TALKS ONGOING TO ADD EVEN MORE SAILNGS TO ROSSLARE EUROPORT
ACTIVITY at Rosslare Europort shows no sign of subsiding. Saturdays being the busiest day, trucks line up the length of Delap’s Hill on approach to the port, while an array of vessels, each more impressive than the last, pull up at the harbour wall to take them directly to the continent.
Capacity seems to be a word that comes up frequently in any conversation on the port. Capacity on board the ferries for trucks; capacity in terms of cabins for the drivers. However, one question that’s been raised quite a bit over the past week is Rosslare’s capacity to grow even further from its current dizzying heights. This January has seen a 500% increase on traffic heading out of Rosslare to mainland Europe, with the number of sailings having trebled. However, this is not the sum of Europort General Manager Glenn Carr’s ambitions, as talks are ongoing with operators to add even more sailings and routes.
‘We still have capacity to take more and spread slots out further over the course of the day,’ he said. ‘All of the berths are in operation at the moment and on certain days you can see ships out waiting to get in, but that’s normal. We need to see how we can best use other parts of the day.’
Rosslare is not currently a 24 hour port, meaning that, if required, there would be an four and a half hours from 11.30 p.m. to 4 a.m. that could be added to allow ships to come and go.
‘We do still have capacity during the day as well though,’ Mr Carr states, smiling before adding: ‘We don’t have the same capacity that we did 18 months ago, but we could handle additional routes and vessels still.’
Just which operators would be interested in taking extra slots is still up in the air. However, undoubtedly, Rosslare Europort is being closely monitored by a lot of the main players keen to ride the wave of demand for continental sailings.
One rumour suggested that Irish Ferries were considering a return of their French route out of Rosslare, having taken the controversial, and you’d have to say short-sighted, decision to pull out late in 2018. However, Mr Carr says that there’s no suggestion that this may occur just yet.
‘I’ve had no communication to that effect as of yet anyway,’ he said. ‘While we would obviously welcome back an Irish Ferries service to France, we currently have six Stena Line, one Brittany Ferries and six DFDS services to France going out every week.’
Similarly, rumours of Brittany Ferries seeking to add a third route operating out of Rosslare to Le Havre were, as yet, unconfirmed by the General Manager.
‘No there’s nothing on that yet either,’ he said. ‘I’m sure there are lots of operators now looking at the situation at Rosslare. We’re looking to develop into the gateway destination to Europe.’
Mr Carr says that he is constantly in negotiations with ferry operators about additional services, but remains tight-lipped on who they might be, whether existing operators or new offerings.
‘Look, I think everyone is looking at Rosslare in some way,’ he smiles. ‘The opportunity is there for everyone. For now, we want to build up the brands we have here long term and work with our customers here to expand their operations and secure them into the future. If it’s not viable, they’ll leave, it’s as simple as that.’
For now, Mr Carr’s focus is getting the infrastructure in place to match the port’s meteoric rise. The first step of the €3.5m port masterplan looks at the layout of the port, something which will ensure that trucks lined up back into the village won’t be a common occurrence.
‘I suppose the challenge we had before was a lack of traffic,’ he said. ‘However, we are conscious of the local community in Rosslare and Kilrane. The new Rosslare Europort Access Road is coming and our new port layout will be ready to go when that arrives. In the meantime, we’d ask the locals just to bear with us. I think once everything is in place, there will be huge long term benefits for the local area, Co Wexford and the whole of the South East region.’