Displaying items by tag: Repatriate Truckers

22nd December 2020

Operator Brittany Ferries Asked by Governments if it Can Repatriate Irish Lorry Drivers

Hauliers say French travel ban exposes lack of capacity on direct ferries to mainland EU. Above adds Afloat is Brittany Ferries ro-ro freight-orientated passenger ferry (ropax) Connamara which is berthed today in Rosslare Europort operating albeit the routine service to Spain via Bilbao.

Governments from Ireland and France have made contact with Brittany Ferries about running a ferry from France to repatriate Irish lorry drivers stranded in Europe by France’s Covid travel ban on Britain should the need arise.

As The Irish Times reports, the French shipping line is understood to have been asked by the French transport minister, Jean-Baptiste Djebbari, to examine whether it could provide capacity for a sailing to Ireland should it be required to accommodate Irish hauliers affected by the ban on travel to and from Britain.

There have been discussions between Irish and French government officials and with ferry companies to see if additional ships could be redirected in the wake of the ban introduced on Sunday night to prevent the spread of a new infectious coronavirus strain from Britain.

Discussions are taking place about whether Brittany Ferries should run a ship from the port of Caen to Rosslare. The company already runs a service between Rosslare and Bilbao in Spain and is due to (open) a new service between Rosslare and Cherbourg from March.

Government officials are assessing whether the additional capacity provided by Stena Line running a second ferry on the Rosslare-Cherbourg route (today) will meet the required demand.

There will be two Stena ferries leaving for Cherbourg following the announcement.

Published in Brittany Ferries

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Competitions

The most significant events for the Half Ton Class has been the annual Half Ton Cup which was sailed under the IOR rules until 1993. More recently this has been replaced with the Half Ton Classics Cup. The venue of the event moved from continent to continent with over-representation on French or British ports. In later years the event is held biennially. Initially, it was proposed to hold events in Ireland, Britain and France by rotation. However, it was the Belgians who took the ball and ran with it. The Class is now managed from Belgium.