| # | Comments |
|---|---|
| 2601 | Having spent the majority of the last year in and out of Southampton hospital with my now 16mth old son, the cost of ferry travel has really hit home. We could not use special offers as he was often admitted as an emergency and we would never know when we would be returning home. We once paid £45 for a ticket only to have to pay a further £26 to upgrade it as he was discharged a day later than expected-how can this be a fair price? |
| 2602 | Why should islanders be blackmailed for hundreds of pounds when having to go to the main land to visit hospitals, or stay with sick children as my family have had to do over the past 15 months. |
| 2603 | There should be a discount for Islanders. As a guest house owner we are doing our best to keep our prices down to encourage people visiting and it would be nice if ferry companies could also do special rates for people staying over. Perhaps if guest house / hoteliers etc could be given so many special rate tickets per year, this would be nice and we could choose who used them |
| 2604 | this fare is much to high for islanders who have moved away and want to come back to see friends or reletives |
| 2605 | this fare is much to high for islanders who have moved away and want to come back to see friends or reletives |
| 2606 | Not only is price high with no alternatives but it also represents poor value for money - Substandard upkeeping - No reduction in price when service altered or reduced - Services frequently run late with poor customer service and information |
| 2607 | |
| 2608 | I believe ferry fares are unrealistically high, trapping islanders who cannot afford to leave the island for holidays or to visit families and stifling potential tourist trade by putting off potential visitors. I was recently quoted £98 return for a car and 2 travelling Monday 24 Sept returning Friday 28 September. This is more than the cost of the short break we had booked. |
| 2609 | We are told we get concessions for living on IOW Visitors expect that we get 50% of cost, when I have asked Red Funnel, they say it is 3.00 reduction. Not much when an overnight travel can cost 50.00 |
| 2610 | |
| 2611 | Iniquitous. I'm glad I no longer need a season ticket [due to retirement]. I'm sure I could no longer afford to commute to the mainland for work daily. |
| 2612 | We deserve a better deal with the ferries OR a bridge |
| 2613 | I think that the cost of travelling is beyond the means of senior citizens on a state pension |
| 2614 | I am an islander and am disgusted by the way we are being held to ransom over ferry fares to visit our families on the mainland. |
| 2615 | The ferry compnaies should publish every year their increase in price relative to the price of inflation and to treflect on how much of this funds their acquisition financing when they bought the respective companies |
| 2616 | In 1991 the last Monploies commison report stated that the feery crossing s issue should be kept under review. Now is the time for that review. |
| 2617 | My family are resident on the island, and as I am now retired, I find the cost of travel on the ferries prohibitive to my being able to visit them more than once ayear. The charges by the ferry operators are a disgrace. |
| 2618 | |
| 2619 | While I support any efforts with the OFT, I have already stated in letters to the County Press that the only realistic way to bring down fares is to encourage a third car carrying operator. There should be legal ways to prevent this third operator from being taken over by either Wightlink or Red Funnel. So the council should actively seek infra-structure sites for terminals on each side of the Solent - not stand back and wait for something to happen 'in the long term future' as suggested by one leading councillor. Genuine competition is the only way forward, as already found with Channel routes. |
| 2620 | |
| 2621 | |
| 2622 | The fare structure is manipulative and against the public interest, 2 week returns are unfairly pegged/fixed very high with 1 day returns/deals a fraction of the cost. |
| 2623 | About time! |
| 2624 | About time! |
| 2625 | The special deals offered by these companies only apply at totally unsocial hours. The fares that matter have increased enormously. For there to be real competition, all ferry companies should be required to operate on all the routes so we have a choice. |
| 2626 | The special fare deals only apply at totally unsocial hours. The fares that really matter have gone up enormously. For there to be real competition, all the ferry companies should be required to operate on all the routes so we have a choice. |
| 2627 | The same observations as my husband |
| 2628 | We have been concerned about Ferry prices for a long time. We have to leave the Island regularly for medical care/assessments/reports for our youngest daughter who has complex disabilities. The prices are huge and when one pays them almost on a weekly basis it has a drastic toll on our financial security. |
| 2629 | I commute monday to friday on the Lymington Yarmouth route. I think wightlink should explain why the prices are not reduced in the winter when they take one of the ferries out of service and we have to wait an hour between sailings. Surely taking a third of the service away should be reflected in a third of the crossing price !! Especially for daily users WHO HAVE NO OTHER OPTION TO GET OFF THE ISLAND. Mark Smedmor |
| 2630 | I have to visit my elderley mother on the mainland and the cost of travel is becoming prohibitive. Island residents are being squeezed more and more - reduction of multi-ticket use from 12 to 6months, reduction of availablity of day returns, late departures with no explanation, regular timetable changes despite what is printed - the list gets longer and longer |
| 2631 | |
| 2632 | i am amazed at how much the prices vary and all speciel offers are only for week days or sat or sun not on a friday when you would normaly go away for a weekend |
| 2633 | i paid £34.00 return for two of us to cross the solent on the cat and £6.00 return for a two train tickets to london. where is the sense in that? |
| 2634 | The ferry prices are diabolical!! But on top of that, why should it make a difference how long you go for, what time of day you travel or what time of year it is. It should be a flat rate fee for each crossing. |
| 2635 | extortionate prices should be the same (but cheaper!) DAY RETURN |
| 2636 | i have never agreed to a bridge as i have lived here all my life on the island but if somthing aint done about the unfair pricing of travelling backwards and forwards then i think i may change my view on the situation. |
| 2637 | I am a frequent foot passenger plus use the car ferry to visit my elderly Grandfather who is in a care home. He has been a resident on the Island for almost 20 years. The price varies so much especially through the summer months which means I have to limit the amount of times I can visit him. I would like to see him more often as he is very lonely but I cannot afford to go as often as I would like. |
| 2638 | |
| 2639 | Comments at to of the page are oh so true. I was an Islander until moving to Hampshire, all my family as well as my husbands live on the IOW. We like to visit regularly but with increasing costs it not as often as we'd like. |
| 2640 | the cost of ferries to and from the island is ridiculous. something needs doing to stop the ferry companys from cashing in on the fact that that the islanders rely on the ferry companys needing to be able to get to the mainland and on the fact that their needed for supplies to be able to reach the island |
| 2641 | I have a Wighlink disabled persons card, which gives me reduced price crossings. But I need to tow a small trailer to carry my wheelchair. I am charged MORE for the small trailer then for my car. How is this right, surely the trailer should be free, carrying my wheelchair? Or do they charge extra if an able-bodied person brings there legs?? I have emailed previously Wightlink, but received no reply! Please feel free to use this information in anyway that would be of use. |
| 2642 | On the Isle of Wight we have not only the highest 'unemployment, but the highest cost of living (thanks to the ferry costs)and the highest suicide rates. What do you think? Maybe, just maybe they are all linked.....OF COURSE THEY ARE! We need cheaper links with the mainland. Yes we do have SOME wealthy people living over here, but the majority of us are on below £12,000 a year per family and are drowning in poverty. PLEASE DO SOMETHING NOW! you never know, if people can actually afford to get off the Island for a brief holiday, the suicide rates may go down as well! |
| 2643 | |
| 2644 | People before profit - the ferry companies should be accountable to their customers and not be taking advantage of them. |
| 2645 | Over priced and no other options. Totaly unfair. |
| 2646 | |
| 2647 | The ferry companys take off ferrys that are timetabled in and even ones that i have been booked on. Staff are just as confused as passangers sometimes, for example last week on the ferry going to portsmouth for the evening I asked a staff member the time of boat back and was informed 11pm, so on the way back I got to portsmouth 10.40 all ready for the 11 to be informed the there wasn't a boat till 12.30 so had to sit there and wait almost 2 hours!! as you can guess I was not happy. |
| 2648 | |
| 2649 | There is a vital need for some form of regulation to oversee what is a multinational company (with investors/shareholders to satisfy )who is a Statutory Undertaker with considerable privileges. I refer particularly to Wightlink. |
| 2650 |