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Professor John Robertson OBA
Thanks to Brenda Robb for alerting me to this.
From the Jersey Evening Post, two days ago:
THE contract between the government and ferry provider DFDS ought to be released in the interest of transparency amid growing public concern about the service being provided, a senior scrutineer has said.
DFDS has come under fire after a series of complaints about freight charges, passenger delays and its winter timetable which axed the high-speed Poole sailings.
And Deputy Montfort Tadier, who chairs the Economic and International Affairs Scrutiny Panel, is now calling for the concession agreement – which sets out the terms of freight and passenger services – to be released.
The Danish ferry firm was awarded the contract to provide a service between Jersey, the UK and France in December 2024 after Jersey opted against renewing terms with former operator Condor. Both islands had initially embarked on a joint tender process to cover both islands, but the move collapsed after Guernsey appointed Brittany Ferries as its preferred bidder. This led to a separate, Jersey-only tender, which resulted in a contract being signed with DFDS on 31 December.
This is just the latest. In April 2025, TuS had:
We’re going to need a bigger stronger boat – Channel Islands’ Danish ferry not strong enough for lorries is disastrous for families and health of islanders
The media in Scotland have been platforming regularly the notion that CalMac and the SNP Government are to blame for the privately-owned Ardrossan harbour not being maintained and improved in time for the new bigger ferry everybody on Arran, it seems, was desperate for. They’ve also been dramatizing the notion that the folk of South Uist (pop 1 754) have been traumatised by having to accept a free ride to Oban instead of Mallaig and then drive to Oban.
Meanwhile in Jersey, the Danish company DFDS have had to cancel their service from France because the ship’s ramp wasn’t strong enough to ‘accommodate heavier vehicles.’ Would that be lorries full of the essentials the islanders need to survive, like the ones on Arran and South Uist?
Who was responsible? Deputy Kirsten Morel said the delay “highlighted the importance” of continuous communication between the government and DFDS but did not seem to think he should apologise. What did BBC Jersey think? They just agreed with him that the deal had been complex and was sorted now. A bit different from the media coverage we get here, in Scotland, eh?
Source: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c30q6m4rgq3o
Was this the first ferry fiasco in the Channel Islands?
Nope:
Channel Islanders sickened as new Danish ferry service cancels sailings on very first day due to ‘technical issues’ only days after hearing there will be no Sunday service at all for more than a hundred thousand of them
From ITV 27 March 2025 :
DFDS has cancelled its sailings between Jersey and St Malo for the first day it serves the island. The Danish firm, taking over from Condor, says the cancellations on Friday 28 March are due to “technical issues” with preparing one of their ferries, the Tarifa Jet, to run to and from Jersey. https://www.itv.com/news/channel/2025-03-27/dfds-cancels-sailing-between-jersey-and-france-on-opening-day
Surely they checked the boat out a few days beforehand, to enable a professional start to the contract? Kind of makes you think they must be a rubbish company putting profits ahead of passengers?
There were warnings.
Only two weeks earlier from BBC UK:
Ferry travellers will soon be unable to get a ferry from Portsmouth to Jersey on Sundays after Danish operator DFDS took over. Jersey’s government chose DFDS to run the island’s ferries in December, with the first sailing on 28 March.
The firm has contacted people who have bookings to offer alternative sailings and said the changes came after talks with tourism leaders and freight companies. Customers on social media have called it “shockingly bad” and “disappointing”, with DFDS responding that it did not “anticipate making regular amendments to our schedules, but our priority is to implement a service that is both reliable and robust” and “best serves the requirements of the wider community”. https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c89yq8wyvxwo
It’s a 9 hour crossing.
The CalMac Oban to Barra (population – 1 170) crossing takes around 5 hours but even in winter, there are two sailings on a Sunday, one in the morning and one in the evening. CalMac, Scottish Government subsidised, sails to 50 destinations daily, some for populations in only three figures. I can see no sign of any island, no matter how small, without a Sunday ferry service.
Kind of makes you think DFDS must be a rubbish company putting profits ahead of passengers?
DFDS? Dreadful ferries, dreadful service?
Imagine this, just a fraction of it, happened in Scotland?
Talking-up Scotland 'Albatraz' 
Looking on the bright side, at least DFDS actually do have a boat.
Remember failing Grayling making advance payments to ferry company that didn’t own any boats?
I love CalMac and have for around 45 years. Complainers should be careful what they wish for as politicians and the msm badmouth CalMac for personal gain
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‘Personal gain’, more like political gain.
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comment above from John Lawson
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It’s enough to make your teeth tickle. Everybody in the UK and beyond has, thanks to the British media, heard of Calmac. But I’d wager very few have heard about this other ferry fiasco. Certainly the first I’ve heard of it.
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