Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, for what reason ferry trips are not included in the Government's refund guarantee for cancelled Christmas rail and coach trips.
The preparations and communications the Department made for Christmas travel were focussed towards road and rail passengers as these sectors were deemed at greatest risk of possible congestion. They were explicitly encouraged to pre-book, unlike the ferry sector where, on domestic routes, it is less likely to require pre-booking.
For international ferry routes, the existing compensation requirements under EU law applied where services had been cancelled by the operator and passengers should have been offered either a rebooking or a refund. For domestic ferry routes, existing compensation requirements also applied which we expect operators have honoured.