THE minister who co-signed Jersey’s 20-year deal giving DFDS exclusivity on ferry services has defended the absence of guarantees on high-speed sailings to the UK in winter.
This week, DFDS published its winter timetable until 10 January but also announced that there would be a “temporarily pause” in high-speed Poole sailings with its Levante Jet vessel between November and the end of April, which includes the Easter period.
This drew the ire of the Jersey Hospitality Association, who wrote to the Chief Minister calling for action and asking for the government’s agreement with DFDS to be published.
Deputy Farnham said he was “demanding immediate clarity and improved delivery” from DFDS.
Now, Economic Development Minister Kirsten Morel has defended the contract, confirming what DFDS had said it its defence – that, unlike the previous agreement with Condor, there was no stipulation to provide fast-ferry services to the UK over the winter months.
He said: “It is absolutely right that it was not a provision of the contract because it is the most affected time of the year when it comes to cancellations, it is the most expensive service to run and it does not carry a huge amount of passengers.
“Over the next 20 years, the winter weather is predicted to get worse so there is likely to be more cancellations so, had it been in the contract, we would be forcing DFDS to run at a very high cost, which would have found its way into ticket prices. And we would have to pay for that over the rest of the year.”
He added: “Giving them that flexibility was the reason it was not included, and I think that is entirely reasonable.
“Let’s be frank, not many people want to travel by sea in a high-speed ferry in January or February; and even if you only have two sailings a week, you still have to pay your crew for the whole week.
“We want a service which is sustainable and reliable. What we do have with DFDS is transparency over passenger numbers and profitability, which is what we didn’t have with Condor.”
However, Deputy Morel said that DFDS, in making the announcement in the way it did, was not blameless.
He said: “DFDS’s stakeholder engagement and communication has been poor, and they have scored an own goal in not doing it properly.
“Where DFDS has got it wrong is not engaging with the hospitality sector. By announcing it without talking with stakeholders, they have not taken the people most affected by it with them.
“I understand that there will be some high-speed services around Christmas and Easter. They could have sat down with the hospitality sector to explain that better.
“If DFDS would have sat down with groups like the JHA, they could have come up with a solution which would have made everyone much happier.”
The Deputy said he would be convening a stakeholder group to still down with DFDS and industry sectors “to make sure that this does not happen again”.
On the issue of winter high-speed ferries being included in the last contact, he said: “It was a stipulation of the last agreement with Condor, although there were exemptions, such as maintenance, which would take boats out of service for three to four weeks.
“But looking at passenger figures for 2023/24, less than 10% of passengers to the Island in December, January and February came by sea, and that includes conventional ferry sailings.
“Last winter, 7,000 passengers travelled by high-speed ferry to and from Poole, while the Stena Vinga will have capacity for 70,000 passengers this winter.
“Those mostly empty fast-ferry sailings would be a cost all passengers would have to bear. That is why it is not a stipulation in the contract and even if Condor would have been given the contract, we would not have made it a requirement.”
Deputy Morel added that it was a commercial agreement so it would not be made public.
What DFDS have said
DFDS confirmed that it was not obliged to run winter fast ferries to the UK and defended its position.
Jersey route director Chris Parker said: “Our obligation is to run a sufficient number of northbound and southbound rotations, for both passenger and freight services. and we actually run in excess of that contractual requirement for most of the year.
“We promised a £300m investment in vessels for Jersey and that is firmly in our business plan so it’s something we need to get right.
“We need to get the schedules right to be able to deliver that long-term sustainability and that reinvestment in vessels.”
He added: “In terms of the winter schedules, looking at the demand, the Stena Vinga could carry, theoretically, three times as many people than who are actually scheduled to travel over that period between November and March. There is a significant amount of capacity.”
Although the Levante Jet will not be in service until May, Mr Parker said that DFDS would be scheduling the high-speed Tarifa Jet on some sailings over the Easter period.
Asked about the Chief Minister’s publicly expressed concerns that DFDS’s service “falls short of what was promised”, Mr Parker said: “Clearly, the headlines are not ones that we like to see but we will sit down with the government, as we do all the time, and we will resolve this.
“But we do stand behind the plans that we have made. It is really important for Jersey that we do create that long-term sustainability and that we do have that clear plan of how we’re going to improve the fleet. We will obviously work with Islanders and businesses to improve visitor numbers and to provide a better service where we can.”
What scrutiny have said
Deputy Montfort Tadier, who chairs the Economic and International Affairs Scrutiny Panel, said: “Mr Parker from DFDS has said that not running a fast service to the UK is in line with the contract; it is not something that the company is required to do.
“If that’s the case, then the Chief Minister needs to pull his socks up. If the government wanted a year-round fast-ferry service to the UK, then it should have been in the contract. You cannot cry after the event.
“Scrutiny has a copy so I’ve asked our officers to dig it out so we can check the detail. I would like to invite DFDS to explain their situation to scrutiny as soon as possible.”
He added: “This all goes back to what does the contract say and how watertight is it? You could argue that this is all starting to unravel.
“I suspect a lot of these problems stem from the rushed tender process last year. It obviously became a very different proposition when the contract split up into individual islands: Jersey could not ask for as much as it wanted to and the ferry operator suddenly held all the cards.
“They put on extra sailings for the Muratti at the Government’s behest but we are now starting to see a blame game between the Government and DFDS, which is a shame.”
The growing pains of DFDS
The signing of a contract between the government and DFDS at then very end of last year – to start from 28 March and run for 20 years – was far from a smooth process. It was supposed to be a joint Jersey-Guernsey process, but the two islands fell out in spectacular style, which each choosing different operators.
The Jersey process even entered “you couldn’t make it up” territory when the civil servant in charge of the de facto beauty parade expressed his preference for DFDS in an online Facebook poll before any official announcement had been made.
After Guernsey sailed off into Condor’s gallic embrace – which was hardly surprising seeing that it had loaned the operator £26m to buy a ship and invested a further £3m – Jersey had to run a second, condensed, selection process.
Once DFDS were named the preferred operator at the beginning of December, a legal challenge from Condor failed, but it all meant that the contract signing was delayed.
DFDS therefore had three months to launch a new service running north and south of St Helier. Timetables and the ability to book were late, as were sailings to France due to the delayed arrival of the fast ferry assigned to the route.
The lift on the fast ferry to and from the UK was out of order for more than two months, particularly affecting passengers with reduced mobility.
Some passengers also complained about the interior quality of ships but there was also plenty of praise for its service and staff.
Next week, DFDS is due to publish its key timetable for next summer, when the hospitality sector will no doubt be hoping to breathe a sigh of relief that travel agents and visitors can start to make long-term plans.
