Daylight robbery (Alistair Brown)

I have recently returned from a family visit to Germany using the P&O ferry from Hull to Rotterdam.

It’s an overnight crossing around 12 hours. With one car and an outside twin berth cabin, the return fare was £302.

I have just booked the ferry for our annual visit to Shetland at the end of April.

With one car and an outside twin berth cabin the return fare is £575. And this is a subsidised “lifeline” service. I don’t suppose P&O receives any subsidy.

How come it costs almost twice as much to go to Shetland as to Rotterdam? Perhaps since there’s no competition on the route, NorthLink gets away with daylight robbery! Or does it really cost so much more to run the North Isles ferries than North Sea ferries?

Alistair Brown
Lochmaben,
Lockerbie.

COMMENTS(3)

Add Your Comment
  • Colin Hunter

    • March 21st, 2012 10:34

    Better take a thermos with you! They charge you £1.60 for a cup of tea in the morning! And expect you to make it yourself!!! I used to think Dick Turpin only operated in Motorway service areas. Seems he’s alive and well and operating the till in the Northlink cafeteria!

    REPLY
  • veronica bellotti

    • March 21st, 2012 10:54

    Same with the airport.If i lived there now wouldn’t be ableto afford that price fora ferry

    REPLY
  • Ann Longmuir

    • March 24th, 2012 4:46

    I understand that it is not NorthLink who decides on the ferry fares but the Scottish government. Perhaps Alistair Brown and Colin Hunter might address their complaints to the Minister for Transport in Edinburgh and do us all a favour.

    Shetland Tourism Association, for whom I am secretary and who represent many businesses of all varieties, has long been advocating reasonable fares and more recently made complaints about the delay in deciding who will win the contract to run our lifeline service for the next six years.

    I have every sympathy with Veronica Bellotti who said that she could not afford to live here. It is most frustrating to see Flybe’s national advertisements offering cheap flights to all over Europe but only very occasionally is Shetland included.

    Ann Longmuir
    Shetland Tourism Association

    REPLY

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