New Routes Ireland - St Malo / Roscoff

[colin]

4 minutes ago, Gareth said:

Once out of town, yes probably.  Though St Malo has a getting-through-town element that Roscoff doesn’t have.  Mind you, that’s also a factor at Ouistreham!

St Malo has 3 roundabouts in quick succession then once past the hospital only lights, pretty much all dual carriageway, until the roundabout onto the D137 dual carriageway to Rennes. Roscoff has 6 roundabouts on a single carriageway until south of St Pol de Léon.

[Chef]

3 minutes ago, colin said:

Roscoff has 6 roundabouts on a single carriageway until south of St Pol de Léon.

Great fun when driving on the right hand side of the road for the first time in 8 months after just arriving  off the Pont at 7 am .

[Gareth]

10 minutes ago, Chef said:

at 7 am .

Which is really 6a.m.! 

[Chef]

1 hour ago, Gareth said:

Which is really 6a.m.! 

But well worth it , if only that place with the red double decker bus was open at that hour the other half would be even happier .

Edited February 18 by Chef

[Cabin-boy]

12 minutes ago, Chef said:

the other half

That's right. Pass the blame. 😀

Ed

[jonno]

3 hours ago, colin said:

St Malo has 3 roundabouts in quick succession then once past the hospital only lights, pretty much all dual carriageway, until the roundabout onto the D137 dual carriageway to Rennes. Roscoff has 6 roundabouts on a single carriageway until south of St Pol de Léon.

If we're in the van I prefer the run up to the roundabout next to the aquarium even if I'm heading over the barrage but usually turn onto the 201 if I'm in the car and the short cut if there's a queue off the ferry at the light.

Any idea why they spent the multi millions at Roscoff if it's only single carriageway?

[Chef]

2 hours ago, Cabin-boy said:

That's right. Pass the blame. 😀

Ed

Seriously, I don't drink ( any more ) the wife gets a complimentary bottle with her purchase on the return journey and I get a promotional  t shirt .

[zuludelta]

1 hour ago, jonno said:

Any idea why they spent the multi millions at Roscoff if it's only single carriageway?

Stimulus to the local economy maybe or political symbolism?

For a lot of these projects, their compatibility or suitability to existing infrastructure is rarely even on the agenda. Japan is notorious for this.

https://www.nytimes.com/2009/02/06/world/asia/06iht-06japan.19977986.html

[Chef]

5 hours ago, Gareth said:

Interesting.  Armorique has briefly called at Rosslare (in passing, bow-in) as scheduled this afternoon.  But then, rather than wait until 2000 for the scheduled departure to St Malo, she’s now on her way from Rosslare to Cork.

I wonder if this is an adaptation of the schedule to satisfy some demand for a Cork - St Malo sailing?

Seems like Armorique might be staying in Cork for a few days , port of Cork are showing her as departing on Saturday at 20:00hrs .

[RickOShea]

6 hours ago, Gareth said:

Edit:  Just seen Rick’s post in the other thread to say the Rosslare-St Malo and St Malo-Cork sailings have been cancelled.  Put together with last week’s cancellation of the St Malo-Cork leg, I reckon this must be a fair indication that BF does not think the St Malo connection is viable.  (Not exactly surprisingly, as has been said a few times, considering the unsuitability of the St Malo road infrastructure for freight hub purposes).

Just to be clear - BF is attributing the cancellations to bad weather.

[Gareth]

7 hours ago, RickOShea said:

Just to be clear - BF is attributing the cancellations to bad weather.

Indeed.  As is often the case.

[Gareth]

Thanks Ed - though I wasn’t attempting to be flippant.  The truth is that these decisions are rarely down to just one thing but rather the interplay of a variety of factors.  But there is still a need to attribute them to something for public consumption, and they can legitimately be attributed to “weather” when weather was one of those factors in the mix.

[Penlan]

Irish sea crossings seem to cancel more frequently than the crossings out of Ply and Port.

For us in Fishguard it seems Stena will cancel at the first hint of a breeze, though there was the epic a few years back where the Europa was caught mid channel and had to run North to hide under the Lleyn peninsula for hours.

A trip from the Emerald Isle that left a lot of Emerald passengers....

Rhys

[colin]

12 hours ago, jonno said:

If we're in the van I prefer the run up to the roundabout next to the aquarium even if I'm heading over the barrage but usually turn onto the 201 if I'm in the car and the short cut if there's a queue off the ferry at the light.

Any idea why they spent the multi millions at Roscoff if it's only single carriageway?

I think it is worth bearing in mind that truck drivers see things VERY differently from car drivers, particularly tourists. They pretty inevitably have to negotiate some tricky bits somewhere on their journeys, so getting in to or out of St Malo port doesn't phase them. 10 minutes at worst. Distance from their destination, as we have discussed at length, is much more important to them.

[Penlan]

I agree there Colin, living in West Wales with some quite narrow lanes you  quickly realise:

Truckers tend to be drivers not wheel turners.

Milk tanker drivers put their brain in a bucket every morning, there is no throttle on their vehicles, just a switch.

Most tourists have no idea what that "R" setting is for on the gearstick.

You can usually reverse 100 m quicker than they can reverse 10 feet.

There was however the occasion above where tourists default was to hang out of the window screaming at me for daring to be in the road at all. I was in the Green Goddess Pump at the time and after a few moments of solid obscenity, I smiled, waved, popped the fire engine into first low let my foot off the clutch then went and sat in the passenger seat. That was quite amusing, it turned out he did know what reverse was....

R

 

 

 

[Gareth]

Agreed.  I think we get used to Dover and Portsmouth being straight out of the port and onto the motorway, and forget that it is not like this at the majority of ports.  Felixstowe and Purfleet pretty good too, as is Dunkerque Ouest.  But even places like Plymouth, Poole, Ramsgate, Ouistreham and Le Havre have their town bits that need negotiating before getting onto the open road.  So, yes, I’m not sure why St Malo has been singled out as problematic.  As Colin says, it’s no worse than most (and probably better than ports like Weymouth and Newhaven) for freight access.

 

[jonno]

2 hours ago, Penlan said:

I agree there Colin, living in West Wales with some quite narrow lanes you  quickly realise:

Truckers tend to be drivers not wheel turners.

Milk tanker drivers put their brain in a bucket every morning, there is no throttle on their vehicles, just a switch.

Most tourists have no idea what that "R" setting is for on the gearstick.

You can usually reverse 100 m quicker than they can reverse 10 feet.

There was however the occasion above where tourists default was to hang out of the window screaming at me for daring to be in the road at all. I was in the Green Goddess Pump at the time and after a few moments of solid obscenity, I smiled, waved, popped the fire engine into first low let my foot off the clutch then went and sat in the passenger seat. That was quite amusing, it turned out he did know what reverse was....

R

 

 

 

Grockles Rhys, no other word for 'em, used to drive me insane trying to get to the power station during Spring & Summer.

[ZinedineBiscan]

4 hours ago, Gareth said:

Agreed.  I think we get used to Dover and Portsmouth being straight out of the port and onto the motorway, and forget that it is not like this at the majority of ports.  Felixstowe and Purfleet pretty good too, as is Dunkerque Ouest.  But even places like Plymouth, Poole, Ramsgate, Ouistreham and Le Havre have their town bits that need negotiating before getting onto the open road.  So, yes, I’m not sure why St Malo has been singled out as problematic.  As Colin says, it’s no worse than most (and probably better than ports like Weymouth and Newhaven) for freight access.

 

It's not the town that's my issue it's the lack of dual carriageway at Roscoff that sends me mad once you're off the N12.  Well, particularly if I'm timing it tight as usual.  Ouistreham and Portsmouth are great for late arrivals and the St Malo early departure doesn't cause too many issues, whereas the 3pm Roscoff has had some tense moments!

[Solo]

24 minutes ago, ZinedineBiscan said:

whereas the 3pm Roscoff has had some tense moments!

You need to arrive earlier, if to early park up next to the Red Bus you pass on the way in.

[PGTV]

31 minutes ago, Solo said:

You need to arrive earlier, if to early park up next to the Red Bus you pass on the way in.

Can’t argue with that statement.

Any spare space in the car had to be filled before arriving at the port...

[Gareth]

The pdf freight timetables for March have been published, and there is no continuation of Armorique’s Ireland - Brittany sailings in them.

[RickOShea]

On 21/02/2021 at 14:23, Gareth said:

The pdf freight timetables for March have been published, and there is no continuation of Armorique’s Ireland - Brittany sailings in them.

I wouldn't assume that means anything yet - I think everything is still TBC for ARMORIQUE except that she is sailing.

I believe the Irish sailings for the first week of March have been communicated to freight customers.

[Gareth]

Looks like Armorique is going to finally successfully set off on her second St Malo - Cork sailing tonight.

[colin]

2 hours ago, Gareth said:

Looks like Armorique is going to finally successfully set off on her second St Malo - Cork sailing tonight.

Without verification, I hear of better loading volumes in and out.

[RickOShea]

2 hours ago, colin said:

Without verification, I hear of better loading volumes in and out.

I believe your information is reliable and that things have been building on these sailings.