Sea passengers unhappy with terminal facilities, cost of vehicle tickets

Business users express concern over freight cost

The cost of taking a vehicle on the ferry, terminal facilities and the frequency of the Irish services were among the areas criticised by those responding to a survey on the Island's sea services.

Almost 5,000 people including 100 businesses completed the Department of Infrastructure's Ferry Services Survey earlier this year, and a summary of the feedback has now been published.

The majority of passengers were happy with the frequency of services to Heysham and Liverpool, as well as the duration of the crossings, but more than a quarter said they were dissatisfied or very dissatisfied with the sailings to Dublin and Belfast, with fewer than 1% declaring themselves very satisfied with the service.

More three quarters were unhappy with ticket prices for vehicles, despite over 80% stating this is an important area.

Terminal facilities also came in for criticism as more than half said they were dissatisfied or very dissatisfied, while two thirds felt the free wifi on offer was below par, even though almost 85% rated this as fairly important or very important.

Business users raised concerns over the cost of freight, with no companies rating themselves as satisfied or very satisfied, despite all those who use the freight services insisting this is an important factor.

Tourist businesses responded negatively to the cost of tickets for those bringing vehicles to the Island - just nine percent rated the fees positively.

The Government will now use the feedback as it works on putting a new Sea Services Agreement in place with the Steam Packet Company.