This from Euroferries:“Please be aware we have had splendid support from local restaurants, hotels and businesses to whom we wish to support and bring much welcome business to Ramsgate and to the benefit of residents. A point we would wish to make is that all the investment has been from Euroferries and at no time has TDC or any local authority contributed funds. We have been splendidly supported by Government agencies. All persons effected by the delay have been fully refunded. Thank you once again for your support.
Regards, Euroferries Customer Services Team.
And this from Antonio Sáez:
Dear Michael:Half an hour ago I met an Olsen office in Santa Crruz menber, which told me that Olsen has given a new deadline to Euroferries till next Friday. He told that the ship was ready to go in case this condition is fulfil. Saludos.
To misquote Kelly's Heroes "Lets have a few positive waves "
ReplyDeleteEuroferries are certainly tenacious and the chance of nipping to Boulogne for the odd croissant is to be encouraged. Come on TDC put a halt to the new double glazing and mercedes vehicles and encourage some business. Pehaps Roger Gale and Steve Ladyman can join forces and put a joint expenses claim in for the work that needs doing, res ipsa loquitur
Why should TDC spend a single penny of our money on an outfit that has a track record of not honouring its commitments? In 2006 the City of Rochester NY selected EF over 6 other bidders to buy their fast craft Spirit of Ontario I but after much time-wasting EF could not come up with the money. I quote here from Wikipedia
ReplyDeletehttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hoverspeed#Euroferries
and note that EF have not requested Wikipedia to take it down:
"In May 2006 it was announced that the company had been successful in its attempts to purchase the Spirit of Ontario I, they were to pay $29.8 million for the vessel. She was expected to be deployed on the Dover-Boulogne route. The ship which was owned by the City of Rochester, New York had received 7 bids for the vessel. Mayor Duffy of Rochester said Euroferries' bid was the highest of seven bids that they took seriously. Shortly after the announcement of the sale WHEC-TV stated that the fast ferry would move to the UK "no later than June 21st". This did not happen.
By October 2006 Euroferries had yet to pay for the Spirit of Ontario I and the City of Rochester had begun to look to other buyers. Euroferries also featured in a BBC South East Inside Out investigation [3].
It was announced on 17 March 2007 that the City of Rochester had run of patience with Euroferries and cut off active negotiations [4]. Two other potential buyers were reported to be interested in the vessel. The vessel was eventually sold to FRS Iberia S.L. Euroferries claim that they were unable to complete the purchase of the vessel due to UK port restrictions, the maritime press however reported that they did not have the finance available to purchase the ship.
Rochester out of pocket how much did it cost to get the ship moved crewed etc?
ReplyDeleteDHB how much rent did they lose by leasing the hoveport to them for 9 months without reciving any rent?
How many times have boulogne been told that euroferries are about to start in the last 5 years.
How many times has the Euroferries logo been painted on the craft?
Whos making any money out of this fiasco?
If the service was due to start this week why have no staff been recruited?
Someone from Euroferries said about John Air's Navmed "the would be if they could be ferry company"
So whats is the difference between the two?
The ship is ready Boulogne is ready so why not Ramsgate?
ReplyDeleteWhat we stand to lose here a couple of hundred tourists with money to spend being dropped off in Thanet every four hours, so the local business community are going to be pretty annoyed if this falls through.
I should point out that a worst-case scenario is that they go bust at some time in the future all the council stand to lose is some port fees that they wouldn’t have had anyway.
As for those people posting negative comments about this what could possibly be their motives, come on people what’s the idea, try to cause it to fall through so you can have the satisfaction of saying I told you so, don’t you give a damn about Ramsgate?
Michael, I find your support of this cause quite troubling.
ReplyDeleteYou have not spared your criticisms of other Ramsgate fiascos like Royal Sands, the cliff repairs etc etc yet when something so clearly and blatantly flawed as this comes along (four start dates blown, a company with a track record of not honouring its commitments, etc etc), you are gung ho. You haven't had a brarn envelope passed over the counter by any chance, have you ;-)
We all want Euroferries to succeed and perhaps we would all be a little more patient if deadlines were kept or at least suitable excuses were given.
ReplyDeleteI for one am happy that TDC have limited their investment in this as the further we get down the line it looks like it's one of the most sensible things they have ever done. If they had invested heavily for the initial March start date then we would all be having a go at TDC and blaming them for spending 'our money' on something something like this.
If they are such good news, why is it that they seem to have effectively shut down two bloggers in their home port, who were very supportive of their service from the start until last week when it became obvious they were yet again not going to meet their promised launch date, and pissed off virtually everybody who has bought tickets including many Thanetians? Even if they do manage to launch their 'state of the art' ten year old vessel there are many many people on the island in my opinion who will not now be touching it with a barge pole after the way we have all been hoodwinked.
ReplyDeleteWhat I can not understand is how they expect to make a profit in the near and long terms.
ReplyDeleteBig established ferry operators such as Brittany Ferries and LD Lines have just stopped fastcraft services for the winter period, as they do not produce profit in the this period.
How can EF expect too with a ten year vessel that may not be relible in these waters?
11.34 Unfortunately no brown envelope, something that I would see as a useful contribution to my local history publishing project and would afford the benefactor considerable publicity.
ReplyDeleteHow one can criticise anything that would be so beneficial to Ramsgate is beyond me.
I should also add that it would be hard to find a businessman, sorry person, that hasn’t had at least one failed venture, I for instance once opened a bookshop in Biggleswade, the population just wasn’t big enough to support it however what I learnt from this experience has been an important factor in ensuring that Ramsgate has had a bookshop for the last 20 years. Something I consider to be beneficial to the town, you may wish to consider that if you are a taxpayer you will be subsidising the government-funded bookshop that is soon to open in Margate.
11.41 My understanding is that TDC don’t have to make any investment that isn’t funded by Euroferries port dues.
12.31 I am afraid that that is just speculation about the blogs, I try to stick to actual facts here and facts that relate to the present venture.
Did Antonio mean yesterday or next Friday, if the latter only six days before a start ?
ReplyDeleteThis comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
ReplyDelete9.27 Please don’t publish potentially libellous comment here.
ReplyDelete