When the Swansea Bay News told the story of the night ferry to Cork and of 200 years of crossings across the Celtic Sea before it, the response from readers showed how much the Welsh port misses having such a service to Ireland.
So they posed to the industry itself whether the second largest city in Wales could ever be once again—putting the same four questions to five of the biggest ferry operators in British and Irish waters; one of them is watching with genuine interest.
Each operator was asked whether it had been approached about or had any interest in the proposed Swansea–North Devon crossing of the Bristol Channel; whether a revived Swansea–Cork route (last run by Fastnet Line until closing in 2011) would ever feature in its plans and any plans to link Wales directly with a France link, perhaps a Swansea to St. Malo service or a comparable Breton port would be operationally realistic; and if South Wales features in its network planning.
The answer is from one of Western Europe’s best-known operators that carried real warmth: Wales, Brittany Ferries told SBN, is already “an important part of our world” and the company is following Swansea’s ferry ambitions “with genuine interest."
A spokesperson from Brittany Ferries said: “Wales is already an important part of our world, even without a direct route. A significant proportion of our customers travel to us from Wales, and the trade and cultural links between Wales and our network of ports go back a long way.”
As for the Severn link (see Irish link), they added, “So we follow developments like the Swansea/North Devon feasibility work with genuine interest."
When questioned on the specific routes, however, the company was clear: “We’ve nothing to announce regarding a Swansea/North Devon, Swansea/Cork, or Wales/France service.”
The spokesperson said route planning depended on a wide range of commercial, operational and vessel-availability factors, and the company would not speculate on hypothetical routes—but added that while South Wales does not feature in its published network plans, the network is kept “under ongoing review”.
Of the five operators, Brittany Ferries’ warmth stood out, because none of the others said it was considering a Swansea service – and none also said it had been approached about running the proposed North Devon crossing in South West England.
For more, including the responses from DFDS, P&O Ferries, and Irish Ferries (predecessor B&I originally ran Swansea–Cork but switched to Pembroke Dock), acknowledged the questions but had not responded to SBN’s deadline; as for Stena Line, they too did not respond.
As for Associated British Ports (ABP), which owns the Port of Swansea, they did respond, which can be read here along with more on the prospect of a Bristol Channel link and the results of a Swansea Council consultation response.
