"Foot Passengers Treated like Cattle"
The good bits: The ship left and arrived on time. Seating comfortable.
The less good bits: Staff somewhat "jobsworth"; fine until something happens which upsets the routine - like a fellow passenger who wanted to pay for tea and coffee separately in sterling and Euros (yes she was awkward, but the bar staff had no idea how to accommodate her); or consenting to give me tap water in a glass rather than a plastic cup.
The still less good bits: one of the lights failed in one of the toilets on the journey out to Dieppe on the Friday. On the journey back on the Sunday it still hadn’t been repaired.
The really bad bits: 45 minutes of faffing about at either end, whilst the foot passengers queued up to be herded through one door, then out of another door, penned up like cattle out of doors - no seats, no cover (and three steps down with no wheelchair ramp) - looking at an empty bus for twenty minutes, then on to the bus - which then travelled 300 yards - off the bus again. At this point I was fully expecting to see a white rabbit disappear into the car deck.
It was so bad, it was actually funny. Staff seemed to be making everything up as they went along, but with no real ability to improvise. When I finally burst out laughing at the sheer absurdity of it all, I got a look from a staff member, so murderous, I really wondered whether I was safe.
I suppose that foot passengers are a damned nuisance to the company. They’re still paying passengers, who deserve a decent service. Transmanche really does need to re-think this whole process.
Oh, and signs at both terminals showing the way to the town, and to the station would be handy. Of course, allowing foot passengers to arrive at Newhaven Harbour station, rather than Newhaven Town would solve almost every problem.
I get the sense that Transmanche is a profoundly badly managed company, with managers who do not have much imagination, and who, I suspect, regard both passengers and their staff as objects of the gravest suspicion, rather than really wanting to support either one or the other.
A shame, because popping across to Dieppe could be a really nice thing to do. I won’t be doing it again for a very long time.
(And the food in the self-service restaurant is pretty so-so.)
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Overall Rating:
-
General:
-
Catering:
-
Cleanliness:
-
Staff:
-
Punctuality:
-
Recommended?
Yes
Reviewed by William Johnston who travelled with DFDS Seaways on Seven Sisters
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