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And one that's finished; the Swansea-Cork service has finally closed.
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>> And one that's finished; the Swansea-Cork service has finally closed.
I'm surprised that's sunk, would've thought it would be quite buoyant.
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>> I'm surprised that's sunk, would've thought it would be quite buoyant.
>>
Expensive overnight crossing (four a week IIRC) competing with two well-established set-ups, Irish Ferries from Pembroke and Stena from Fishguard, both of which run twice daily seven days a week. Never got the haulage traffic, and also suffered from an uncertain start-up and, I suspect, established interests; Welsh political machinations make Italian ones look crystal clear.
From an environmental perspective I would have liked it to succeed to remove HGV traffic from the A40, but the maths didn't stack up.
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>> Never got the haulage traffic, and also suffered from an uncertain start-up and, I suspect,
>> established interests; Welsh political machinations make Italian ones look crystal clear.
Were the Welsh politics for a new link or in defence of the established Fishguard service? The BiL lives in West Cork where support for and sponsorship of the service was strong.
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>> Were the Welsh politics for a new link or in defence of the established Fishguard
>> service? The BiL lives in West Cork where support for and sponsorship of the service
>> was strong.
>>
>>
>>
I'll leave you to draw your own conclusions.
www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-wales-south-west-wales-16854680
Last edited by: Harleyman on Sat 4 Feb 12 at 12:31
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>> Expensive overnight crossing (four a week IIRC) competing with two well-established set-ups, Irish Ferries from
>> Pembroke and Stena from Fishguard, both of which run twice daily seven days a week.
>> Never got the haulage traffic, and also suffered from an uncertain start-up and, I suspect,
>> established interests; Welsh political machinations make Italian ones look crystal clear.
>>
Fishguard - Rosslare gets 800,000 passengers a year, far more than Swansea managed. Were I travelling from England I'd far rather the extra 90 minutes on the A40 and a short crossing from Fishguard than the potentially miserable night on the Irish Sea from Swansea. Though Fishguard lost the catamaran that used to run through the summer last year, it was proving so uneconomical they were having to run at half speed to save fuel.
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Have they brought in some new ferries or bought ones from defunct Sea France? At those High Season prices it is hard to see how SF couldn't make a living on the route with their higher prices
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"Ferry companies DFDS and LD Lines have announced a new Dover-Calais route that will start operation from February 17.
Two ships flying the French flag will be crossing the Channel.
The companies have been considering running new ships on the route since the collapse of SeaFrance.
Initially thge companies will operate the route with the Norman Spirit, and they say a further ferry under the French flag will be added on the Dover Strait as soon as a suitable ship can be made ready.
The companies will hire 300 staff at sea and ashore, and the hiring process, including taking on former SeaFrance staff, has already started.
DFDS and LDA said they were grateful for the support they had received received from the French Government, Chamber of Commerce, the local authorities and the ports.
In a statement they said: “We are confident that our customers and the many people and freight companies that travel between France and Dover will benefit from the flexibility we can now offer with both a northern leg on Dover-Dunkerque and a southern leg on Calais-Dover.
“We therefore look very much forward to being able to welcome passengers as well as freight customers to our new Calais-Dover service, and, in cooperation with our new employees as well as our staff in Dover and Dunkerque, we look forward to providing an attractive and efficient customers service and a sustainable workplace.”
There will be five crossings a day until a second ferry is ready."
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Thye big benefit of Norfolk Line to Dunkirk, (now DFDS/LD) was no coaches - hence no feral groups of teenagers running amok. Whether this policy will continue?
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And the Norman Spirit is of course the old P&O Aquitaine sold by P&O and used by LD for their Portsmouth to Le Havre crossing - a route it was singularly unsuitable for especially on an overnight crossing.
So the old lady comes home to Dover/Calais - well not quite home because she's had a number of other identities too!
www.ferry-site.dk/ferry.php?id=8908466&lang=en
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As I mentioned in an earlier post she rolls a bit in heavy weather compared with the more modern boats in the DFDS fleet
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Thanks for the link. I was amazed to see that something of that size and complexity only took 8 years to build!
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Seems to be a joint operation with LD lines.
Press release says they're using Norman Spirit and another French flag ship still to be sourced. One would have thought the two identical ex SF ships Rodin & Berlioz would be ideal but whether liquidator can/will make them available is another question.
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When I came back from Dunquerque in December DFDS were using the LD lines Norman Spirit on that run to provide extra capacity
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So how do they reckon they can make a go of it when Sea France couldn't? Were the French over-paid?
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DFDS have been taken over by "Stena" - allegedly part of the deal was they would close certain "routes" that ran thier older ferries, Fleetwood - Belfast was one casualty. The three 35yr old boats were to been sold as scrap, but they gained a "last minute" stay of execution when the Ukraine put in an offer for them probably to be used as accommodation in the 2014Winter Olympics. The three boats, Stena pioneer, Stena Seafarer and Stena Leader, now renamed "Anna-Marine", Ant -1 and Ant -2. are currently laid up in Sevastopol, in the Black Sea.
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Today's ST Travel sections claims that Eurotunnel is going to buy the Sea France ferries and use them for a new X channel service. Cue protests from P&O natch!
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Next time across for me will be Hull Rotterdam taking car expensive but handy for me.
Or Dover Duinkerken nice crossing cheap.
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>> Next time across for me will be Hull Rotterdam taking car expensive but handy for
I have just booked the Hull to Zeebrugge crossing going out in May and returning in June. For the car, caravan, my two dogs, two berth en suite cabin and all meals both ways, it came to £433.
Far easier than travelling to Dover or Portsmouth via the dreaded M6. Brittany Ferries wanted £593 for a daytime crossing, without a cabin or meals, Portsmouth to Caen.
Less than three hours to Hull, whereas it's about six hours or more to Portsmouth depending on the M6. Three years ago, travelling solo, it took me over seven hours to get this side of Bournmouth.
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I was trying to price up a Brittany Ferries trip yesterday and the laptop nearly went through the window !
Some indication of what costs what would be useful. Please tell me I missed something, as it seems to me the only way to get a price for comparison was to go back to beginning and fully specify every time - date, route, mode of transport, number of passengers, accomodation - everything had to de re-typed or re-selected
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Brittany Ferries certainly seem to take the mickey.
Cheapest Portsmouth crossing I've found for car and caravan is Condor Ferries Portsmouth to Cherbourg, booking through Camping Cheques. You have to buy a minimum of 3 camping cheques but it's still miles cheaper than BF and - hey - it's 3 "free" nights!
This year it cost me £285 return and that's inflated because I'm going out on the Jubilee weekend.
The only restriction is you have to cross on a Sunday bacause they use the old clipper ship that plies between Pompey and the Channel Islands during the week. A bonus is the duty free/paid gin is the real mcCoy - 47.9 proof!
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Iam looking at a 5 day return from Hull to Rotterdam in the next few weeks.
From our house to Dover about 5hrs M18 A1 M11 M25 to Dartford and M20 to Dover.
Cheap on the Dover Duinkerken ferry but more cost for fuel..
You have a good deal Robbie I agree for you it's better on the Hull ferry and a night sleep.
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We never had a miserable night on the MV Superferry to or from Swansea, although we had plenty of heavy weather. We once had a full bottle of wine shoot a foot straight up in the air when we hit a cross sea - and I caught it one-handed!
Anyone remember the big Polish barman who sounded a horn if you tipped him? Told me came from Skibbereen.
Fond memories...
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New ferry route - Harleyman
