As announced on Friday 9 January, the Isle of Man Steam Packet Company has been exploring ways in which it can alleviate passenger inconvenience resulting from the weather cancellation of weekend ferry services.
The conditions over the weekend have been so severe that the vessel chartered to provide freight services has been unable to sail. It is worth noting that the Ben-my-Chree would also have been unable to fulfil the weekend schedule had she not been in dry-dock.
Repair work on the Ben-my-Chree is now progressing well. This has enabled the Company to introduce an additional Ben-my-Chree sailing at 02.00 from Liverpool Birkenhead on Tuesday morning.
The Company is in the course of contacting passengers to advise them of the availability of this additional sailing.
Mark Woodward, Chief Executive of the Isle of Man Steam Packet Company said, “As we announced last week, we have been exploring the options open to us to provide additional sailings in the face of extremely unfavourable weather conditions. I am pleased that in addition to the extra Viking service provided last Friday, we have also been able to arrange a sailing for early Tuesday morning which will help passengers seeking to return to the Island as early as possible. It is possible that not all passengers will be reached in time and we apologise to any whom we are not able to contact. Once again, I am grateful to passengers for their patience and to Isle of Man Steam Packet Company and other staff who have been making every effort to get passengers to where they want to be as quickly as we can.”
