With the joint Irish-Welsh government announcement that the Port of Holyhead will remain closed until 15th January (if not later), Stena Line, as part of its response, opened a new temporary ‘freight’ route of Dublin-Heysham today, writes Jehan Ashmore.
The new Ireland-England freight route has been added to the operator’s Irish Sea passenger routes (see updates) to assist continuity of trade flows following the charter of the Isle of Man Steam Packet’s ‘reserve’ ropax Ben-My-Chree, which was observed arriving in Dublin Bay on Monday. It will be chartered up to 22 December at least.
The rare call by the 'Ben' to the Irish capital led to Afloat's speculation of a likely charter to an operator affected by the closure of the North Wales port, following Storm Darragh’s damage to the ferry jetty, which took place almost a fortnight ago.
Yesterday the Ben-My-Chree carried out berthing trials in Dublin Port, from where, in the early hours of today, the 90-freight trailer capacity ropax departed on its inaugural Stena sailing. At the time of writing, the ropax is approaching Heysham, Lancashire, where it is to discharge its first freight load at the only ferryport between Liverpool and Cairnryan in Scotland.
Prior to this new role, Ben-My-Chree, as the Steam Packet’s reserve ferry, had been in layover mode at Douglas, from where the company operates their main and only year-round route to Heysham, served by its sucessor the passenger and freight ferry flagship, Manxman.
Stena Line also operates an existing Belfast-Heysham route served by freight twins, Stena Hibernia and Stena Scotia, and on the Belfast-(Birkenhead) Liverpool route, Stena Forwarder in partnership with a pair of passenger/freight ferries.
In addition, Heysham is also busy with freight-only operator CLdN on routes to Dublin, Warrenpoint, and Liverpool-Dublin, competing with Stena’s route from Birkenhead to the Irish capital. Due to the port damage at Holyhead, they are now offering travel for 'motorist' passengers on what was exclusively a freight-only service.
On the North Channel passenger route of Belfast–Cairnryan, Stena has also added additional sailings this weekend. Whereas on the central Irish Sea corridor, at Dublin, the company last week launched a new passenger route to Fishguard, from where, on the southern corridor, they also run a route to Rosslare.
The changes to Stena Line operations reflect the alternative travel arrangements required for customers during the busy festive period. The company is contacting customers and is advising affected passengers to amend their booking online free of charge or through the contact center at 0344 770 7070 (UK) or +353 1 907 5555 (ROI).
,For the latest information on passenger sailing updates between Ireland, the UK, and also France, click here.
