Speeding Ferry News
Over on This French Life, Craig McGinty was a bit quicker off the mark than I was with writing about SpeedFerries new foot passenger service so I won't repeat the details of his posting. Further details are on SpeedFerries website.
Whilst trying to find a ferry home from France on Monday (from McDonalds car park in Boulogne - see my Blog posting) I was looking at SpeedFerries website to see if they'd any news of the strike and when service might be resumed. Despite searching on all corners of their site I couldn't find any details of current sailing crossings (e.g. are they running on time or are there any localised delays) - black mark to Mr Stavis over this omission I feel.
Anyway I did come across a press release I hadn't seen before from May 2008 announcing that SpeedFerries have purchased SpeedOne the fast-cat they've had on hire from Incat since they started running in May 2004. The purchase comes as no real surprise as they've definitely established themselves as a viable ongoing ferry operation from Dover (with 12% of the ferry passenger vehicle market) and the monthly rental must have been an ongoing financial drain they were keen to remove.
Also mentioned in the press release was written confirmation that SpeedFerries are planning to source a second fast-cat to partner SpeedOne (and guess what it'll be called - no prizes for this one!) and that it might operate on alternative ferry routes.
There's been talk about SpeedFerries acquiring a second boat for some time now and I've even talked to crew myself onboard SpeedOne to see what they knew, but despite rumours for the last couple of years I've not seen it written on their website before. There's no additional news of a second boat on Incat's press releases so we'll have to wait and see what transpires.
It'll be really good if SpeedFerries do open up a second UK/France route, perhaps competing with LDLines on the 'mid-channel' (Le Havre and Dieppe), or even better with Brittany Ferries on the 'western channel' (St Malo, Cherbourg and Caen) - they could definitely do with some cut-price competition in my opinion as their fares right now can be quite outrageous.
Whilst trying to find a ferry home from France on Monday (from McDonalds car park in Boulogne - see my Blog posting) I was looking at SpeedFerries website to see if they'd any news of the strike and when service might be resumed. Despite searching on all corners of their site I couldn't find any details of current sailing crossings (e.g. are they running on time or are there any localised delays) - black mark to Mr Stavis over this omission I feel.
Anyway I did come across a press release I hadn't seen before from May 2008 announcing that SpeedFerries have purchased SpeedOne the fast-cat they've had on hire from Incat since they started running in May 2004. The purchase comes as no real surprise as they've definitely established themselves as a viable ongoing ferry operation from Dover (with 12% of the ferry passenger vehicle market) and the monthly rental must have been an ongoing financial drain they were keen to remove.
Also mentioned in the press release was written confirmation that SpeedFerries are planning to source a second fast-cat to partner SpeedOne (and guess what it'll be called - no prizes for this one!) and that it might operate on alternative ferry routes.
There's been talk about SpeedFerries acquiring a second boat for some time now and I've even talked to crew myself onboard SpeedOne to see what they knew, but despite rumours for the last couple of years I've not seen it written on their website before. There's no additional news of a second boat on Incat's press releases so we'll have to wait and see what transpires.
It'll be really good if SpeedFerries do open up a second UK/France route, perhaps competing with LDLines on the 'mid-channel' (Le Havre and Dieppe), or even better with Brittany Ferries on the 'western channel' (St Malo, Cherbourg and Caen) - they could definitely do with some cut-price competition in my opinion as their fares right now can be quite outrageous.
Labels: Ferry, SpeedFerries
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