24 • Summer 2018 • http://www.shipsmonthly.com
Russell Plummer looks at major domestic
passenger and vehicle operations where
a number of operators have new vessels
due to enter service during 2018 or with
additional tonnage on order.
C
ompanies
providing
local ferry
connections have
not been slow
to commit to additional heavy
expenditure, with four vessels
due to join Scottish operators,
including three for Caledonian
MacBrayne, where there is
also heavy investment in
shore infrastructure and berth
improvements. The other isfor successful independent
Orkney-based operator
Pentland Ferries.
Further south, Wightlink
and Red Funnel have vessels on
the way; the historic Woolwich
Ferry on the Thames is set
for transformation; and in
the longer term there is talk
of a new ferries for the Isles
of Scilly run and the Mersey
route linking Liverpool
and Birkenhead.RIVER THAMES
MBNA THAMES CLIPPERS
Services on the Thames through
Central London were often tried but
generally failed. They included a
London County Council effort using
a fl eet of 30 new 250-passenger
paddle vessels in the opening decade
of the 20th century, starting in 1905,
but which had stopped by the end of
Mark 2 Hurricane Clipper, taking
220 passengers, while a trio of FBM
Hydrocats each take 64 passengers.
A further 120-passenger vessel,
the 1975-built Twin Star, links Canary
Wharf with the Doubletree Docklands
Hotel in Rotherhithe. Main routes are
Putney to Canary Wharf; Battersea
Power Station to London Bridge City;
Battersea to North Greenwich, with
some services extended to Woolwich
Royal Arsenal; and the London Eye
to North Greenwich for the O2.
Departures are every 20 minutes in
each direction from most piers.- 0870 781 5049, thamesclippers.com
WOOLWICH FREE FERRY
At Woolwich is one of the world’s
longest established passenger
and vehicle river ferry services.
Remarkably, it is still free of charge,
and has crossed the Thames from
Woolwich to North Woolwich since
the 19th century, but is soon to
undergo big changes. The present
Dundee-built vessels, Ernest Bevin,
James Newman and John Burns,
have been making the fi ve-minute
crossing between the south and
north banks of the Thames since 1963,
usually with two vessels running and
the other under maintenance or in
reserve, and each taking half a dozen
articulated lorries and around 14 cars.
In October the service will be
suspended to allow berth upgrades
before the introduction of two new
ferries nearing completion at the
Remontowa Yard in Gdansk, Poland.GUIDE TO
DOMESTIC
UK FERRY
SERVICES
2018
Monsoon Clipper on the
Thames, departing Westminster
Pier. NICHOLAS LEACH
Jupiter Clipper was one of two
Isle of Wight-built catamarans
carrying up to 172 passengers,
which were introduced by MBNA
Thames Clippers in 2017.- Things changed when Thames
Clippers came on the scene in 1999
with a single catamaran. By the end
of 2017 the Clipper fl eet had grown
to 17 twin-hull craft carrying more
than four million passengers a year.
In 2017 new vessels were the Isle
of Wight-built 35m twins Mercury
Clipper and Jupiter Clipper, each
carrying 172 passengers. Designated
Hunt Class Mark 2, they joined
Mark 1 near-sisters Galaxy Clipper
and Neptune Clipper, which were
built at Hobart, Tasmania, by InCat.
There are six 220-seat River Runner
200-type craft operating as Aurora
Clipper, Cyclone Clipper, Meteor
Clipper, Monsoon Clipper, Tornado
Clipper and Typhoon Clipper, plus
River Runner 150 pair Sun Clipper
and Moon Clipper. The line-up is
completed by the 28-knot River Runner