Tourism firms work to cope with rising fuel costs
BBCTourism 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.
Their fleet of four heritage buses were becoming too expensive to maintain and the fuel costs were rising so much that they have gone into partnership with Stagecoach who will provide that part of the journey for them in newer, electric buses
"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.
Plymouth Boat Trips runs five passenger vessels and also has two seafood restaurants in the city. They say they have noticed a large increase in fuel costs since the start of the US-Iran War and are doing everything they can 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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