Mersey Ferries, which are owned and operated by Merseytravel, have been totally repositioned to become the region's most popular paid-for tourist attraction as well as a convenient way to cross the Mersey. Merseytravel has completed the multi-million pound refurbishment of all three ferries and is developing all three ferry terminals. Merseytravel operates the Mersey Ferries running a daily commuter service across the River Mersey as well as very successful tourist cruises and attractions at the terminals, including the £10million 'Spaceport', the UK's latest space-themed attraction. All records for passengers on the popular Manchester Ship Canal Cruises continue to be broken. Construction of a new £10 million Pier Head Ferry Terminal which will enhance the face of Merseyside's famous waterfront and lead the Mersey Ferries into the future, will be completed in 2009. The historic U-Boat Story exhibition will open in 2009, explaining the link between the Ferries and historic underwater warfare. The exhibition will show memorabilia from the boat including the famous Enigma machines.
What has gone wrong? They also bought The Beatles Story for a few £Million
Humankind has not woven the web of life. We are but one thread within it. Whatever we do to the web, we do to ourselves. All things are bound together. All things connect. ~Chief Seattle
not suprised they are losing money the prices they charge. £4.70 from woodside to liverpool, it's £1.50 through the tunnel or £2.30 on the train (talk about pricing yourself out of business).
if it costs £4.70 then why was two adults and one child charged £20 to cross from seacombe to liverpool, we were given a family ticket and challenged the price to be told it would cost more to pay separately and we didnt pay for a cruise!! needless to say next time we'll get savaways or go by train so maybe thats why their losing money if there ripping people off
The meaning of life is to find your gift. The purpose of life is to give it away.
Blimey Chris! Was that two, old one penny coins,the ones with Britannia on the reverse side and equivilent to 5p in 2012?
Yes, Granny, them's the ones; I'm afraid your calculations are way off; you're clearly not old enough. There were 240 of those pennies to the pound, so one was worth 0.4166 of today's penny. 5p. was a shilling, or 12 pennies.
if it costs £4.70 then why was two adults and one child charged £20 to cross from seacombe to liverpool, we were given a family ticket and challenged the price to be told it would cost more to pay separately and we didnt pay for a cruise!! needless to say next time we'll get savaways or go by train so maybe thats why their losing money if there ripping people off
£4.70 is one way I think. Two adults and a child would indeed come to near £20 return.
The question is, what do Mersey Ferries want to be? A commuter service or a leisure cruise service? At the moment it's trying to do both and not doing either very well judging by the hole in its accounts.
As a commuter service, it's not time competitive - at least from Woodside. Apart from the occasional summers day when Joe Public decides it might make a nice change to sail into Liverpool for work/shopping rather than get the train (as I have done myself). But you can't build a sound business model on that. For commuters and day trippers they'd have more luck running it from New Brighton as it's a more direct route than the train.
As a leisure service you have to look at where the terminals are. For tourists and day trippers cruising from Liverpool, is there that much in Woodside and Seacombe to attract them to get off the boat? Maybe tickets need to also be sold in conjunction with admission to some other attraction too? Maybe tickets should be exchangeable with the trains i.e. get the ferry out and the train back. That might get more people going at least one way on the ferry.
If they want to subsidise it then fine, it's a very historic service around these parts and I would hate to see it go. Maybe stick a tax on hotel rooms and let the tourists pay for it!
I've now dug out my copy of the ferry timetable and I can now see that the morning and evening direct services form Seacombe are very good; every twenty minutes in the morning and every half hour in the evening. I wonder why the trip takes ten minutes in the a.m. and fifteen in the p.m. Nothing from Woodside in the morning though. A little background info. might be interesting. Originally there was no such thing as Mersey Ferries; the ferries were owned by the Corporation of Birkenhead for the Woodside one and by Wallasey Corporation for the Seacombe one. When the first (Queensway) road tunnel was planned, there was going to be a branch to Wallasey, but in the end the Wallasey ratepayers voted no, as did the ratepayers of Bootle, who were also involved. In the end, it was financed by a combination of the ratepayers of Birkenhead, Liverpool and Wallasey, with a contribution from the Government. The tolls were only to last until the debt was paid off (LOL). The loss of revenue to the ferries was taken into account in the costings but this was notional only, since Birkenhead Corporation got a share of the tolls. Of course, the number of foot passengers on the ferries should not have been affected, unlike when the Mersey Railway opened, since there was no bus service through the tunnel at the time. I've attached the ferry timetable and an extract from the book "The Story of the Mersey Tunnel", published by the Mersey Tunnel Joint Committee, which shows costings, and a comparison of value from the site www.measuringworth.com to show today's values.
£2.60 return... where are you getting your prices from?
The actual River Cruise which is more than just a way of getting over to town and back would come to £20.50 for 2x adult and 1x child (2x£8 + £4.50) which is the same price as the family ticket (2x adults and 3x kids).
It certainly is not £4.70 one way at any time of the day - £4 return for the PM direct service is the most you will pay but if you're commuting to work... £2.60 return.
It certainly is not £4.70 one way at any time of the day - £4 return for the PM direct service is the most you will pay but if you're commuting to work... £2.60 return.
For the avoidance of doubt, here's the current fares. I've just phoned Mersey Ferries and they confirm that if I want to go from Liverpool to Seacombe/Birkenhead at, say, 2 p.m. then that's a cruise and it is indeed £4.70 single. Of course, if you wait till 4.10 p.m. the price drops to £3 single.
Yes, I'm aware of the difference, all I'm doing is pointing out that your statement: "It certainly is not £4.70 one way at any time of the day" is factually incorrect.
When Woodside was the main bus terminal you could get a bus from almost anywhere on the Wirral, including Crosville, to the terminus and get the ferry over the water. I wouldn't even know what buses you could get down there now, or anywhere else in town for that matter. It strikes me as a bag of nails compared to the old way when Woodside was the hub. Maybe it's just me getting older and being away for so long but I don't think the new passenger network is a patch on the old one.
When Woodside was the main bus terminal you could get a bus from almost anywhere on the Wirral, including Crosville, to the terminus and get the ferry over the water. I wouldn't even know what buses you could get down there now, or anywhere else in town for that matter. It strikes me as a bag of nails compared to the old way when Woodside was the hub. Maybe it's just me getting older and being away for so long but I don't think the new passenger network is a patch on the old one.
+1 Also, there was a proper railway station there. These days it's deserted; sad. However, I've been exploring the bus system recently and I'm quite impressed with what I've found so far.
I have provided a link to help those that do not understand the wirral robbery.
in my opinion merseytravel is contributing towards the containment of income streams & actually does the local council a favour by containing the tourists & visitors within a certain area like cattle.
I dont know what the answer is but I do think merseytravel should sack those responsible and explore alternative measures to install a new life into the failing ferry.
the failing ferry does three stops & the refurb costs begs belief. not one of these 3 terminals look as though they have had the amounts of money spent on them as the recent publication claimed.
steering away from its usual business activities was always going to be risky. you or I could or would only take such a big risk if we were sure we would be subsidised for any shortfall by an invisible hand. in my opinion merseytravel will continue to collude with the council to contain the income streams of its tourism industry it spends so heavily on promoting in order to be favoured & supported by the invisible hand.
I get the impression that the council & merseytravel do not want tourists & visitors to see beyond seacombe & woodside in case tourists & visitors decided to stay & spend money in a capital of class in wirral instead of the capital of vulture in liverpool. that is why the historic tram & the terminal at new brighton was removed, to stop attracting tourism away from the containment area.
I am also of the opinion that alot more looms behind the scene, the more you read of this subject, your thoughts are steered to suspect back handers & wrongdoing. this is no different to robbery.
as merseytravel have demonstrated the inability to operate & provide suitable services & provisions that reflect the needs of our communities I personally think it may be worth examining the possibility of leasing the failing ferry operation to a tour operator that can see past seacombe & woodside.
I also view the mersey/wirral ferries as a one. although it is not operated as one, it should be operated as one, from woodside.
if you look at the time table and the prices of the cost of going from woodside to liverpool is as follows....
adult single..£4.70 as they dont offer the cheaper £2.10 morning direct service from woodside(only from seacombe). it stays at £4.70 untill 16.35 when you can get a cheaper direct service ticket for £3.00 single or £4.00 return.
as for the "river explorer cruise", i don't think the boat going directly from woodside to the liverpool is much of a river exploration.
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