The Foyle Ferry Discussion, Part 38

The saga continues in the press about the Foyle Ferry Company. So the company has been experiening difficulties over the last two years. Some of the reasons I can completely agree with, the weather did kill two years of tourism, the economic downturn but the price of oil going up.... sort of agree with that but that's variable.

During the summer last year (08) the crude price hits $147 a barrel and everyone pushes prices up for everything. Hauliers went out of business or sold their businesses on, it was horrific to watch. The rising oil price was blamed for the price rises of everything. People even started walking again. Foyle Ferry had raised its prices a few times in quick succession, if I remember rightly, to the point that £15 for a return ticket was okay when oil was at that price.

Today, the return ticket stays at £15 but the oil price has dropped back down to between $37-$45 a barrel depending on several factors. So you can't use that as a reason for the current state of the ferry, it was compounded over the two year duration that I can accept.

There are several variables that are missing from any argument at the moment:

• Staffing costs for the two year period
• Passenger/Vehicle numbers (broken down into their fare type) ie, what is the income of this loss making enterprise?
  
• The actual direction the vehicles are travelling in once they have disembarked at Magilligan (is there a case for Limavady to aid the ferry when everything turns left to Coleraine at the end of the road). Why should one council bail out (bad pun) the ferry when another council is benefitting from the increase revenue to the economy?.

I can now fill my car up for a modest amount, say £34.41. The route from Magillian to Greencastle is 49 miles (figure taken from the Foyle Ferry website), my little car does 330 miles with a full tank of petrol. So currently it costs 0.104p a mile. So I can drive the 49 miles for £5.11 there and £5.11 back, a saving of £4.78 (which I get a Big Mac meal on the way back).

Assuming that time is no pressure to the traveller then there's no real case for me going on the ferry, it costs me more. I love the ferry, don't get my wrong, but while every household is saving the pennies.... people won't want to spend more than they have to. Another issue that's swept under the carpet, the cross border petrol price has risen to the point there's no real cost saving to jump on the ferry and fill at the other side. It used to be the Sunday afternoon outing for some families: Go the Point Bar, have lunch, jump on the ferry, drive to Muff and fill up with cheap petrol. Those days are gone. Eating out is in decline, cross border fuel is up and the cost of the ferry? Well you get the picture.

If the loss stems from 64,000 EUR to an estimated 250,000 EUR then the oil price has increased the loss but it was losing prior to that anyway.

A doom and gloom picture, let's cheer it up.

The first thing to look at it reducing costs. The main cost is obviously fuel, first cost saving, does the ferry have to travel every fifteen minutes? Why not every 30 minutes and reduce the bill by up to half?

If Limavady Borough Council are to fund/aid the ferry then it has to be to the benefit of the Limavady economy. If you think of the Newry effect. Cross border traffic comes in to shop, that's the sole intention, shop and save on those Euros. Coleraine has Asda which is cheaper than Limavady Tesco's. Limavady needs something else to pull the crowds..... then the ferry would be worth having.