Building Bruny one trip at a time

SEALINK Travel Group was recently awarded the tender to provide ferry services to Bruny Island, one of Australia’s truly iconic destinations.

This is the beginning of an exciting new phase for us as Bruny Island is a very special place and we know we can provide a strong level of support for the local community and for the tourism industry.

SeaLink is committed to improving the current service and wants to assure the people of Bruny Island and Tasmania that, despite what has been said in the public domain, there will be no cuts to capacity, this year or in future years. We are planning better services, building new ferries for the route with additional capacity, reducing travel time for the Bruny Island community and providing ongoing employment opportunities.

As a minimum, under our contract with the Tasmanian Government we have guaranteed to provide at least as good a service as that provided by the current operator. As well, our contract requires that the reasonable needs of all categories of customers must be met. This means additional capacity can be made available as demand grows over time.

We are not strangers to Tasmania and have invested more than $15 million in local shipbuilding over the last five years, building seven new vessels for Sydney Harbour and the Northern Territory.

One of the things we hope is that local shipbuilding will benefit from our contract win. Last week we announced a request for tender to build the first of two new vessels for Bruny Island and have invited shipbuilders in Tasmania to tender along with two other Australian shipbuilding yards.

Of course, building new ferries takes time and while we wait for our new vessels to be built, Mirambeena and SeaLink’s Moongalba will provide at least the same level of service as the existing service, including at peak times. The Moongalba will be a dedicated second vessel for the service. This is an immediate improvement for residents and visitors.

Once our first new vessel is commissioned in October 2019, there will be three vessels dedicated to the service, 365 days of the year, which will improve reliability and capacity. Importantly SeaLink has a large fleet of over 70 vessels which can provide additional support to the Bruny service if it’s needed.

Bruny Island residents shouldn’t be concerned about fares, as there will be no change for residents and property owners when SeaLink takes over the service in September this year. Subsidised fares will continue to include both residents and property owners and will stay at $16 for a standard vehicle and $9 for a concession fare.

As has been the case, any changes to residents’ fares will be maintained at or below annual CPI increases for the duration of the 10-year contract, and government will retain control over fares.

In the first year, the government will fund discounted fares for residents who pre-book their travel — they will pay $10 a trip rather than $16 while Bruny Island resident concession customers will pay just $5 a trip rather than $9.

Irrespective of the time day, week or month they travel residents and property owners will pay the same ticket price.

There will of course be a transition to our booking system and we see this as a vital part of the new service, intended to provide certainty for travellers.

But if residents or visitors don’t want to pre-book, they don’t have to. People can travel without booking as SeaLink will be operating a standby queue. For a 12-month period, however, there will be a discount for residents who do pre-book their travel.

SeaLink will have staff available during transition and once operational to assist any user with its system. You won’t have to go online, you will be able to book by phone or with local agents on Bruny Island and in Hobart.

We know it’s important emergency services, school buses and regular service providers get priority and we

We are planning better services, building new ferries ... reducing travel time for the Bruny Island community and providing employment opportunities

will always retain spare spaces on each trip for emergencies and special needs travel.

SeaLink understands the responsibilities of operating the Bruny Island ferry and is actively engaged with government and the local community, well before it assumes responsibility for operating the ferry service, to ensure a smooth and successful transition. Existing staff should not be concerned as SeaLink will be offering them roles and plans to employ more local people to improve the ferry services.

SeaLink has always proposed extensive consultation and we welcome

the key outcome of the community meeting at Barnes Bay Hall: the creation of a new Bruny Ferry Reference Group, with representatives from residents and businesses together with SeaLink, State Government and Kingborough Council.

The group will provide a single point of contact to work with the Bruny community to address any concerns about delivery of services for all ferry users. SeaLink has long been committed to the tourism industry in Australia and a proven, experienced tourism and transport operator.

We are delighted to be expanding our operations into Tasmania and look forward to becoming a key member of the Tasmanian tourism and business community.