Britain is a nation of islands. Roughly three quarters of a million people live on dozens of islands outside of the UK mainland. The Isle of Wight – my home – hosts the largest chunk of that population with about 140,000 residents across our two parliamentary constituencies. Our communities depend on ferries as a lifeline, just like mainland communities depend on trains and buses to get to work, school, hospitals, and simply see family and friends. Unlike those services, ferries are unregulated, and we are suffering the extortionate consequences. That’s why I presented the Ferry Services (Integration and Regulation) Bill in Parliament last week with the support of MPs from 5 different Parties.
If you run a rail service in this country, you must meet basic expectations, even if you are a private provider. Fares and routes are overseen in the public interest. Operators cannot simply axe unprofitable services or hike prices on a whim. They must publish performance data, justify their decisions, and provide a reliable service that knits together with the UK’s transport networks. Bus operators, too, are subject to rules aimed at ensuring communities stay connected and passengers are treated fairly. There is scrutiny, accountability and a recognition that transport is not just a market – it is, quite rightly, a public service. Both trains and buses are also subsidised by the taxpayer.
Now look what happens when you put the vital public service on the water. No national regulatory framework. No obligation to provide affordable services. No transparency on performance. No duty to serve the public interest. Across the country, from river crossings to island lifelines, private ferry companies operate in a largely unregulated space that would be unthinkable in the rail or bus sectors. But for island communities like mine, ferries are not just a nice-to-have. They are an essential lifeline service because we have no other way of getting to the UK mainland.
Travelling to the mainland for medical appointments, work, education or family commitments can cost hundreds of pounds. Holidaymakers who bring a car for a short break can pay up to £400 for a five-mile return crossing. That is not a luxury route – it is the only route. Private equity-owned ferry firms like Wightlink and Red Funnel have exploited their unchallenged position to raise prices while reducing service frequency. Where once ferries ran every 30 minutes, they now run hourly, or in the case of the Cowes to Southampton Red Jet – every 70 minutes. Miss one by 60 seconds? You’ve got to wait over an hour.
This is what happens in a market with no meaningful competition. The barriers to entry for new providers are immense: the infrastructure and ports are controlled by the incumbents, and without any regulatory framework to guarantee fair access or minimum standards, alternatives simply never materialise. Residents and visitors are left at the mercy of companies whose priority is not connectivity or service, but profit and shareholder return for private equity groups. Both companies are highly profitable.
I’ve recently learnt how widely this problem exists across our nation. The Isles of Scilly, Scottish-Northern Irish crossing, and other river ferry routes linking towns and cities all face similar problems of unreliable services that do not connect with other public transport. That’s why the parliamentarians representing these communities backed my Bill. We know our services are worse because people on the ground feel it and report it, but anecdote and emails in our inboxes are not enough to force change when we have such poor public data.
My Bill is not about placing an undue burden on ferry operators. It is about bringing them into the regulatory fold which applies to other modes of public transport and ending this unregulated anomaly. The Government is taking a greater hand in the way railways and buses are run in the name of better integration and placing passengers over profit. It has so far declined to take any action in the interests of ferry passengers – the most overlooked and vulnerable passenger group in the UK.
Integrating ferry services into the wider transport framework would mean simple, sensible things: transparency on pricing and performance, minimum service levels, fair oversight of fares, and treating ferry routes as part of the strategic national network. For coastal and island communities like mine, this would be transformative. It would recognise ferries not as tourist luxuries, but as essential infrastructure for our community and help boost the local economy and jobs.
No one should pay more to travel five miles by domestic ferry than to leave our country for a holiday. No community should be cut off because a private operator decides service levels are inconvenient for its balance sheet. And no essential transport provider should be allowed to operate without transparency or accountability.
Ferries must stop being the forgotten link in our national network and finally be treated as the lifeline they truly are. The Government has an opportunity now to act, either by backing my legislation or introducing its own regulatory provisions.
It’s Time to Regulate Britain’s Ferries In Line With Our National Public Transport Network
