1.   Caledonian MacBrayne, the State-owned ferry company, runs two car ferries on the crossing.

2.   Despite the encouraging figures, the Chunnel has prompted ferry companies to smarten up their act, and offer better deals.

3.   We are having the ferry company over to see how it works, but no Decision has been made.

4.   Ferry companies need to get their acts together to make ferries safe.

5.   But no one else wants the traffic, and local governments and civic groups have so far blocked the ferry company.

6.   But the ferry companies have resisted this.

7.   But this bucolic passage has become a battleground between a Connecticut ferry company and a bunch of crusty East End villagers.

8.   Eurotunnel said it cut duty-free prices in a bid to gain an edge on its chief rivals, the cross-Channel ferry companies.

9.   Eurotunnel, which operates the Channel Tunnel linking Britain and France, last June brought a court action against the French ferry company SNAT for unfair competition.

10.   Ferry companies dispute that.