Cloud Strife
Established Member
- Joined
- 25 Feb 2014
- Messages
- 2,964
Seeing as there isn't a dedicated thread here dedicated to Jadrolinija's operations, I thought I'd start one. I'm on holiday in Croatia now, and after using several of their services, I'd like to give some opinions too.
First things first: their general shoreside infrastructure is very, very poor. While it's improving, such as with the new port in Zadar-Gaženica, there are still a lot of ferry terminals situated right in the centre of towns and villages. To give a couple of examples:
Orebić -
www.google.com
Biograd na Moru -
www.google.com
Trpanj - https://www.google.com/maps/@43.009...A2tOYYDTw559J6vA!2e0!7i13312!8i6656?entry=ttu
Makarska -
www.google.com
Split - https://www.google.com/maps/@43.505...MfROQdcghACit8_Q!2e0!7i16384!8i8192?entry=ttu
As you can see, cars have to queue right in the middle of town, with very little space to accommodate large amounts of traffic.
But that's not all. Even when the infrastructure is located outside of towns, it's often very poorly organised and designed.
Korcula -
www.google.com
Pinezići -
www.google.com
The issue in many terminals is that the ticket sales are often not in the port itself, but rather somewhere on the access road. You can see this in the example from Pinezići, where the ticket office is located on the entrance to the terminal, but this causes people to stop there to buy tickets rather than proceeding straight into the queuing lanes.
Then you have the issue of access roads being blocked. The textbook example of this is here:
Sućuraj -
www.google.com
The terminal itself is far too small to accommodate the crowds in summer, so traffic is often backed up for several hundred metres along the only access road. Sućuraj is one of the better terminals in that tickets are sold within the terminal building, but the terminal building itself is run down and only has an outside window for ticket sales along with a cafe.
Now, talking about the Jadrolinija operations themselves: they are a genuine mystery. While things have been improved in recent years through reservations for longer routes such as Split-Stari Grad, the problem is that there is absolutely no control over who enters the queues for the ferry. Take a look here, from Split: https://www.google.com/maps/@43.505...myeOAf_r7LEwoLWg!2e0!7i13312!8i6656?entry=ttu
Let's say you have a ticket for the 17:00 sailing to Stari Grad. There is no control over who enters the queue, so as a result, Jadrolinija requires travellers to turn up 45 minutes before departure on a 2 hour route. I spent an hour there a couple of years ago, and what happened in practice was that entry to the ship was first-come-first-served, regardless of reservations. There are some easy solutions here, such as requiring tickets to be scanned on entry to the queues, but this seems to be beyond the comprehension of Jadrolinija.
But that's not all. For most of Jadrolinja's services, they do not sell reservations for a particular sailing. It's simply first-come-first-served, even on very busy services such as Sućuraj-Drvenik where the capacity of the ships are tiny. The end result is that you can be waiting for 3-4 hours during summer, while Jadrolinja seems to have a very unpredictable approach to operating additional ferries if needs be. The timetables seem to be abandoned as soon as traffic dictates it, but this inability to organise traffic leads to a lot of frustration in summer.
The other issue is that simply put, their fleet is suffering from the CalMac problem of being too old and not fit for purpose. Some of their ships are now over 50 years old, while even their international lines feature outdated tonnage. An example is the M/T Marko Polo, which normally operates to Ancona. It dates from 1973, and is really undersized for international routes. There are some good ships operating though, such as the MV Sveti Krševan between Korcula and Orebić. However, even this suffers from a lack of speed, causing it to take 20 minutes on a 3.5km route.
Then there is the issue of the fare system, which seems to be based mainly on charging tourists high amounts in summer. Some of the fares are frankly ridiculous for such short runs: a private operator operates a foot passenger only ferry between Orebić and Korcula for 3.05 Euro with docking in Korcula Old Town. In comparison, Jadrolinija charge 3.99 Euro for the run from the out-of-town Domince terminal to Orebić. Yet in low season, the fare reduces to 2.26 Euro. At the same time, the Split-Stari Grad fare is just 8.10 Euro despite being significantly longer and with far larger vessels.
All in all, while Jadrolinija are known for maintaining service in difficult weather conditions, the company is very much a state owned relic from a previous era. Things are getting better, such as with new terminals planned and the tendering for three electric ferries, but it's obvious that Croatia has the same problems with Jadrolinija as Scotland has with Calmac.
Does anyone here have any experiences with Jadrolinija to share?
First things first: their general shoreside infrastructure is very, very poor. While it's improving, such as with the new port in Zadar-Gaženica, there are still a lot of ferry terminals situated right in the centre of towns and villages. To give a couple of examples:
Orebić -
Google Maps
Find local businesses, view maps and get driving directions in Google Maps.
www.google.com
Google Maps
Find local businesses, view maps and get driving directions in Google Maps.
www.google.com
Makarska -
Google Maps
Find local businesses, view maps and get driving directions in Google Maps.
www.google.com
As you can see, cars have to queue right in the middle of town, with very little space to accommodate large amounts of traffic.
But that's not all. Even when the infrastructure is located outside of towns, it's often very poorly organised and designed.
Korcula -
Google Maps
Find local businesses, view maps and get driving directions in Google Maps.
www.google.com
Google Maps
Find local businesses, view maps and get driving directions in Google Maps.
www.google.com
The issue in many terminals is that the ticket sales are often not in the port itself, but rather somewhere on the access road. You can see this in the example from Pinezići, where the ticket office is located on the entrance to the terminal, but this causes people to stop there to buy tickets rather than proceeding straight into the queuing lanes.
Then you have the issue of access roads being blocked. The textbook example of this is here:
Sućuraj -
Google Maps
Find local businesses, view maps and get driving directions in Google Maps.
www.google.com
The terminal itself is far too small to accommodate the crowds in summer, so traffic is often backed up for several hundred metres along the only access road. Sućuraj is one of the better terminals in that tickets are sold within the terminal building, but the terminal building itself is run down and only has an outside window for ticket sales along with a cafe.
Now, talking about the Jadrolinija operations themselves: they are a genuine mystery. While things have been improved in recent years through reservations for longer routes such as Split-Stari Grad, the problem is that there is absolutely no control over who enters the queues for the ferry. Take a look here, from Split: https://www.google.com/maps/@43.505...myeOAf_r7LEwoLWg!2e0!7i13312!8i6656?entry=ttu
Let's say you have a ticket for the 17:00 sailing to Stari Grad. There is no control over who enters the queue, so as a result, Jadrolinija requires travellers to turn up 45 minutes before departure on a 2 hour route. I spent an hour there a couple of years ago, and what happened in practice was that entry to the ship was first-come-first-served, regardless of reservations. There are some easy solutions here, such as requiring tickets to be scanned on entry to the queues, but this seems to be beyond the comprehension of Jadrolinija.
But that's not all. For most of Jadrolinja's services, they do not sell reservations for a particular sailing. It's simply first-come-first-served, even on very busy services such as Sućuraj-Drvenik where the capacity of the ships are tiny. The end result is that you can be waiting for 3-4 hours during summer, while Jadrolinja seems to have a very unpredictable approach to operating additional ferries if needs be. The timetables seem to be abandoned as soon as traffic dictates it, but this inability to organise traffic leads to a lot of frustration in summer.
The other issue is that simply put, their fleet is suffering from the CalMac problem of being too old and not fit for purpose. Some of their ships are now over 50 years old, while even their international lines feature outdated tonnage. An example is the M/T Marko Polo, which normally operates to Ancona. It dates from 1973, and is really undersized for international routes. There are some good ships operating though, such as the MV Sveti Krševan between Korcula and Orebić. However, even this suffers from a lack of speed, causing it to take 20 minutes on a 3.5km route.
Then there is the issue of the fare system, which seems to be based mainly on charging tourists high amounts in summer. Some of the fares are frankly ridiculous for such short runs: a private operator operates a foot passenger only ferry between Orebić and Korcula for 3.05 Euro with docking in Korcula Old Town. In comparison, Jadrolinija charge 3.99 Euro for the run from the out-of-town Domince terminal to Orebić. Yet in low season, the fare reduces to 2.26 Euro. At the same time, the Split-Stari Grad fare is just 8.10 Euro despite being significantly longer and with far larger vessels.
All in all, while Jadrolinija are known for maintaining service in difficult weather conditions, the company is very much a state owned relic from a previous era. Things are getting better, such as with new terminals planned and the tendering for three electric ferries, but it's obvious that Croatia has the same problems with Jadrolinija as Scotland has with Calmac.
Does anyone here have any experiences with Jadrolinija to share?