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Displaying items by tag: Tynwald Vote

#ferrynews - Manx Ministers are drawing up possible plans to buy the Isle of Man Steam Packet, iomtoday has learned.

The move comes as negotiations continue with the ferry operator over a revised strategic sea services deal - and as the Packet announced a 6.4% increase in some fares from 1 January, 2018.

In July, the Tynwald voted not to accept the Steam Packet offer to government and to opt instead to continue negotiations for a better deal. The Packet’s offer had included a pledge to invest £170m in a new fleet, facilities and fare initiatives.

But it is understood that the Council of Ministers is now seriously contemplating taking the ferry operation into public ownership.

Nationalisation or acquisition of the Steam Packet were outlined in a review of options presented in a government report to Tynwald in November last year.

For more on the development, click here.

Published in Ferry

William M Nixon has been writing about sailing in Ireland and internationally for many years, with his work appearing in leading sailing publications on both sides of the Atlantic. He has been a regular sailing columnist for four decades with national newspapers in Dublin, and has had several sailing books published in Ireland, the UK, and the US. An active sailor, he has owned a number of boats ranging from a Mirror dinghy to a Contessa 35 cruiser-racer, and has been directly involved in building and campaigning two offshore racers. His cruising experience ranges from Iceland to Spain as well as the Caribbean and the Mediterranean, and he has raced three times in both the Fastnet and Round Ireland Races, in addition to sailing on two round Ireland records. A member for ten years of the Council of the Irish Yachting Association (now the Irish Sailing Association), he has been writing for, and at times editing, Ireland's national sailing magazine since its earliest version more than forty years ago