving traffic and contacting affected customers with changes to their travel times, so please bear with us and we will be in touch shortly.

Red Osprey went to Falmouth for around a month after Red Falcon returned but is not 100% fit as recently during poor weather it was out of use with the reason stated as the conditions being beyond it's current operating limits. ( I can not quote the exact wording as now as not a live statement ). I have now found an older reference to this. ( 10/12/2024 )

At the weekend, the cross-Solent operator hardly ran its vehicle ferry service due to Storm Darragh with the ‘operating limits’ of Red Osprey – thought to mean that it is running at reduced engine power – being exceeded.

From Tuesday 22 April to Monday 19 May it is planned to be out of service.

VEHICLE FERRY SERVICE - 22 April to 19 May

To ensure Red Osprey’s continued reliability and resilience ahead of the summer season, we’ve made an adjustment to the annual refit schedule and will be running a revised timetable between 22 April - 19 May.

From here ( 10/12/2024 )

Red Falcon – the third ferry in the fleet – is currently in drydock at Falmouth as part of its annual refit. It has been revealed to Island Echo that the works will overrun due to all 16 engine pistons – and a damaged drive gear – having to be replaced.

It’s understood that every piston from the 2 engines have been condemned, but there are only 7 pistons readily available to Red Funnel’s engineering team. It means 9 more pistons are now being desperately sought to put the engines back together, but these are not expected to arrive until January.
...
Red Osprey is expected to then go into drydock with engineers anticipating her engines to be in a similar state. A 3-boat service is not expected to resume until the end of March 2025

then from here ( 30/12/2024 )

It’s said that essential maintenance needs to be carried out on Red Osprey.

It’s known that the vessel is limping along with its engines thought to be in a similar state to that of Red Falcon’s, which has had to have all 16 pistons replaced whilst in drydock.

Hence for this period the planned timetable will be as now - a 90 minute frequency except not at 22:30 and 01:30 from Southampton and the matching returns from East Cowes.

 

[43055]

Updated 11/03/2025 @ 15:00

Red Funnel are down one ferry out of three so only a departure each way every 3 hours plus the freight ferry Red Kestrel. A limitation of the latter is that it can only carry 12 passengers.

It is likely there will be delays as often they can not unload and reload a ferry loaded at or close to full capacity in 30 minutes.



The service status is now showing as green since they are operating the updated published timetable for today.
Just like the railway the fact that except late evening and overnight 50% of the main sailings are cancelled against the long term planned timetable does not count.

Red Eagle is away at Falmouth for annual refit / maintenance.
Red Falcon has been to Falmouth and was there longer than expected only returning mid-January but was taken out of service Satuday afternoon.
The Red Funnel website Service Status page currently ( 11/03/25 @ 15:00 ) states Red Falcon is now out of service until Thursday Friday morning



Red Osprey went to Falmouth for around a month after Red Falcon returned but is not 100% fit as recently during poor weather it was out of use with the reason stated as the conditions being beyond it's current operating limits. ( I can not quote the exact wording as now as not a live statement ). I have now found an older reference to this. ( 10/12/2024 )



From Tuesday 22 April to Monday 19 May it is planned to be out of service.



From here ( 10/12/2024 )


then from here ( 30/12/2024 )


Hence for this period the planned timetable will be as now - a 90 minute frequency except not at 22:30 and 01:30 from Southampton and the matching returns from East Cowes.

Red Falcon is still out of service although sea trials are planned for today.

 

[trainmania100]

Spent about £360 on return car ticket for August. £175 each way. I suppose their ro ro ferries are predominantly popular with cars rather than individuals , needing to cover costs of onboarding etc

 

[david1212]

Red Falcon is still out of service although sea trials are planned for today.

It was Monday afternoon before Red Falcon was taken out for trials.

Finally today a two ferry / 90 minute service again plus the freight ferry Red Kestrel.

I have no knowledge of the maintenance schedules but the only opportunity to do anything on Red Osprey over 10 days was early Sunday as no 03:00 saling.

Red Eagle did show as booked to return from Falmouth last weekend but cancelled. Now showing as Thursday @ 23:59 which in reality is unlikely.

Spent about £360 on return car ticket for August. £175 each way. I suppose their ro ro ferries are predominantly popular with cars rather than individuals , needing to cover costs of onboarding etc

To repeat my post from 2 years ago
https://www.railforums.co.uk/threads/isle-of-wight-ferry-ticket-prices.245517/post-6132407

We are sailing, we are sailing,
Once again cross the sea.
We are sailing across the Solent,
Fleecing you and your family.

Aside from very short crossings the Solent is renowned as one of the most expensive ferry crossings per (nautical) mile / km in the world.

I have no ideas about subsidy but this summer for Oban <> Craignure return a car is £35.20, each adult including the driver £9.40 and each child £4.70.

Reference - I can't seem to link the fares tab/page.

Oban - Craignure | Caledonian MacBrayne Official ferry service to the Scottish Isles | Caledonian MacBrayne

Official Caledonian MacBrayne Oban to Craignure ferry timetables, fares and travel info for Mull. Book direct for reliable service.

www.calmac.co.uk

 

[43055]

It was Monday afternoon before Red Falcon was taken out for trials.

Finally today a two ferry / 90 minute service again plus the freight ferry Red Kestrel.

I have no knowledge of the maintenance schedules but the only opportunity to do anything on Red Osprey over 10 days was early Sunday as no 03:00 saling.

Red Eagle did show as booked to return from Falmouth last weekend but cancelled. Now showing as Thursday @ 23:59 which in reality is unlikely.




To repeat my post from 2 years ago
https://www.railforums.co.uk/threads/isle-of-wight-ferry-ticket-prices.245517/post-6132407



I have no ideas about subsidy but this summer for Oban <> Craignure return a car is £35.20, each adult including the driver £9.40 and each child £4.70.

Reference - I can't seem to link the fares tab/page.

Oban - Craignure | Caledonian MacBrayne Official ferry service to the Scottish Isles | Caledonian MacBrayne

Official Caledonian MacBrayne Oban to Craignure ferry timetables, fares and travel info for Mull. Book direct for reliable service.

www.calmac.co.uk

Wonder if they are doing extra work to Red Eagle so it doesn't end up like the other two when it comes back.

The thing it the fares can be 'reasonable'. Two years back we took the Red Funnel for a day trip to the island and it was only £65 for 4 of us and a car return. Probably because it was a Wednesday in school term time.

 

[Gloster]

Wonder if they are doing extra work to Red Eagle so it doesn't end up like the other two when it comes back.

The thing it the fares can be 'reasonable'. Two years back we took the Red Funnel for a day trip to the island and it was only £65 for 4 of us and a car return. Probably because it was a Wednesday in school term time.

I think that more work is to be done on Red Eagle and it won’t be back until circa 4 April. I presume that the reduced timetable will remain in force.

 

[chiltern trev]

How does one arrive at the position of all 16 pistons being condemned and in 2 ferries?

Bad fuel? Engine management system sub optimal? Or simply engines not up to the long term job?

== Doublepost prevention - post automatically merged: 31 Mar 2025 ==

Calmac fares use a completely different model - based on road equivalent miles - this heavily subsided.

 

[DelW]

How does one arrive at the position of all 16 pistons being condemned and in 2 ferries?

Bad fuel? Engine management system sub optimal? Or simply engines not up to the long term job?

There's a reference to "and a damaged drive gear – having to be replaced". Depending on the engine design and layout, it's possible that a failed camshaft drive might have caused pistons to hit valves in every cylinder.

It doesn't explain how or why that happened on two engines more or less at the same time though, or why a second boat might have the same engine problems.

 

[pompeyfan]

Does Hovertravel reveal a statement of accounts? I think their a limited company owned by the Bland Group so I don’t think they have to release their books.

I only ask as I’ve been told several times unofficially that they’re financially unstable. I would hate to see the business have to make further reductions or go under as they’re unique and a novelty, but their summer timetable doesn’t make for good reading, and the loadings are regularly quite poor.

 

[zwk500]

Does Hovertravel reveal a statement of accounts? I think their a limited company owned by the Bland Group so I don’t think they have to release their books.

2024 Accounts available on Companies House: https://find-and-update.company-information.service.gov.uk/company/00830401/filing-history

I only ask as I’ve been told several times unofficially that they’re financially unstable. I would hate to see the business have to make further reductions or go under as they’re unique and a novelty, but their summer timetable doesn’t make for good reading, and the loadings are regularly quite poor.

They made a loss of £780,000 in 2024, and £1.2m before that. The service itself looks viable (not clear if it's profitable today), it's their debts that seem to be quite substantial. But I've got no particular training or experience with accounts, so could be quite wrong on that.

 

[43055]

I think that more work is to be done on Red Eagle and it won’t be back until circa 4 April. I presume that the reduced timetable will remain in force.

Red Eagle is back at Southampton but now has a technical issue so all three have gone to Falmouth and come back with some sort of issue!

Ferry suffers 'technical issue' on return to sea

Passengers on Red Funnel vehicle ferry services between East Cowes and Southampton face disruption.

www.bbc.co.uk

Ferry passengers were facing disruption on Saturday after a vessel broke down, having just returned to service.
Red Funnel said its Red Eagle vehicle ferry, sailing between between East Cowes and Southampton, had suffered a "technical issue".
The ferry had been delayed in returning to service after its annual refit.
A number of sailings were cancelled during the morning, with the operator apologising for inconvenience to passengers.

The ferry company also cancelled the 12:30 BST sailing from East Cowes and the 14:00 crossing from Southampton.
The non-league football match between Sherborne Town and Cowes Sports, due to be played in Dorset, was cancelled as the Cowes club was "unable to make alternative travel arrangements", according to the Wessex League.
Red Funnel had extended its winter timetable until 4 April due to Red Eagle's delayed return from its annual refit.
It previously said it had been discovered, as the vessel was leaving dry dock, that it needed further work, meaning legally-required inspections had to be rearranged.
Red Funnel has been contacted for further comment.