Seatrans Ferry Stopped Running Until After New Year

[sbk]

Something to do with the pier (price?), so apparently the Sea Trans Express will still run from Samui-Phangan-Tao but the SeaTrans Ferry to Don Sak has stopped until the New Year.

One down, we are left with the very slow Raja Ferry (we had to pick up some customers last night and it didn't arrive until 11pm!!).

[Samui Coconut]

Something to do with the pier (price?), so apparently the Sea Trans Express will still run from Samui-Phangan-Tao but the SeaTrans Ferry to Don Sak has stopped until the New Year.

One down, we are left with the very slow Raja Ferry (we had to pick up some customers last night and it didn't arrive until 11pm!!).

Not good news indeed !

[sbk]

I don't know if they are still running the Samui-Don Sak trip or not, but they have stopped the Phangan-Don Sak trip

Mind, not that I get off the island that much, nor do I have plans to in the next few months but still, that really is not a good thing for the island.

[mitmig]

They operatie as usual to Donsak, I see them every hour passing by. We even bought tickets for the trip to Donsak on saturday, return monday. Samui would be one big chaos if one of the ferrycompanies would stop sailing to the mainland.

[mitmig]

Sorry, I see know you'r talking about Phangan to Donsak!

[Lite Beer]

Sorry, I see know you'r talking about Phangan to Donsak!

You not the only one. I thought it was Samui- Donsak. Still not good though.

[mosquitoman]

As far as I can work out the Seatran ferry from Pha Ngan runs high season only, this has been the pattern for the past couple of years now.

The service resuming after christmas fits in with my theory.

MM

[sbk]

Not my experience, having taken the Seatrans in July.

I have found, instead, that the service tends to be random, they don't want to take any boats out of Samui service when the one for Koh Phangan dies.

My understanding of the current stoppage is it has to do with the rental price for the pier.

[Pilchard]

When it first stopped running a while back I asked a Thai friend to phone Seatran for me, She was told they had stopped running due to the breakdown of the car ramp on Phangan.

I've been going over on the passenger boats since then, and could see that the lifting gear for the left side ramp ( left when looking out to sea ) was held up with temporary chains and winch.

Is it still that way or have they fixed it ?

Maybe the lack of spare parts over ran with the normal low season closure.

I've never seen the other ramp used for the samui service.

[mosquitoman]

Not my experience, having taken the Seatrans in July.

I have found, instead, that the service tends to be random, they don't want to take any boats out of Samui service when the one for Koh Phangan dies.

My understanding of the current stoppage is it has to do with the rental price for the pier.

Correct, I also consider July to be mid to hign season, and have noted that Seatrans ha been running July. Bring back the good old days when there were two ferries a day to Samui.

Last time the Seatran ferry stopped running they made some excuse about the boarding ramps (shoreside) breaking down, now its rental prices

Raja must be laughiing all the way to the bank at the moment as they are the only ones offering a reliable service to Koh Pha Ngan.

MM

Edited November 30, 2006 by mosquitoman

[sbk]

Yeah, slowly laughing! The early morning boat (6am) which also runs as the last boat of the day (both the same boat, different trips) is incredibly slow. Minimum of 3 hours for the trip. When our customers arrived, it was 3 hours late. My husband's cousin's wife told him that one night a few weeks back it arrived at 1am!

It might go faster if they all got out and pushed

[mosquitoman]

Yeah, I made the mistake of catching the 6am slow boat last week, wished I had spent an extra hour in bed, the 7am boat arrived at Donsak 5 minutes behind the 6am boat.

I then foolishly caught the last boat from Donsak, I did not get home until 11.30 pm, next time I will leave on the 7am boat and catch the 4 pm boat back, or spend a night in Suratthani.

Safety aside hats off to Raja, they are putting on exrtra ferries (12 sailings a day now), to meet demand as the traffic on and off Koh Pha Ngan is increasing, more than be said for Seatran.

MM