Fares on cross-Channel ferries slashed

A ferocious summer price war has pushed peak cross-Channel ferry fares down to their lowest levels for 30 years.

Prices for a car and up to nine passengers have fallen to below £100 for the first time in decades on most Dover-Calais crossings.

The rates are less than a third of those charged when the Channel Tunnel opened a decade ago, and in real terms are almost certainly the lowest ever.

In the summer of 1994, prices on the ferries and on Eurotunnel's Le Shuttle train service were about £300 for a peak crossing. Even as recently as this January Eurotunnel's advertised brochure price was £349.

Today, however, travellers can book on a P&O ferry for £96 return, while Eurotunnel's best price has plummeted to £100.

P&O's £96 fare is available on about 20 crossings a day - two thirds of its total sailings. Unlike some of its previous offers there are no restrictions on how long the passengers can stay away.

Astonishingly, the fares are about 30 per cent lower than the £136 return charged by Townsend Thoresen as long ago as 1982, when cross-Channel passenger ships were far more basic than the huge and relatively comfortable "superferries" plying the route today.

Then, the much smaller ferries were built without stabilisers and were notoriously vulnerable to poor weather. They were also renowned for their drab plastic decor and dismal "chips with everything" cafeterias.

A P&O spokesman said: "I cannot ever remember us offering fares at this level in summer before. When you think what you are getting with a modern superferry I think £48 each way is pretty good value."

Prices on the longer crossings to Normandy and Brittany have not fallen so dramatically but are still on a par with those charged a decade or more ago.

Travel experts say this summer's remarkable price-cutting bonanza has been driven by the arrival of new lowcost ferry competitors, the draw of no-frills airlines such as Ryanair and the desperate financial plight of Eurotunnel, which has about £6billion of debt.

Rob Gill, deputy features editor at industry magazine Travel Trade Gazette, said: "These days people are driven so much more by price than whether they want to travel by air or sea. Also people didn't book until very late this year and that forced the ferry companies to drop their prices to get some business in.

"There is so much competition around now that prices are likely to stay low until some of it disappears."

Dover has seen a steady decline in traffic since the late-Nineties, when airlines began offering flights for just a few pounds - making it more costeffective for a family to fly and pick up a hire car rather than take their own vehicle.

In 1997 21 million passengers passed through the Kent port, the biggest in Britain. By last year that had fallen to 15 million. There is also now new competition on the cross-Channel routes once dominated by just P&O, Sea France and Eurotunnel. SpeedFerries, a new "low-cost" operator, launched a 50 minute catamaran service between Dover and Boulogne in May.

Its return fares start from £50 for a car and up to five passengers. Other operators include Hoverspeed, Norfolk Line and Trans Europa, which sails from Ramsgate to Ostend.

The price war has wreaked havoc with the finances of the biggest and most established ferry operator, P&O, which is reviewing the future of its services.

Last week the company revealed that its ferries lost £25 million in the first half of the year while revenue fell by £16.7 million.