Return of ferry services gives boost for port

IT WAS THOUGHT THE MORNING AND EVENING SERVICE WOULD NOT BE BACK

FERRY services on a key Irish Sea route have been strengthened with the return of two daily sailings.

Irish Ferries have restored a morning and evening service from Holyhead to Dublin which will be operated by the MV Epsilon.

The ship is under charter to Irish Ferries and it had been thought was being returned to its owner this year when the sailings were not included in the summer timetable.

In December, a reader found there was no Irish Ferries morning sailing when he tried to book a ferry for his vehicle from Holyhead to Dublin next July with a mid afternoon return.

But both are now available to book and are shown as being operated by the Epsilon.

The ship is currently operating alongside the larger Ulysses vessel on the key route.

Both ships will be joined this spring by the fastcraft Dublin Swift.

Irish Ferries have made no announcement about the updated timetable.

The revised timetable may be an indication traffic levels on the Irish Sea are returning to something approaching precovid and pre-brexit levels.

Last month, Seatruck Ferries, which operates freight-only services between Dublin and Liverpool and Heysham as well as from Northern Ireland, said despite the delays incurred as a result of Brexit, 82% of the total Irish Sea freight traffic still comes from Britain.

Writing on the company’s

Facebook page, a spokesperson said: “Brexit has changed many things but it hasn’t changed the geography! Seatruck offers 66 sailings per week on three routes and concentrates on the more efficient and environmentally friendly unaccompanied trailer-only shipments.”

Meanwhile, Stena Line will shuffle its Irish Sea fleet in the coming weeks as vessels are taken out of service for routine maintenance.

The work due to be carried out sees the return to Holyhead of the Stena Nordica, albeit temporarily.

Currently based on the Gdynia, Poland to Karlskrona, Sweden route the ship was due to set sail for the Irish Sea at the end of last week and was due to enter service on the Holyhead to Dublin route on February 14.

It will be based on the Irish Sea until early April, while the Stena Adventurer is in dry-dock in Birkenhead and while other ships are undergoing similar maintenance.

Originally built as European Ambassador for P&O Irish Sea the ship operated the Mostyn to Dublin service from 2001 until 2004. The route was closed following the Stena Line takeover and rostered on routes in the Baltic Sea.

But it has returned regularly to the Irish Sea to cover maintenance and dry-docking as well as a period between 2008 and 2015 when it was used to increase capacity between Holyhead and Dublin. It quickly became a favourite with regular users of the service.