Transmanche Sunday

[kip]

So does anyone really know what was going on with Transmanche yesterday?

We arrived 2 hours early for the 8pm crossing to be told 3 different stories by the staff there...

One said there was a strike, half an hour later another said the whole of Newhaven had a powercut and could be without power for 3 days and half an hour later we were told the ramp in Newhaven was broken.

In the end it didn't look like anyone was going anywhere so we left and headed to the tunnel.

Did the ferry sail? what time? and did anyone get to the bottom of the problem? There is nothing on the internet about powercuts or problems.

I accept they have problems but how come every member of staff was giving you a different story?

[Will]

See http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/southern_counties/6059988.stm

[Miki]

Makes one a little angry.

From the many, many trips I have done across the channel in the last

hundred years, it has to be stacked heavily (very) in favour of 

the number of Brits against French people on the ferries, yet once

again it is a French carrier that calls the shots in the normal biased

manner for who works and who doesn't.

It would be quite nice, that for a while, the ferries could be shunned

by the Brits and then see how our dear French allies feel about it all

then !! Especially Brittany blinking Ferries......................

[BJSLIV]

But it does show the benefits of the thrusting go ahead style of economy that exists in the UK, as opposed to all that Socialist rigmarole in France. Why wouldn't they ditch UK employees, when its so much cheaper to do so? They are owned by the French state after all...............

Shades of the Peugeot closure in Coventry.

I do sometimes wonder whether the old argument that it doesn't really matter that so many UK firms are foreign owned is really true after all. Naive old me!

[Chancer]

To be fair the lying that I witnessed was by the Corsican crew on the Sardinia Vera boat.

They spoke some French and English about as well as I speak French, probably not A level standard.

[Brilec]

My experience too, the crew on the sardinia were generally very poor in English. Certainly not A level standard.

However, I also doubt if A level standard really was a prerequisite of the jobs on the new boat either. Why would the french stipulate A level, when they don't know what it is?

More likely it's a journalist's interpretation of what he thought he heard someone say. However, on a ship where safety is all important, if orders are given in French, then the crew must be able to understand them. (Though how so many freight shipping companies manage with their chinese crews in this I really don't know).

Mind you, I speak french to O level standard, I have the (very old) piece of paper to prove it, not that it does me any good at all.

[Will]

English is the international language in shipping. The crew members on strike were employed by a British company, CMO UK, and were members of the British RMT union. They were due to be made redundant from the old Dieppe ship, though had been offered a chance of employment on the new Seven Sisters ship but this was conditional on their having A-level standard French.

Being British-based rather than French, French qualifications for the crew would be meaningless, and A-level French seems a bit excessive anyway for cooks and deckhands who are part of an international crew. It does rather beg the question as to why Transmanche can get away with foreign crew when its ships, like Brittany Ferries', sail under the French flag, and BF is forced to use almost exclusively French seafarers which puts the company at a serious cost disadvantage despite receiving help from the French government. It is also a reason why LD Lines opted to re-flag its ship to Britain, which was acceptable to the French unions, rather then keeping it under the Italian flag, which was not.

[Chancer]

I believe that they leased the Sardinia Vera including crew from its owners and it retained its (presumably Corsican) registration.

Transmanche is jointly owned and operated by a consortium (or pandemonium) including Le conseil generale de La Somme, Seine Maritime and another, They are currently looking for another company to take over the day to day running of the service and boats.

[Will]

Yes, the Sardinia Vera was chartered from Corsica Ferries, but the Dieppe, Cote d'Albatre, and Seven Sisters are owned by Transmanche itself and are flagged in France. The Dieppe (formerly Saga Star) is apparently to be put up for sale. Transmanche is led by the Conseil Général de la Seine Maritime, and also consists of the Conseil Général de la Somme, the town of Dieppe, the town of Fécamp, the Communauté de communes. (local authority association) and the chambres de commerces from Dieppe, Fécamp and Le Tréport.

The running of the service itself was put out to tender earlier this year and the results are awaited. The companies invited to bid were SNCM, SeaFrance, Corsica Ferries, Morbihanaise de Navigation and LD Lines. LD Lines is known to have tendered, and others, including Brittany Ferries, are rumoured to have been added to the list, but that particular scenario sounds rather unlikely.

[Weedon]

Apologies for the late answer to your specific question but the ferry did depart on time at 8pm from Dieppe on the 29th.

I was told the same story on the telephone as the person at Dieppe who was intending to travel, that there was an electrical problem at Newhaven which may cause an alteration to the 20.00 Transmanche ferry waiting to depart from Dieppe.  As it turned out, 10 minutes after I rang them the ferry began boarding and it departed on time.

At the moment Speedferries have an offer on for anybody travelling in November will receive a free (like for like) crossing valid until April 2007.  Just as I was trying to work out how I could use up my 3 return trips between now and November 2007, I get another return. By the time I have used them all I should have found the quickest way around Rouen!

Or, would it be cheaper to go once on Brittany Ferries and save on fuel and tolls?  Tolls are about €28 each way and fuel €30 each way?