"New" Ireland - France schedules for Irish Ferries and Stena Line

[tarbyonline]

Stena Line and Irish Ferries have come to an agreement (after some political pressure) to offer a daily service between Ireland and France.  Each of the company's will sail a Monday, Wednesday, Friday, Sunday, Tuesday, Thursday, Saturday schedule on alternate weeks.  

This will give 7 days cover BUT will mean that on alternate weeks the same sailing will leave/arrive at either Dublin or Rosslare!  There is therefore a capacity gain of one sailing per week.

Edited November 5, 2020 by tarbyonline

[BigDW1946]

Have either company indicated which vessels will be in service?

[Cabin-boy]

And whether it's to Cherbourg or Roscoff (unless there's a third option I might have overlooked). 

Ed. 

[Andy]

Add to those the three weekly sailings by BF from March 2021, on Monday, Wednesday and Saturday's (from Cork/Rosslare).

Ireland will have its most comprehensive schedule to France for some time.

[Chef]

3 hours ago, BigDW1946 said:

Have either company indicated which vessels will be in service?

The same vessels that would normally operate the routes , their schedules are being adjusted to allow for a return sailing every day from either Rosslare or Dublin to Cherbourg .

[Fine Whine]

Our friend from Le Havre won’t be too pleased about this but great news for Cherbourg...!😎

Chris

[Cabin-boy]

9 minutes ago, Fine Whine said:

Our friend from Le Havre won’t be too pleased about this but great news for Cherbourg...!😎

Chris

Clearly the Irish don't actually want to go to Paris after all,  despite what we've been told. Ed. 

[Chef]

The hauliers were asking for Le Havre , the ferries were offering Cherbourg , the Government stepped in and got Stena and Irish Ferries to alter their schedules so as to have a sailing every day to France , seems everyone can live with that .

[jonno]

3 hours ago, Fine Whine said:

Our friend from Le Havre won’t be too pleased about this but great news for Cherbourg...!😎

Chris

...as Chris quickly gets his planning permission to build a drive thru!

Nice to have some positive news for a change.

[Cabin-boy]

1 hour ago, Chef said:

The hauliers were asking for Le Havre , the ferries were offering Cherbourg , the Government stepped in and got Stena and Irish Ferries to alter their schedules so as to have a sailing every day to France , seems everyone can live with that .

Well if they are pumping cash into the rail link, they might as well make use of it. Ed. 

[Fine Whine]

28 minutes ago, jonno said:

...as Chris quickly gets his planning permission to build a drive thru!

Nice to have some positive news for a change.

Joking all aside the truckers are very good and regular customers, for them it’s easy to drive in, load the trolley, pay and back to the ring road down to the terminal. Much quicker than queueing at the supermarkets as they’re generally in a McHurry...😂

A daily service makes complete sense, I can’t see the logic of running on the same days at very similar arrival/departures times and it will take the pressure of those that turn a blind eye to driving regulations on a Sunday, knowing if they miss either IF or Stena the next direct sailing back to Ireland is currently the following Wednesday.

Chris

[tarbyonline]

2 hours ago, Chef said:

The hauliers were asking for Le Havre , the ferries were offering Cherbourg , the Government stepped in and got Stena and Irish Ferries to alter their schedules so as to have a sailing every day to France , seems everyone can live with that .

SOME were asking for Le Havre.  Cherbourg suits many, particularly those carrying livestock!  It’s also a shorter sea voyage of course

Stena Line has confirmed the plan btw.  Essentially both operators are moving to a fortnightly schedule.  On a given week one will sail Monday, Wednesday, Friday, and Sunday while the other sails their current schedule. The following week they will switch.  Irish Ferries will continue to exclusively use Dublin and Stena Line Rosslare.  The same ships will be used as there is already plenty of spare capacity on Ireland - France.  In reality this is a gain of a single trip per week.  Should the need arise Stena have said they could transfer a larger vessel to the route.

CLdN has also increased its services from Ireland as well, and serves Cork as well as Dublin.

Edited November 6, 2020 by tarbyonline

[tarbyonline]

2 minutes ago, Fine Whine said:

Joking all aside the truckers are very good and regular customers, for them it’s easy to drive in, load the trolley, pay and back to the ring road down to the terminal. Much quicker than queueing at the supermarkets as they’re generally in a McHurry...😂

A daily service makes complete sense, I can’t see the logic of running on the same days at very similar arrival/departures times and it will take the pressure of those that turn a blind eye to driving regulations on a Sunday, knowing if they miss either IF or Stena the next direct sailing back to Ireland is currently the following Wednesday.

Chris

The logic behind the current schedule is thats where the demand is at present from hauliers.  That may or may not change.  It’s says a lot that under this plan both operators get a “bite” of the current schedule, albeit on a fortnightly basis.

[Fine Whine]

But no confirmation from IF towers yet... Do you have an inkling as to when these new rotations could commence Steven? Too  simplistic to assume the first week of January or is it dependent upon some sort of solution (or not as the case may be) to the wrangling between the UK and EU?

Chris

[tarbyonline]

4 minutes ago, Fine Whine said:

But no confirmation from IF towers yet... Do you have an inkling as to when these new rotations could commence Steven? Too  simplistic to assume the first week of January or is it dependent upon some sort of solution (or not as the case may be) to the wrangling between the UK and EU?

Chris

To be honest I forgot to get when it will start clarified!  Both operators already have their schedules published until the end of December, however. Of course, those could change.

[Chef]

48 minutes ago, Fine Whine said:

January or is it dependent upon some sort of solution (or not as the case may be) to the wrangling between the UK and EU

Yes , the Government and hauliers want to avoid the land bridge option to the rest of the EU in the case of a no deal situation and having trucks delayed crossing the channel .

Edited November 6, 2020 by Chef

[colin]

There were already a lot of school exchanges and visits switched to Ireland from UK due to using the Euro. This market should surge significantly. Not that this well help Chris, nor please many other passengers ....

[tarbyonline]

22 hours ago, Fine Whine said:

But no confirmation from IF towers yet... Do you have an inkling as to when these new rotations could commence Steven? Too  simplistic to assume the first week of January or is it dependent upon some sort of solution (or not as the case may be) to the wrangling between the UK and EU?

Chris

Irish Government has confirmed that this is from January.  As someone pointed out elsewhere, if this change hadn’t occurred at the behest of the government people would be calling it anti-competitive!

On a related note, a report commissioned for the Irish Government has found that there is already sufficient direct capacity to continental Europe to cope with disruption to the land bridge.  No evidence was found suggesting that the Irish Government should directly intervene in the market either.  
 

 

Edited November 7, 2020 by tarbyonline

[tarbyonline]

20 hours ago, colin said:

There were already a lot of school exchanges and visits switched to Ireland from UK due to using the Euro. This market should surge significantly. Not that this well help Chris, nor please many other passengers ....

Why would it surge?  Passenger volumes from Ireland are expected to continue to be significantly down on last years figures for much of 2021!

[David Williams]

Every couple of weeks Stena and BF will be running on the same route on the same day, sounds a bit silly.

[colin]

1 hour ago, tarbyonline said:

Why would it surge?  Passenger volumes from Ireland are expected to continue to be significantly down on last years figures for much of 2021!

Many fewer school groups likely to go to UK when as well as different currency, there are other regulations such as passports not ID cards, customs issues ... School trips will resume once the Covid-19 situation settles down, and more services to Ireland, specially to Dublin will be attractive.

[Fine Whine]

1 hour ago, David Williams said:

Every couple of weeks Stena and BF will be running on the same route on the same day, sounds a bit silly.

Before Irish Ferries moved north to Dublin they were running exactly the same schedule out of Rosslare as Stena, week in week out throughout the winter months.

Chris

[nick hall]

7 hours ago, colin said:

Many fewer school groups likely to go to UK when as well as different currency, there are other regulations such as passports not ID cards, customs issues ... School trips will resume once the Covid-19 situation settles down, and more services to Ireland, specially to Dublin will be attractive.

Sorry Colin, I’ve probably missed something, but the currency has always been different, and I wasn’t aware you could enter the UK without a passport. Happy to be corrected.

[David Williams]

35 minutes ago, nick hall said:

I wasn’t aware you could enter the UK without a passport. 

European ID cards are valid for entry to the UK, I believe that will stop next July.

Edited November 7, 2020 by David Williams

[nick hall]

5 minutes ago, David Williams said:

European ID cards are valid for entry to the UK, I believe that will stop next July.

Cheers David, didn’t know that.