Towards the economic operation of a to be privatized ferry system - The case of the Rozenburg-Maassluis ferry in the Port of Rotterdam

Abstract

Originally the Province of South Holland (the Netherlands) operated a one ferry ship system between Maassluis and Rozenburg at the New Waterway (the mouth of the Port of Rotterdam), This distance of approximately 800 meters is serviced by a car ferry between 6.00 AM and 12,00 PM. The current operator SBS BV was asked to make a proposal to operate the ferry system during a concession period of 6 years in a privatized manner. At the moment the operator earns a management fee for the management and control for the ferry system and all personnel are civil servants of the province. The authors were asked to write a proposal to commercial operate the ferry system and come up with social and financial alternatives for a time schedule of the ferry service. Several cost effectiveness analyses were performed to fmd the information necessary to draw up the proposal. Specifically for this project a cost effectiveness model was developed. The analysis include aspects such as actors involved, time schedule alternatives, number of ships to operate, the use of a new ship, the use of a refurbished ship, the availability of the ships due to maintenance, the tariffs to be used, the modal-split to expect, and of course all costs involved. Few data was available to evaluate on the noncommercial ferry system and had to be gathered parallel to the development of the cost effectiveness model. In advance the province’s expectation was that it would be feasible to operate only a bicycle-pedestrian ferry system. This research showed that is was feasible to operate the current car-femy system with one refiubished ship and an additional (old) ship during the rush-hours and stop the commercial ferry service after 21.00 hours. Eventually the study gave an acceptable proposal for the