Be prepared, this is a longer post but I am interested in peoples thoughts.
In the UK, we are blessed to have so many rivers and bodies of water, yet for some reason the UK rarely seems to make ferry services work. Other countries seem to manage to get more ferry routes, operating more frequently. In the UK, they seem to be few and far between, and where they do exist, they are poorly promoted. Smaller independent companies relying on word of mouth as they don't want to do anything to promote the service themselves (Ie Barmouth Ferry). Bigger companies seem to mostly only care about tourists. Organisations who input data to Traveline (whether that be Traveline Cymru or local authorities) almost always seem to refuse to put ferries into travel databases despite them being a form of public transport. It's all a bit backwards and almost no one, including the ferry operators, seems to see ferries as a form of public transport, getting people from A-B.
London probably the most developed ferry service in the form of Thames Clippers but the service is generally quite slow as the services seem to stop at every pier along the way, they can be unreliable, the prices are also quite high with a number of journeys being cheaper on the tube. They do seem popular though I think this is in large part due to the extortionate 'tour boat' prices so people clicked onto the Clipper. There's a few other issues at Clipper but anyway, despite all of that, they still have a lot of passengers and no one is going in there to compete and/or provide an alternative service.
- Liverpool of course has the famous ferry cross the Mersey but if it wasn't for the Beetles bringing in the tourists, I doubt this ferry would still exist. It's so unloved and the service hasn't innovated for years. So much potential up and down the Mersey for more piers and get more regular travellers. There's a stadium being built that will hold 50,000 people and yet it has no pier so that event goers can get the ferry to/from the event
- Cardiff has 2 water taxis (plus 1 tour which offers short hops), none advertised very well online under the companies own banners and Traveline Cymru refuse to put them on the database.
- Manchester has had various iterations of boat services, TFGM never put them on the Traveline database and the companies themselves were pretty poor with advertising.
- I bet you didn't know about the Thelwall or Little Hulme ferries? Most people don't because they aren't advertised by the company (who only operate them due to old laws) and no one will put them on Traveline.
- Bristol has a great water taxi which is on Traveline but the frequency and operating hours are really poor so only work really if you are doing a loop.
- Isle of Wight ferries despite 3 companies, there is very little actual competition and each one having it's own, rather large, unique point (IE Redfunnel/Jet being to Southampton, Wightlink being mostly Portsmouth. Hovertravel having the tourist/hype of it being a hovercraft). It's often said by Islanders that there is a cartel going on here because everyone sticks to their lane and no one tries to be the best, just least worst.
- We have lost the Tilbury-Gravesend ferry. Nearly lost the Hythe ferry too a few times, both quite high profile ferries in their own rights.
- The new Isle of Scilly ferry got the boat built and was selling tickets then they pulled the plug last minute (https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/ck5gkxg700jo).
- Endless proposals have been made for a ferry on the River Seven, none have yet materialised.
You get the idea, lots of issues around lack of competition on busy routes, some ferries struggling in general, some ferries not known on any journey planning site, they only exist if you do intense searching, and then, who knows if the website is upto date?
It just seems like the ferry companies just aren't bothered and just plod along not even attempting to get people onboard. Certainly a clear lack of wanting to be public transport, more a tourist attraction (but they don't even advertise that well), most local authorities don't put ferries onto Traveline so fewer people know about them. I know the geography and demographics may be a little different but why can't we have great ferry services like some other places in other countries. Why is there such a lack of care in the UK for ferries? Interested in thoughts below, and is there anything that you think could be done to improve the situation?
