Clipper MD: River needs more investment

Last week, the seats of a Thames Clipper were filled with posh frocks travelling to the National Television Awards.

These aren't the first celebrities to make the river journey to The O2. Bon Jovi took the same route for the first ever concert at the arena in 2007.

However, managing director Sean Collins remembers other less glamorous occasions when the Clippers proved handy.

The days of heavy snowfall last February when the buses didn't move. The weekends last summer when the Jubilee line was constantly closed. The hours after the July 7 attacks, when the entire fleet was dispatched to Canary Wharf within 15 minutes.

He believes it is now time to talk about increased investment in the river, to continue and improve this service.

He said: "Without investing in the river and ensuring that facility is there all year round, you're not going to be able to respond when things like that happen.

"The river is never going to compete with something as big as the Jubilee line, but it can complement that service."

His comments were sparked by a think tank report earlier this month, which suggested putting Transport for London in charge of river services and investing £30million in infrastructure.

Other river users such as City Cruises co-founder Rita Beckwith accused the report of treating the Thames like a "10-lane highway".

Sean said: "I don't understand how that report could have been condemned. They got it spot-on. It might need a little tweaking but it's a brilliant vision.

"There needs to be common ownership. The piers need to come under one banner and there needs to be continuity of signage, passenger information and technology.

"It's no different to other ferry operations throughout the world. Holland has just tendered for a 12-year contract with a £50million subsidy.

"The day the Jubilee line opened, I knew it would struggle to meet demand and that some people would prefer to travel by boat."

He said that frequency could be improved by staggering uses, and he is irritated by the placement of static boats on the riverside such as the boat community in Wapping. He believes they should be moved to dock areas.

He said: "It's not right that there's a floating pub that never moves attached to the river bank, and houseboats in central London. We're having to reduce speeds because of these houseboats.

"You wouldn't see a houseboat on the main stretch of the Rhine. We need a policy change."

As well as their £370,000 annual subsidy from TfL, Thames Clippers has received £20million in funding from AEG since the O2 operator bought a majority stake in 2006.

The Clippers have proved useful to the venue after late performances and during closures.
However, Sean is keen to see the Clippers play a bigger role beyond the peninsula-based arena.

He said: "It's only 25 per cent of our business now. We need to keep talking to developers to create piers at new projects, because unless you have one at the outset, it won't happen.

"Berkeley Homes' work at Woolwich is a model for us. It was the first to share our vision and, in turn, we ran at a loss at first until it had built up.

"We're working very closely with developers in Trinity Buoy Wharf, and Wood Wharf will be in dire need of a pier, creating a Canary Wharf east and west."

Ultimately, Sean advocates fully integrating the Clippers into the Oyster scheme as a "premium" service, with the operator taking its fare money from Transport for London.

Oyster pay-as-you-go was accepted on Clippers from November, allowing users to have the fare deducted from their balance with a 10 per cent discount.

He said: "On the first day of the scheme, 25 per cent of our travellers were using Oyster. That's not necessarily new customers but it shows how much it was needed.

"We need a totally integrated, touch-in-and-touch-out system. It would help if the entire river was Oysterised. We're the only one at the moment, and we'd support any other operator who wanted to join us.

"The key to all this is the customer. You can't put anyone else first other than the people that use it."