Ferry Time blog

Brittany Ferries is a leading ferry company operating on the western and central English Channel with a modern fleet of cross channel ferries.

Brittany ferries sail from Portsmouth, Poole and Plymouth in England, to Cherbourg, Caen, Roskoff and St Malo in Brittany and France, Cork in Ireland, Santander and Bilbao in Spain.

Brittany Ferries Channel crossings from Spain

Bilbao – Portsmouth
up to 2 crossings per week
from 23hrs 45mins

Santander – Plymouth
Infrequent crossings
20hrs

Santander – Portsmouth
up to 3 crossings per week
1 day

Brittany Ferries Channel crossings from France

Caen – Portsmouth
up to 4 crossings per day
from 3hrs 30mins

Cherbourg – Poole
up to 3 crossings per day
from 2hrs 30mins

Cherbourg – Portsmouth
up to 2 crossings per day
3hrs

Roscoff – Cork
Infrequent crossings
13hrs 45mins

Roscoff – Plymouth
up to 2 crossings per day
from 6hrs

St Malo – Plymouth
up to 2 crossings per week
8hrs

St Malo – Portsmouth
up to 2 crossings per day

Brittany Ferries Channel crossings from Ireland

Cork – Roscoff
Infrequent crossings
14hrs

Brittany Ferries Channel crossings from England

Plymouth – Roscoff
up to 2 crossings per day
from 6hrs

Plymouth – Santander
Infrequent crossings
19hrs 30mins

Plymouth – St Malo
Infrequent crossings
9hrs 15mins

Poole – Cherbourg
up to 3 crossings per day
from 2hrs 30mins

Portsmouth – Bilbao
up to 2 crossings per week
from 1 day

Portsmouth – Caen
up to 4 crossings per day
from 3hrs 30mins

Portsmouth – Santander
up to 3 crossings per week
from 1 day

Portsmouth – St Malo
up to 2 crossings per day
from 9hrs

Portsmouth – Cherbourg
up to 2 crossings per day
3hrs

????The new Fastnet line ferry service from Cork to Swansea ( and also of course sailing from Swansea to Cork) begins in March and the ferry company website at http://www.fastnetline.com/special_offers.html is currently showing the following two special offers for March 2010 and one that continues through until June and then after the peak season right up until Christmas 2010.

Ferry Fuel Surcharge

With effect from 1st September 2009, the ferry company DFDS Seaways will be
introducing a fuel surcharge across all of their products. The price
of oil has reached a level which gives DFDS Seaways considerable extra
costs for the purchase of fuel. The temporary fuel surcharge will be
£5pp each way and children are exempt from the surcharge.

Their website at www.dfds.co.uk is updated with the new fuel-inclusive
prices since Saturday 29th August 2009.

The price of oil has fluctuated a great deal during the last year, and
the ferry company chose to wait as long as possible before
introducing a surcharge. Now the price of oil has stabilised at a high
level so they can no longer absorb the higher fuel costs by making
savings in other places.

Other ferry cpmpanies are expected to follow suit, if they have not
done so already.

Posted via email from Ferry blog

LD Lines has announced the launch of the largest ever fast ferry to operate on the cross channel routes between England and France, with the introduction of a brand new, high speed Incat 112 metre Wave-Piercing Catamaran to its Dover – Boulogne service from 29 May 2009.

The fast ferry will be the first-ever freight carrying high speed vessel to operate across the Dover Straits and LD Lines becomes the first-ever French ferry company to operate high speed ferries on the short sea routes from Dover. The vessel is also the world’s largest diesel-powered catamaran and it will be the first Incat 112 metre to operate in Europe.

At nearly 11,000 gross tonnes, the new craft is one of the largest vessels yet built by Incat, providing significantly greater seakeeping qualities and passenger comfort than earlier generation fast ferries familiar to Dover Strait, cross channel passengers.

LD Lines new Dover-Boulogne service will be greatly enhanced as the new fast ferry will increase frequency from the current two to six return sailings daily. All types of tourist traffic will be carried including cars, caravans, motorhomes, motorcycles, coaches and foot passengers, in addition to freight.

The fast ferry will operate up to four return sailings daily between Dover (Eastern Docks) and Boulogne with a crossing time of 1 hour ; from Dover at 0415 ; 0745 ; 1230 and 1900 and from Boulogne at 0700 ; 1045 ; 1700 and 2230.

Two return sailings daily to Boulogne and one to Dieppe (Monday – Friday) will continue to be operated by the conventional ferry, which introduced the earlier than planned start of the new Dover – Boulogne service in February 2009. Crossing time by conventional ferry is 1 hour 45 minutes.

Both vessels will initially operate into the Port of Boulogne’s existing ferry berths, but following completion of Boulogne’s new Hub Port Ro Ro Terminal from 1 July 2009, both will then transfer to inaugurate and operate into the first linkspan of the new Hub Port Terminal.

The introduction of LD Lines’ first-ever fast ferry is a major development for the company, further emphasising the strategy to firmly establish its business on the cross channel routes from Dover, as Managing Director, Christophe Santoni explains.

“This is a very exciting, innovative step forward for LD Lines and with the introduction of this new high speed ferry, we will be dramatically revolutionising ferry transport across the channel, with a style of service never experienced before on the Dover Straits.

We will be offering a unique, combined high speed and conventional ferry sailing frequency via the Boulogne service, providing great appeal and choice, to meet the demands of tourist and freight customers and create new markets.”

Commenting on the expansion of the Dover – Boulogne service with a brand new fast ferry, Francis Leroy, President of the Chamber of Commerce of Boulogne-sur-Mer Cote d’Opale, said, ” By creating the new Hub Port Terminal, the commercial port of Boulogne is positioning itself strongly within the ferry transport market. For the port of Boulogne this new service is a new step in the development of rapid links.”

The introduction of the new high speed ferry to operate with the conventional ferry on the Dover – Boulogne service, will now mean that the ship “Norman Spirit” will remain on LD Lines’ Portsmouth – Le Havre route. This ship had previously been expected to operate the service to Boulogne’s new Ro Ro terminal from 1 July 2009.

LD Lines’ ferry route network comprises Portsmouth – Le Havre ; Rosslare (Southern Ireland) – Le Havre ; Newhaven – Dieppe ; Dover – Boulogne and Dover – Dieppe.

Source: BBC News

Cross-Channel ferry operator SeaFrance could be taken over by Brittany Ferries through a new holding company after negotiations with LD Lines broke down.

If successful, it would acquire four or five of SeaFrance’s vessels, which would continue in service sailing to Calais from the Kent port of Dover.

SeaFrance recently announced it could be axing up to 650 French jobs.

Brittany Ferries already operates five routes to France from Portsmouth, Poole and Plymouth and two to Spain.

It employs 2,500 staff, including 320 UK-based employees.

Union opposition

David Longden, managing director, said: “After 37 years of experience on the longer routes to France and Spain, this is an exciting opportunity to introduce Brittany Ferries’ award-winning standards on Dover-Calais crossings, and to provide an even greater choice for our passengers and freight customers.”

LD Lines, the newest ferry company operating between Dover and Boulogne and Dieppe, had been planning to make a formal bid for SeaFrance.

However, it revealed it had withdrawn its acquisition offer of a majority stake in SeaFrance, amid apparent union opposition.

SeaFrance’s parent company SNCF declined to comment on Wednesday.