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Tourism firms work to cope with rising fuel costs

John AyresDevon, Totnes
BBC The Cardiff Castle passenger boat on the River Dart, carrying passengers between Totnes and Dartmouth. It's a grey and drizzly day , passengers are sitting on the deck with waterproof clothing.BBC
The Cardiff Castle riverboat cruising down the River Dart
Janine JansenSouth West, Plymouth

Tourism companies have been making changes to cope with rising fuel costs and difficult economic conditions.

The Dartmouth Steam Railway and River Boat company in South Devon said it had swapped its ageing heritage buses for new electric vehicles operated by Stagecoach.

Plymouth Boat Trips said it was trying to avoid putting prices up as the cost of fuel has escalated.

Both companies also said they were hoping this could be a "staycation" summer, where local people chose to take their holidays locally rather than abroad.

The Dartmouth Steam Railway operates a "Round Robin" journey which involves a steam train from Paignton to Kingswear, boats from Kingswear and Dartmouth to Totnes and then a bus from Totnes to Paignton.

Its fleet of four heritage buses was becoming too expensive to maintain and fuel costs were rising so much that it as gone into partnership with Stagecoach, which will provide that part of the journey in newer, electric buses

A new Stagecoach electric bus waiting at the stand at Paignton Bus station. The bus has a sign reading Round Robin on the side.
A new electric bus operating on the Dartmouth Steam Railway and River Boat Company's Round Robin trips.

"It's financially beneficial," said John Jones, managing director of Dartmouth Steam Railway and River Boat Company.

"It's beneficial in terms of reliability, they've got a bigger fleet, they've got a lot more engineers; they know a lot more about what they're doing, basically."

"It's much better for the customers as well. These [Stagecoach] buses are nice and quiet," he added.

Stagecoach will use buses from its Torbay fleet of 62 which are all fully electric.

The steam railway is heavily reliant on coal for its trains, but it has not had problems with price or supply.

Passengers waving while standing aboard a vessel run by Plymouth Boat Trips in Plymouth Sound.
Plymouth Boat Trips carrying passengers in Plymouth Sound

Plymouth Boat Trips runs five passenger vessels and also has two seafood restaurants in the city. Staff said they had noticed a large increase in fuel costs since the start of the US-Iran War and were doing everything they could to avoid passing the costs onto their customers.

"Labour's going up, fuel for the boats, gas and electric for the other operations," said Ben Squire, the owner of the company.

"Everything's gone up. The best way to handle it is by people using the services, getting out and supporting their local businesses."

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