Survey to review ferry service

Survey to review ferry service

21 September 2016

TRANSPORT NI is planning to carry out a review of the Strangford Lough ferry service.

The exercise is expected to start after a new £6m ferry to replace the ageing MV Strangford arrives in the near future to provide back-up to the MV Portaferry II which is the main vessel used on the route.

Details of the review have been confirmed by Stormont Infrastructure Minister Chris Hazzard in a letter to Downpatrick councillor Naomi Bailie. She recently asked for additional crews to be recruited during the summer following the reopening of the Exploris aquarium in Portaferry, but the recruitment of seasonal staff has been ruled out by the minister.

Last month, councillor Bailie warned the huge success of the aquarium was having a major impact on the ferry service, with its reopening coinciding with a significant increase in vehicle and passenger numbers.

Transport NI confirmed that following the reopening, the ferry service experienced a “significant increase” in demand compared to normal summer traffic. The government agency revealed passenger numbers were almost 25,000 with vehicle numbers approaching 6,800, compared to an average of approximately 16,000 passengers and 5,500 vehicles over the previous weeks. 

Councillor Bailie said while ferry service staff did their best to cope with the upsurge in demand after the aquarium reopened last month, she believed there was a need for the second vessel to be brought into service. At the time, she was told there were not enough crew members to allow this to happen.

Mr Hazzard said the ferry service has liaised closely with Exploris management since the aquarium reopened in an attempt to anticipate the number of potential visitors.

He confirmed that during particularly busy times, the ferry service employed additional staff to assist with traffic management and to sell tickets to allow the ferry to run off-schedule in an effort to provide more sailings.

“The level of crew resource currently provided is fully utilised to provide the normal weekly timetable and essential weekly safety drills and exercises,” explained Mr Hazzard.

“Any requirement for additional service provision must therefore be facilitated by voluntary overtime, which requires planning, in order to allow staff to make arrangements to work on days they would otherwise be off. Indeed, any long term proposal for continued operation of a second ferry would only be sustainable with the ongoing goodwill of staff to undertake the necessary voluntary overtime.”

Mr Hazzard outlined that to ensure the safe management and operation of the ferry service, each vessel must be operated by a minimum of four competent crew. He said all staff involved in the operation of the service must be fully trained and undertake regular routine safety drills and exercises.”

“These requirements mean that recruitment of temporary casual staff at busy times during the summer period is not practicable. Whilst the ferry service will investigate the potential option of engaging temporary casual pursers to assist with ticket collection at busy times, the operation of a second boat will depend on the availability of existing, fully trained ferry crew,” the minister explained.

Mr Hazzard confirmed the ferry service will continue to liaise with Exploris to monitor visitor bookings and passenger numbers in an attempt to anticipate potential visitor numbers and to ascertain whether the very high levels of traffic recently experienced are likely to continue.