Islanders faced disruption while travelling back to Jersey at the weekend in the wake of cancellations on DFDS’s St Malo route – with one passenger describing chaotic scenes outside the French port following the quick reinstatement of one of the sailings.
In a travel update on Saturday afternoon, the Danish firm announced the cancellation of both the 18:40 sailing to Jersey and the 20:35 to St Malo.
However, a second update around an hour later revealed that the sailing to Jersey would go ahead with a new departure time of 22:00.
One affected passenger was travelling back to the island with her family.
“Traffic was backed up around the roundabout”
They told Express that – upon learning their initial sailing was cancelled – they made a new booking to return on the Sunday instead.
But they were then notified of the rescheduled Saturday departure via text.
The islander said this was followed by scenes of “absolute carnage” at the harbour amid the subsequent rush of passengers.
“Traffic was backed up around the roundabout right outside the port,” they continued.
Staff “did their best”
“They cleared that eventually and we got home,” they added, noting that many other passengers appeared tired from their “extended” journey.
“I can’t fault the staff – they did their best.
“It was a long day and we were relieved to get back.”
The passenger also said that they received a refund for the Sunday sailing they had booked.
It comes just weeks after Jersey’s Chief Minister slammed the operator’s performance after DFDS said it would “pause” its UK fast ferry over winter.
Echoing concerns from the hospitality industry, Deputy Lyndon Farnham said that the level of service delivered to date “falls short of what was promised”.
In response, DFDS said it was “under no contractual duty” to provide a winter fast ferry service to the UK.
A report from the government spending watchdog released last week drew attention to the fact that the government left out an inter-island service requirement from Jersey’s ferry contract without carrying out any formal risk assessment.
Comptroller and Auditor General Lynn Pamment also pointed out that no documented review of the risks or benefits of awarding a longer 20-year contract to DFDS was carried out.
A DFDS spokesperson said: “On Saturday, our vessel, Tarifa Jet, experienced a technical issue which led to the cancellation of the afternoon sailing from Jersey to St Malo.
“As we were uncertain of the duration of the repairs, we advised customers to arrange overnight accommodation as a precaution.”
The spokesperson continued: “Thanks to the swift work of our technical team, and collaboration with the Ports of Jersey and St Malo, the issue was quickly resolved, allowing us to operate a later evening sailing.
“We appreciate this caused disruption and uncertainty for our customers, and we are grateful for their patience and flexibility.”
They added that additional sailings were put in place on Sunday, “to ensure all affected passengers were able to travel”.
“Our customer service team supported groups with alternative arrangements. Technical issues do occasionally arise in maritime operations, and our teams worked to minimise the disruption to our passengers as much as possible.”