PLANS have been researched and published by Tilbury Community Forum to bring back a passenger ferry service between the town and Gravesend.

The ferry stopped running in 2024 when Thurrock Council pulled the plug on its subsidy.

Since then there have been consistent calls from both sides of the Thames for the service to be reinstated, but they have met with little response.

Money is available through the government for travel funding but Thurrock Council has largely been inert of chasing down opportunities, saying grants are not applicable to the ferry crossing.

Recently a senior officer of the council briefed its Place overview and scrutiny committee to say options were limited and the council was not optimistic about finding a solution. 

And the Tilbury Towns Fund Board has been similarly reticent to explore opportunities to bring back a service, despite having millions at its disposal. 

The Fund Board has linked a ferry return as part of a big project to extend the pontoon at the Port of Tilbury to allow bigger ships to dock and a possible regular service to London in conjunction with Uber Boat Thames Clippers.

However, that project has met with local concern and claims it does not align with the mandate of the Towns Board and the support for a commercial project of little direct benefit to Tilbury residents is inappropriate.

That is a view shared by local MP Jen Craft, who has challenged the legitimacy of the pontoon project. 

However, she has laid the way for Tilbury residents to benefit from a £20 million grant over ten years through the government's historic places project.

In the week she spoke to the forum about the grant funding, indicating some of it could be used to support a community-led project to bring back the ferry. 

That has prompted the Community Forum to release details of a project it has been working on to enter into a partnership with a proven Scandinavian ferry operator, which runs viable, green-powered schemes including one on the Fredrikstad river system, where the scenario is almost identical to the Tilbury-Gravesend crossing. 

Forum chair Craig Austin has released details from the project's research and he spoke optimistically of overcoming the financial challenges through robust planning and use of new technologies.

View the forum's presentation:-

Craig says- 

"In October 2025 we briefly touched on a potential proposal that would see the Tilbury Towns Fund pontoon money be repurposed. This included supporting the completion of the Tilbury FC stadium potentially unlocking land and the re-instatement of the Tilbury Ferry. 

"This was then presented at the January forum meeting with the ferry element then going to the February Towns Fund board meeting and then provided to the council for the working group. 

Then we would be able to share with our wider group who were unable to attend the meeting. 

"As it was referred to at last week's place meeting we have been contacted a couple of times asking for info as it was only presented in closed groups. 

"The Tilbury Forum is a non-political group of volunteer residents & businesses working for the betterment of our town. We have no commercial interests in these projects and the work that was put into these proposals was done in our spare time and for no financial gain. We're not part of Thurrock Council & as such the data that we have used is from the public domain. 

"We're not specialists, this is not our day job and we don't have access to some of the information we would have needed to make a full proposal so our intention was to provide a viable alternative to the existing conversations as far as we possibly can to evidence that there isn't only one show in town. 

"To begin, we identified the problems

Problems:

• Maintenance costs

• Lack of Funding

• No Sustainable Service

One of the biggest expenses of the former ferry was the maintenance costs. Older vessels cost more to maintain. 

So, objective one was sustainability which leads on to funding & what kind of funding is always available no matter where you are? Green money, go electric go green and money/grants are consistently available.

"We then researched what water-based travel is available around the UK and western Europe and learnt a lot about huge increase in electric ferrys in places like Rotterdam, Paris and multiple Scandinavian cities. 

"With existing services available in some of those locations we identified a leading manufacturer and reached out to them for guidance on the proposal. 

"They were very happy to help as the UK & in particular London are priority markets for them, so they were able to prepare analysis & provide guidance. 

Very quickly about the manufacturer:

• Based in Scandinavia

• Recently been awarded funding by the EU's European Institute of Innovation & Technology (EIT) Urban Mobility programme, one of Europe's highest-level and most competitive innovation bodies

• Recently won contracts to form a river service in middle east.

During our first meeting we laid out the current status of the crossing, what we are looking for & what we were looking to achieve

Objectives:

• Electric Vessel 

• Capable of crossing the Thames from Tilbury to Gravesend considering strong current

• No major infrastructure required

• Enough Charge to cross twice an hour 8 hours a day 

• Ability to evidence using real world service data

Vessel

• Produced in Scandinavia

• Utilizes a lightweight Glass Reinforced Plastic

• 14.9m Long 

• Semi-Autonomous (Only need 1 Pilot)

• Capacity for 50 people

• Service speed of 5-7 knots

• 7 Minute crossing time

• All day operation/overnight charge

• Uses CCS electric car charging. Portable charger supplied without requiring complex, custom marine charging infrastructure.

• Optional Solar Power

• Equipped with AC & Heating

• Fully accessible for wheelchairs, bicycles, and prams

We're a community forum, we're volunteer residents so how can we validate this and check compatibility. 

Obviously, we are not in a position to test a vessel but the operational model and technical performance of the Shuttle have been rigorously tested and validated in a highly comparable environment: the Fredrikstad river system in Norway.

This pilot successfully proved the vessel's capability under challenging conditions, mirroring those expected on the Thames

The Fredrikstad river has high currents & a crossing distance of 500-600 meters which is approx 7 minutes. Identical to the Tilbury to Gravesend route. 

All necessary operational data, energy consumption rates, and technical testing were completed during this pilot, ensuring that the performance metrics presented in this proposal are backed by proven real-world evidence

Testing took place over 12 months and service transported 31,000 passengers in this time with the respective surveys scoring passenger satisfaction at 4.72 out of 5

Once we were happy with compatibility we looked the numbers. 

Cost:

• £1.4m Vessel

• £80k Delivery

• £100,000 Associated Costs ie training, calibration.

Benefits

• Re-instate the Ferry Service

• Ownership of vessel. Don't rely on 3rd party

• Reduced Maintenance costs

• Economic benefits, employability 

• Green Funding applicability

• Reduced vehicle emissions through reduction in car journeys

• Minimal changes to existing infrastructure 

• Potential Free port Funding ?

Sustainability

• Potential Green funding

• New pricing model 

Pricing Model

§ Kids Prices Frozen Pre 2026

§ Increased saving on multi buy tickets

§ Commuter Price Protection

§ Maximises Day Trip Revenue

§ Maximises Tourist/Cruise Revenue

Forecast Data

67,800 Journeys Per Annum *

£2.04 Ave Fare **

Total Forecast Fare Revenue

£138,312 

*Based on last published usage data reduced 40% to allow for commuters/school children who have made alternative arrangements

**Last published ave fare KCC

The idea behind this proposal is to show there is options. It doesn't have to be this provider or that one and all options should be open and be explored. Our intention was to research an alternative, get it as far as we can then collaborate with partner agencies. 

Like I said at the beginning, there aint only one show in town. 

Whilst the position of some is clear. No pontoon = no ferry. 

Id like to flip that. No ferry No pontoon. Its not hard. Unless we have a viable service back and operating there is no justifiable reason for that pontoon.