Trip Boats - Birmingham

[Wanderer Vagabond]

Does anyone know if anything untoward has happened to Sherborne Wharf who run the 'water taxi' and trip boats in Birmingham? We went through in September and the water taxi was a regular sight and yet this week we've been in Birmingham from Monday until today (Friday) and not a sign of anything. We went into Birmingham about a week earlier last year and the water taxi and party boats were passing all the time, this year? nothing. There is a trip boat moored outside of the Sea Life Centre that hasn't moved all week and has a note in the window saying,"Due to unforeseen circumstances,etc." but doesn't say what the unforeseen circumstances are.

 

I'm kind of hoping that, being there a week later this year, perhaps all of the Christmas trips have been done, but if not it doesn't look good. Likewise most of the eating establishments around Brindley Place seemed pretty deserted most nights, perhaps if the cost of living that is now deterring people, which would sadly suggest that these businesses aren't going to last.

[PeterScott]

sherborne Wharf website says "We run trips at weekends only throughout November, January, February and March" and has a booking form ...

 

[Wanderer Vagabond]

25 minutes ago, PeterScott said:

sherborne Wharf website says "We run trips at weekends only throughout November, January, February and March" and has a booking form ...

 

Yes, I looked at the website to see if there was any information there but it seemed a bit hit and miss. The 'Search for Santa' excursion is dated 2019 and the daily boat trips references,"....PLEASE NOTE – Public trips will commence on the week ending the 19th Feb 2022....." and then states,"....

Boats will be running ............ till the end of Nov and will run weekends only through December 2022...." so it is a year out of date. It also seems a bit odd that the calendar you show above (and I've checked on the website) shows the boats as 'unavailable' this weekend, not 'booked' and 'available' next weekend which is the Christmas Weekend, I would guess that is someone hasn't already booked for next weekend they aren't going to.

 

As I said, last year when we were in Birmingham in December, the water taxi was coming past all the time and the party boats were coming past in the evening, perhaps it's because we are a week later than last year, I don't know.

 

[Riverdee]

They are not operating now until Jan because of the stormy weather, they said its too dangerous to be cruising