A furious war of words has erupted as feuding Dart river businesses battle to compete for the lucrative cruise trade.

Both Greenway Ferry Pleasure Cruises and the Dartmouth Steam Railway and Riverboat Company run cruises on the Dart carrying thousands of visitors.

Last month Greenway bosses launched a price-busting fare offer on the Dartmouth-Totnes cruise run of just £2 each way – massively undercutting the riverboat company's £14 adult return fair.

Greenway boss Will Ford claims it is a reaction to a 'PLC' company aggressively targeting his family-run business and accused the riverboat company of 'arrogance'.

But riverboat company group general manager Andrew Pooley rejected claims his company was trying to run the opposition out of business.

And he is furious over Greenway's David and Goliath depiction of the two companies – with the riverboat company as the 'monster' Goliath.

Greenway Ferry Pleasure Cruises employs around 40 people, while Dartmouth Steam Railway and Riverboat Company employs around 120. Both operate services in Torbay as well as on the Dart.

Mr Ford fired his war of words broadside saying: 'Since May 1 our family-run company Greenway Ferry and Pleasure Cruises have been offering locals and visitors heavily discounted fares in Dartmouth for some of the river's most popular services. The company has reduced fares from Dartmouth to Totnes to £2 while also offering one-hour river cruises aboard its Second World War heritage ship Fairmile for £1.

'Since we started the special discounted services they have been extremely popular.

'Locals and visitors have been given the chance to enjoy the river at prices which they have not seen since pounds, shillings and pence days.

'Our company decided to offer these very special discounts due to the monopoly which is currently held on the River Dart by its PLC competition, Dartmouth Steam Railway and Riverboat Company. Put simply, our family-run company, which employs over 40 local people and operates 13 vessels, is being aggressively targeted by the Dartmouth Steam Railway and River Boat Company running below operational costs, creating a price war in our Torbay area of operation and emulating our services.

'We had no option but to retaliate in the manner we have as DSRRB Co have all the offices and all the infrastructure in Dartmouth.

'It was a business decision.'

He said the riverboat company seemed to be 'managed by sheer arrogance since a recent management change', adding that 'one can only assume this effort is to take our company out of business'.

He said if that were to happen, it would give the riverboat company 'a further monopoly and the market share of boat transport in Torbay'.

Mr Ford said that in Dartmouth the riverboat company had nine of the 12 booking offices selling tickets.

But in an email to the Chronicle, Mr Pooley fired back saying: 'Enough is enough, Greenway Ferry Pleasure Cruises have tried to depict us, the Dartmouth Steam Railway and River Boat Company, as a huge corporate monster trying to run them out of business. This couldn't be further from the truth.

'In actual fact, we are a relatively small, local, independent company only operating in south Devon and we employ approximately 120 staff of whom 70 per cent are full-time employees. We pride ourselves on quality and customer service.'

He added: 'All this nonsense about putting them out of business has just been proved to be ill-judged as they were quoted in the Dartmouth Chronicle just last week as "making a profit even at these massively reduced prices"... suggesting they were seriously overcharging customers when they were charging £7 for Torquay-Brixham (now £2) and £15 for Torquay-Dartmouth (now £5).

'We run boat services all year round to support the community, even in the winter months when it is not profitable, but, if the people of Dartmouth would like to see reduced prices, we can curtail our services.

'We also play our part in supporting local charities either by staging events or by direct fundraising – causes such as Rowcroft, RNLI, Children's Hospice South West and Barnardos, to name just a few.'