Island Labour have been in talks with the shadow transport team since Nov last year, after Isle of Wight West candidate met with Shadow transport minister Louise Haigh.
“Louise was extremely keen to hear about the issues with cross Solent transport, her first reaction was to say “Isle of Wight, it’s really expensive to get there isn’t it”.
Explained Isle of Wight West candidate Richard Quigley.
Following the initial meeting, Louise gave Richard access to her team to work on a solution to the problem we are all facing, trying to cross the Solent. Richard commented:
“The ideal solution would be regulation of fares and timetables, through the office of the official rail and road regulator which will require primary legislation, our beleaguered MP Bob Seely’s idea of a regulatory bill would have to apply to all ferry operators in England, not just cross Solent operators. The focus the island needs is on cross Solent transport, not the Woolwich ferry”
On the back of speaking to Louise, several residents, with expertise in the area, have put together a detailed report on the issues and possible solutions.
One response from Louise’s team was they were completely “baffled” why no one had dealt with this before now, the last meaningful action was then MP Andrew Turner referring the ferry operators to the competition and markets authority in 2009. Bob Seely promised action in 2018 and yet nothing happened.
“Ideally, we need to take ferry ownership away from the roulette wheel of private equity selling it on every few years, leading to higher fares to cover the increased debt. A new referral to the competition and markets authority needs to happen. Outside of re-nationalisation, I would ask any new owner to either site their head office on the Island, or commit to at least 50% of their senior team living here as currently, neither ferry operator has a board member living on the Island. I’d also ask that cross Solent transport comes under the minister for rail, rather than aviation and maritime, as is the case now. Ours is an issue of commuting and levelling up, not just holiday travel”.
