HI All

TMC wrote:
"Adrian" wrote in message
...
HI Chris

Nice to hear from you !

wrote:
Adrian wrote:
We've diy-d a website, with an online e-petition (chance for you to
'diy' something!) which is part of a campaign to focus attention on the
problems caused by the loss of the ferry and bring pressure to bear on
those people who can do something about it to get the service
reinstated.

Apologies for the bandwidth - but if you'd care to drop along to

www.bringbacktheswanseacorkferry.com

and add your support to our e-petition then we'd be most grateful !

I'll quite happily support it but I don't think there's a lot of hope.
Ah well - we can but hope !

Ferries are generally an endangered species. Many of the 'neatest'
routes for us (in East Anglia) to mainland Europe have gone. There's
no longer a Felixstowe-Zeebrugge ferry, the Harwich-Hook of Holland
route has been effectively downgraded by the loss of the high speed
ferry. There also used to be a ro-ro service to Poland, that went
quite a while ago.

I think Speedferries has invigorated the short cross channel routes
but any routes that take more than an hour or two are dying out.
Thing is - this particular route is a bit 'special'.
Roads out here in the south-west of Ireland are (by UK standards) pretty
awful - so even quite short distances can take much longer than they would
in the UK.

Because of this, people (tourists, holiday homers and folks visting
relatives) heading for West Cork and Kerry are faced with four or five
hours 'extra' driving time - which is a rotten way to start & end your
holiday. Because of this, people are choosing to just go somewhere else -
which is really casing major problems for the local holiday industry.

Taking the old Swansea-Cork ferry meant that you could travel overnight
(cabin if you wanted) and arrive in Ireland refreshed and ready to enjoy
the rest of your holiday...

There's a bigger issue here, as well. There's someting odd about a ferry
company that sells its only boat before securing a replacement - and then
takes another 18 months to _not_ replace the boat. Whether such a
situation should be allowed to continue..? - given the knock-on effect on
local tourism & industry... I'm not a fan of nationalisation, but when the
failure of a private organisation to deliver has such an impact then maybe
it's the right way to go ??

All e-signatures are appreciated !

Thanks
Adrian


If the ferry is as important as you say it is, I am surprised that the
Irish government has not sought EU help to fund or subsidise a
replacement.

You & me both!
So far, attempts to involve the Government have not really been all that
successful (there's a news item about the most recent Questions &
Answers session on our news page
(http://www.bringbacktheswanseacorkfe...tml/news.html).
When asked to act, the Government seems to find it easiest to hide
behind a 'non-interventionist' policy - which neatly relieves them of
the need to actually _do_ anything...

Apparently EU subsidies were always available, although the Govt claimed
that they weren't....


Regular freight traffic is the bread and butter of many ferries and if there
is not enough demand in that area then not much chance

Looking at the accounts for the last years that the SwanseaCork ferry
ran there was a revenue split of 15% : 85% between freight and passenger
traffic.


Mind you as I could fly 2 people from Birmingham to Cork for less than the
cost of fuel to Swansea and back never mind the cost of the ferry it would
be cheaper to do this and hire a car in Cork

Yes - there's no doubt that the cheap air fares attract lots of
customers. Car hire isn't cheap over here - and many families with small
kids prefer to pack 'everything' in the car and then ferry across.
West Cork's a great place for watersports - and getting a kayak or a
windsurfer on Ryanair isn't easy!

We've seen a dramatic drop in the 'newly wed and the nearly dead' as one
market trader affectionately christened them. These are the retired and
the youngsters - who could take advantage of reduced travel and
accomodation rates in April - May and September - and many of whom liked
to bring their cars across on the ferry. This trade has all but
disappeared - reducing the 7-month tourist season to a 3-month season...


However I will sign your petition and good luck

That'd be great - many thanks...

Adrian