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Brixham Express commuter ferry arrives 19 months late

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The Brixham Express was waiting for safety certificates in Ireland said its owners

A ferry promised 19 months ago to serve commuters between Brixham and Torquay has finally arrived in port.

The Brixham Express catamaran was due to begin operating in December 2014 but was delayed because of safety certificate issues, its owners said.

Stand-in ferries ran for the first five months and were subsidised with a government grant of £544,000, equivalent to £170 per passenger.

Brixham Express said services will begin after further inspections.

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The commuter catamaran has been delayed by getting safety certificates its owners have said.

The ferry was waiting for a safety certificate in Donegal, Ireland, from the Maritime and Coastguard Agency (MCA), its owners said.

The MCA said it had been "awaiting confirmation" that defects had been rectified.

Since last April, the ferry firm has been running a 35-seater boat between Torquay and Brixham instead of the promised catamaran.

Mary O'Driscoll, of Brixham Express, said: "Before [the catamaran goes] into service she will need further inspections by the authorities and also familiarisation with the crew. As soon as she is fit for service we will have very exciting opening offers to allow the public to enjoy the commute."

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The 35-seat Brixham Vitesse has been running between Brixham and Torquay instead of the promised catamaran

Brixham shopkeeper Helen Meacock said: "It's arrived too late and I think it's going to struggle. People have been waiting more than a year and a half for this service and it really isn't good enough."

But, cafe owner Clive Higgins said: "It's a positive thing for Brixham - anyone who gets people moving around the bay is a good thing, if it's used properly."

If only Torbay Council had listened to the local ferry operators at the time three years ago - the then family run Western Lady Ferry Service (now part of Dartmouth Steam Railway and River Boat Company Ltd.) and ourselves Greenway Ferry.  Both our companies were providing a service across the bay for £1 each way between Torquay and Brixham - our company four boats per hour and Western Lady two - when asked to tender for the service we told Torbay Council that there was no business case whatsoever - we already ran the service 8 months of the year without subsidy and an all year round service would fail - commuters would not use it enough to warrant the service.  We as a company could not and would not want to be seen to take a subsidy of over £1,000,00.00 (one million pounds) from the tax payer for the business to fail.  This was publicised by us at the time and the first round of the tender process failed as no-one put in a bid.  A business case could not feasibly be made for sustainable transport or growth.  For the second round or bids Torbay Council were struggling - basically offering anything to get a bid, at one point almost begging us - however a bid arrived from Brixham Express again at a time when we stated that this serial subsidy hunter would just come in, take the money and sail away with an asset which tax payers had paid for or at least contributed to. Again the sustainable transport team - Les Crump, Sally Farley etc. whom I would have assumed have all moved on now at the time made a complete error in judgement and misguided councillors.  They obtained money from the Local Sustainable Transport Fund for a project not researched in the area of business for which it was being obtained, ignored businesses already operating the service and did not do their homework as to passenger use or interlinked services. The bus service linking the ferry from Torquay Harbour (again subsidised) was cancelled after a few months (Torbay Council did nothing to bring to account the breach in tender) and a bus to the Brixham departure point never materialised at all!  Where did all the cycle paths go which were part of this fund too?  The council representatives were inexperienced and would not listen.  They and the council ignored our many emails. They put proposals together to be voted on in full council and obtained a subsidy which displaced original operators already running an existing service at no cost to the tax payer.  This displacement using State Aid could have been seen to breach EU Competition Rules - this too was ignored.   Figures released to the BBC following Freedom of Information requests showed a cost per passenger journey of £171, based on the total subsidies paid by Torbay Council in January and April 2015.  Totally unviable and an absolute disgraceful use of public money.  Torbay Council did nothing and just ignored this information - when in any other situation of business alarm bells would be ringing.  We sold our bay operation in 2015 to Dartmouth Steam Railway and River Boat Company (just before the Fast Ferry was launched) - part of the deciding factor being that Torbay Council were launching this subsidised ferry when we received no support whatsoever, just challanges trying to run a business under the councils 1970' business model.  Why should we have continued to subsidise our own service running at £1 when a company supported by the council received around £1,000,000 in funding and charged £6?  We pulled the plug and sold our infrastructure to Dartmouth Steam Railway and River Boat Company.   Now we see the Brixham Express Service withdrawn in breach of their contract - no Fast Ferry for the bay after this huge investment of public money, no vessel as it's just sailed off to Ireland over night and now less ferries operating than two years ago down from seven vessels per hour to two or three and a service which can now command any priced fare as there is only one viable operator left.  A public enquiry now needs to take place to look into the whole situation from start to finish - we would be happy to pass all our email trails and correspondence on.  Torbay Council have been proven to be negligent once again.  Residents and Businesses in Torbay struggle every day, with core services at Torbay Council being cut or withdrawn so pie in the sky projects like this can take place - more vanity over sanity.  Torbay Council should be ashamed - this waste of public money is of their own creation.  They believed their own hype as did Brixham Express.  The bay has gained nothing but lost local operators over this farce and even when subsidising the service never gave enough support to make it work.  We need a council which at it's helm is someone with true business acumen - to run the council as a business, supported by a team of councillors from all demographics and experiences in both life and business - we need strong leadership - local residents and businesses deserve more!   Our original press release from 2015 is below.   http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-devon-36483256 <iframe src="https://www.facebook.com/plugins/post.php?href=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.facebook.com%2Fgreenwayferryservice%2Fphotos%2Fa.796756833752097.1073741828.796734210421026%2F858281470932966%2F%3Ftype%3D3&width=500" width="500" height="634" style="border:none;overflow:hidden" scrolling="no" frameborder="0" allowTransparency="true"></iframe>

The service had ended, the operator vanishing

Greenway ferry have posted the following this evening on Facebook on the matter

https://www.facebook.com/greenwayferryservice/posts/1504567339637706

With regret, Brixham Express Ltd announces that it will no longer operate the frequent ferry across Torbay from close of business, Wednesday October 25th 2017.

Despite valiant efforts on all our parts we have been unable to achieve a commercially successful service, and it would, therefore, be irresponsible to continue beyond this point.

It has been clear almost from the outset that the shoreside regime permitted to us  at both  harbours was neither sufficiently robust nor supportive to enable a successful commuter service to be established.

All regular commuters have been informed and any existing tickets have been and will be refunded in full. Brixham Express Ltd intends to maintain a presence in Brixham, until at least the end of January 2018 in order to facilitate an orderly wind down.

At this stage, all that remains is to thank everybody involved for their help and courtesy over the last 3 years, especially our staff and customers, the harbour staff and the many small engineering firms that helped us out along the way.”