Craig

Re: My Ferry Link - Updates So the French state wades in to say they will back MFLs right to operate. I wonder if there might be a compromise agreememt with one vessel being pulled and retaining the other and the freighter? The restrictions on vessel use if the decision stands seems highly uncompetitive.

Re: My Ferry Link - Updates Where are the Straits ships at in terms of compliance. I do quite like the thought of DFDS chartering one of the MFL ships whilst updating their own tonnage

Re: My Ferry Link - Updates It'll go to the European Court i assume, so that will take a while. With France being pretty militant on a good day, the fact that their government is unpopular won't help keep the burning tyres off the roads! I'm not sure the Nord Pas region would do a Transmanche and take MFL over but I'd be surprised if some mechanism wasn't constructed to keep the SCOP going. If not, the concept of the SCOP takes a beating and that'll not go down well. Of course, it is a regional matter so it may not manage to be escalated to crisis proportions but never say never. It would be ironic if the action by the ferry companies closed Calais and handed Eurotunnel a nice little windfall. Even more ironic if MFL wasn't blockaded and the others were........

Re: My Ferry Link - Updates Funny, in the purest from the choice at Dover is go above the water or below the water. At one stage there was a period when the choice was pretty much P&O or Tunnel. Two monopolies and DFDS came along to offer a choice above the water and create a duopoly. They added competition but also capacity though I think the P&O fleet could have satisfied the demand on its own. MFL comes along and the duopoly is broken and this is seen as unfair. Stena buys capacity on some North Sea routes that DFDS run, I seem to remember but Eurotunnel buying it on MFL is bad ? It is a little troubling when competition authorities get involved......

Re: My Ferry Link - Updates Probably a lot more to play out here but if the ruling states that overcapacity is a problem and bans use of the ships on the route, surely it should also require those who raised the complaint to be banned from adding capacity for a period of time? I think this is going to end badly if the ruling does stand, with Eurotunnel ramping up shuttle services and going for further really aggressive pricing. Just switching the existing traffic on MFL services to the Tunnel would leave DFDS and P&O no better off. The paths in the tunnel exist to increase train services, they just need to increase frequency. Sure, it may mean investment to service the increased use of trains but ramping up engineering capability opens the door to adding more locos and truck wagons to their fleet.

Re: Today I... Yep. Seems this has become the replacement for the shout box !

Re: eurosewer I don't know. I imagine the shareholders are rather pleased to see revenues at MFL grow from 7m to 74m euros in a year and the group revenue as a 'hole' hit 1bn after a 12% rise ! Source Seems the decision to launch MFL is working. Less lorries through the tunnel so perhaps they are going to focus on the tourist traffic ?

Re: My Ferry Link - Updates Niels Smedegaard, CEO DFDS "There were 11 conditions that the British Competition Commission had to deal with before. Now there's just one, and we are confident that the British Competition Commission will do a good job in this case. Fortunately, developments in the English Channel are going the right way and we're conquering market shares." Surely the last section undermines their initial argument that this would force DFDS out ?

Re: Navitus Offshore Windfarm Project I often think along the same lines when the argument goes up about tall buildings overshadowing churches......when churches were the tall buildings doing the overshadowing of their day. Not that I condone buildings that fry passers-by during daytime hours !

Re: Navitus Offshore Windfarm Project And a beautiful area that has been sitting on a shed load of black gold for sometime with an old test nuclear reactor up the road. I doubt most people would even notice the Wytch Farm facility or know about Winfrith. At some point we will have to sort out this energy lark. We demand more and no manner of being more efficient and insulating lofts is going to offset the growing demand. Just a question of what methods, where we put them and when I guess.

Re: EUROFERRIES: Ramsgate to Boulogne Only if the consultants are doing it as part of their GCSE school project !

Re: EUROFERRIES: Ramsgate to Boulogne Wondering if the people who paid up front before getting money back have paid for the coach paint job. Also wondering if the Euroferries Travel Insurance would cover you for Euroferries not actually having a ferry to take you to Europe ?

Re: Navitus Offshore Windfarm Project I believe there is an optimum wind speed for them to operate efficiently at. Only logical that anything too extreme is going to stress parts if too fast or generate a negligible amount of too slow for the effort. Bit like a car I suppose - they run better at certain speeds to get the best return. Nobody wants the generating part of the puzzle near them but we all want the power. Be it a turbine or the building ashore that takes the power from the waves. Don't even think about a proper station with a chimney or a reactor ! I don't know that there is a single answer to the problem. I'd rather we invested in lots of different schemes so we were not solely reliant on one single one. Could we have more mini turbines on roofs or lamp posts? I've seen kinetic pads that generate power from footfall. A few High Streets with them might add to the total that we need. Of course, there also needs to be a similar drive to save what we can and use what we have more efficiently. Shame that these sorts of decisions and investments are made by politicians who only look as far as the next election.

Re: New captain on the Bretgane He was certainly around from at least 1999 as I recall the name.

Re: EUROFERRIES: Ramsgate to Boulogne Wonder if they are going to have a stand there, or will that fall through at the last minute also.