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Anyone wanting to use Jersey’s new ferry service will have to wait even longer to find out what exactly will be on offer.
After the collapse of the joint ferry tender process, Guernsey and Jersey selected different operators.
While Guernsey's pick of Brittany Ferries/Condor has meant a swift publication of a new timetable, it was released on 22 November, Jersey's tender winner DFDS has yet to confirm its plans despite a pledge to do so by the end of last week.
Yesterday, DFDS instead released a "provisional" timetable with no times on it while it works to finalise its planned sailings for next summer.
The Danish shipping giant said it was still in discussions with a number of ports – including Poole, Portsmouth and Saint-Malo – as it looked to firm up arrival and departure times across its routes.
Pictured: An indication of what the Poole to Jersey fast ferry service will look like next summer.
"We understand that islanders want to see the new timetable as soon as possible and we are working with all stakeholders to finalise departure and arrival times for all our routes to and from the island," it said.
It explained that it was providing a provisional timetable "to give an idea of what the summer timetable will look like", adding that it expected to release the finalised set of schedules "in the beginning of the new year".
The statement added that the schedules will be "subject to change once inter-island links have been decided upon".
Chris Parker, DFDS's route director for Jersey, said: "We appreciate that everyone is keen to learn about the schedules, and we are working to get this done as quickly as possible."
He continued: "Our focus is to get the schedules right and we want to make sure that we consider all the diverse needs of the island for both passenger and freight transport, as well as the operational dependencies of the ports we serve."
The firm added that the schedules will be "subject to change" once inter-island links have been decided.
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