From On the Wight, today:
Isle of Wight Conservative MP, Bob Seely, has this week released an in-depth study into cross-Solent ferry services.
My research has led me to believe that, using a web of offshore companies, Wightlink and Red Funnel’s owners and lenders have taken large profits out of the firms for years. To drive efficiency and take even more profits, directors have cut timetables; introduced surge pricing, which penalises Islanders for making essential journeys at peak times; and limited investment in ferries, some of which are now 34 years old. Islanders are tired of ‘technical’ and ‘mechanical’ issues. The firms pay little to no corporation tax and are accountable only to their shareholders. We all lose.
In January 2024, TuS had:
In Island Echo today:
Wightlink made a profit of £16million in the financial year to March 2023, according to the company’s latest financial figures. The cross-Solent operator published its accounts – which are available on Companies House – on 8th January, covering the period from April 2022 to March 2023.
The highest-paid director – who is unnamed – took home £398,000, with a further £285,000 paid out to other directors. A dividend of £10million was proposed to be paid in June last year, despite Wightlink taking a COVID rescue grant from the Government.
No CalMac or previously Caledonian MacBrayne ferry has ever sunk. No passenger has been hurt but the fully privatised Isle of Wight ferries often breakdown at sea, burst into flames and in 2014, four passengers had to be hospitalised after an incident.
Isle of Wight ferry costs?
Most summer visitors pay somewhere around £150-£200, although peak fares sometimes reach £300 during school holidays.
https://www.isleofwightguru.co.uk/isle-of-wight-ferry-beginners-guide.html
Calmac costs?
As an example, Brodick to Arran, longer than the Isle of Wight crossings, a car with two passengers is £45.
Scottish islanders, be careful what you wish for. This is what Neu Labour has in mind for you.
Other Source:
Talking-up Scotland 'Albatraz' 
I guess the ‘author’ is incapable of typing ‘calmac ferry fire’ into a search engine. Calmac vessels burst into flames quite a few times, last year.
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I know of the fire on the MV Hebrides as she left Uig, the one that the crew put out. No casualties, no drama.
Don’t know of any more. Do you have some details of the other vessels please.
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There was a fire on an unnamed ferry three years ago, when a campervan burst into flames. Again, dealt with by the crew, no-one injured, no damage to the ferry, minimal disruption to the service.
‘Mr Anonymous’ is quite obviously a Tory as he a) can’t count, b) lives in the past thinking 2021 is 2023, and c) saw the word campervan and quite likely put 2 and 2 together to come up with Nicola Sturgeon/SNPBad…
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Aha, a journalist, from the Herald judging by the hyperbolic nonsense…
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Anyone not showing their name should have their post removed.
An author is anyone who writes anything, so putting it in parentheses is meaningless as an implicit insult. However putting ‘journalist’ in parentheses is definitely an an insult.
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Links?
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The propaganda campaign to denigrate the existing principal ferry services in Scotland undoubtedly has political as well as financial objectives – Part of their schtick is to ‘represent the islanders’, but regular as clockwork it is business interests who are playing victim and amplifying the hyperbolic nonsense.
The islanders would be delighted by improved services, but they’re shrewd enough to know privatisation as the miracle cure for essential services has never worked.
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It begs the question as to who is driving this narrative? Are multi-generational island communities pushing this or is this a political drive from the usual suspects – entitled immigrants moving up from England?
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Aside the front men of “X ferry user group” (I don’t recall ever encountering such a group before this ferry-campaign) it is likely Tories running the show with their financial backers potentially being enabled to make a quick buck out of ‘public grievance’ by depressing the value of the company when it inevitably goes to market…
On the ” entitled immigrants “, think smarting investors – Having bought into B&Bs, the downturn in takings with falling tourism post-Brexit will be stinging them – They’ll be anxious to blame their misfortune on something else, hence the preposterous ‘unreliable ferries’ putting tourists off.
Then you have the Victor Meldrew types caught up in the moment – eg Overlooking Brodick harbour, complaining the same ship has been exactly X minutes late all day – Presumably the bypass was closed ?
For sure there will be a few grumbles among the original locals, but broadly is it has been since forever, ‘when the boat comes, it comes’…
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in 2019, aboard the CalMac ferry MV Caledonian Isles, I was injured due to negligent management procedures. CalMac management caused me to endure a stroke from that TBI (head injury). So your article is very wrong in that respect. However, I agree with your very important point. CalMac provide an excellent service and the crew at CalMac should be getting medals as they kept working when Covid was at its most lethal and knowing they may up catching Covid and ending up on a hospital ventilator or worse. Why? Because CalMac crew are the BEST. They kept the Islanders fed during the pandemic and got ill and disabled folk to hospital appointments. What happened to me was an accident. It was bad, but at least the medication is in place to stop another stroke (unless I get hit on the head by a 5,000 ton ferry again)!
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