Could ferries to Europe make a come back?

[geoffk]

With many travellers reluctant to fly during the current public health crisis, could passenger ferries return on some long-defunct routes? I'm thinking Newcastle - Bergen and Harwich - Esbjerg.

 

[Darandio]

If passengers are reluctant to fly, why would they be convinced ferry travel is any safer? They certainly won't be forgetting the early stages of the pandemic when much of the headlines centred on cruise ships being breeding grounds for the disease.

Social distancing should be more achievable on a large vessel of course, but vastly reduced numbers to facilitate this cannot be very profitable.

 

[farci]

With many travellers reluctant to fly during the current public health crisis, could passenger ferries return on some long-defunct routes? I'm thinking Newcastle - Bergen and Harwich - Esbjerg.

It's worth reading the DFDS Seaways Wikipedia page "The Harwich - Esbjerg route was closed on 29 September 2014 due to loss of passengers. The Harwich - Esbjerg route had operated since 1875. This was the last service operated by DFDS from Harwich and was also the last passenger service between Great Britain and Denmark; DFDS continue to operate freight services from Immingham to Denmark." They closed the Norway service even earlier in 2008.

I would also welcome a restoration but it seems that, while demand for freight services continues, there is little demand for longer passenger routes.

 

[Bletchleyite]

If passengers are reluctant to fly, why would they be convinced ferry travel is any safer? They certainly won't be forgetting the early stages of the pandemic when much of the headlines centred on cruise ships being breeding grounds for the disease.

Social distancing should be more achievable on a large vessel of course, but vastly reduced numbers to facilitate this cannot be very profitable.

Most ferries operate well below capacity, as most people travel by car, and the capacity will be designed such that every vehicle could have all seats occupied, which is almost never the case. You might get odd cases the week the schools break up, but in my experience very few ferries I've been on would have made distancing difficult.

There is the cruise ship issue, but cruise ships are a bit different - you spend a lot of time on them and there's much more human interaction as part of the service.

 

[geoffk]

Thanks for comments. Actually I was thinking of a few days in Ireland - still possible of course - but then I read that Ireland still requires ‘restrictive movement’ for 14 days if travelling from Britain and you have to fill in a locator form advising where you will be staying. Restrictive movement meant a 5km radius from where you are staying but I believe this has been relaxed to 10 kms, so that would cover all of Dublin, but not sure if they are welcoming people on holiday at the moment.

 

[cactustwirly]

Most ferries operate well below capacity, as most people travel by car, and the capacity will be designed such that every vehicle could have all seats occupied, which is almost never the case. You might get odd cases the week the schools break up, but in my experience very few ferries I've been on would have made distancing difficult.

There is the cruise ship issue, but cruise ships are a bit different - you spend a lot of time on them and there's much more human interaction as part of the service.

Not sure how you worked that out, as mst ferries are at capacity, they just fill it with car passengers rather than walk ons.
Many ferrries are not designed to carry foot passengers.

 

[30907]

AIUI the long overnight ferry routes make at good deal of their money from freight, which is why the routes to/from NL have taken the lion's share of the traffic and were growing when routes to Scandinavia were shrinking.
I am sure there was talk about one of the latter coming back but I don't remember which.
Bergen is sadly too remote for the freight market.
I would (naturally) prefer a route from the North of England - Hull would be the obvious terminal but it would require a new berth (or some tight turnarounds with P and O.)
The other route that seems to be doing well is to Spain - I see Brittany are introducing a new ferry next year.

 

[Bletchleyite]

Not sure how you worked that out, as mst ferries are at capacity, they just fill it with car passengers rather than walk ons.
Many ferrries are not designed to carry foot passengers.

Most ferries (which indeed don't take foot passengers) tend to end up with the car deck full before they end up with the maximum number of people allowed on board, though. This is less so in peak holiday season where you get more full cars, but outside of that rarely will a ferry be at maximum passenger capacity (dictated by the number and capacity of lifeboats, vests etc) even if the car deck won't fit any more cars on. The reason is because a lot of the cars won't be full.

 

[causton]

I went from Harwich - Hoek van Holland last weekend and it was really good, lots of measures in place. Felt a lot safer and more relaxed than an airport!

 

[farci]

I went from Harwich - Hoek van Holland last weekend and it was really good, lots of measures in place. Felt a lot safer and more relaxed than an airport!

There’s an interesting trip report on YouTube London-Amsterdam via Harwich-Hoek here

 

[Jamesrob637]

There’s an interesting trip report on YouTube London-Amsterdam via Harwich-Hoek here

Noel almost made me want to take a ferry again. Not UK to Europe, but are there still a plethora of ferries from Tanger to the various Spanish ports surrounding Gibraltar? That was the last large ferry I took in autumn 2014.

 

[farci]

Noel almost made me want to take a ferry again. Not UK to Europe, but are there still a plethora of ferries from Tanger to the various Spanish ports surrounding Gibraltar? That was the last large ferry I took in autumn 2014.

In that case MS Marine Diesel is the YouTube channel for you! https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCesRTaBGpUlE3Bu8_f0k2tg

Here's your starter for 10 in Istanbul

 

[JonasB]

It's worth reading the DFDS Seaways Wikipedia page "The Harwich - Esbjerg route was closed on 29 September 2014 due to loss of passengers. The Harwich - Esbjerg route had operated since 1875. This was the last service operated by DFDS from Harwich and was also the last passenger service between Great Britain and Denmark; DFDS continue to operate freight services from Immingham to Denmark." They closed the Norway service even earlier in 2008.

It was environmental regulations that killed the route. While it wasn't doing great, rebuilding the ship would have been too expensive.

I would also welcome a restoration but it seems that, while demand for freight services continues, there is little demand for longer passenger routes.

I there is a no deal Brexit at the end of the year wouldn't it make it possible to sell alcohol tax free onboard? That might give the ferry companies a new source of income and might make more passenger routes profitable. (That is probably what keeps many routes in the Baltic sea profitable.)

 

[mpthomson]

AIUI the long overnight ferry routes make at good deal of their money from freight, which is why the routes to/from NL have taken the lion's share of the traffic and were growing when routes to Scandinavia were shrinking.
I am sure there was talk about one of the latter coming back but I don't remember which.
Bergen is sadly too remote for the freight market.
I would (naturally) prefer a route from the North of England - Hull would be the obvious terminal but it would require a new berth (or some tight turnarounds with P and O.)
The other route that seems to be doing well is to Spain - I see Brittany are introducing a new ferry next year.

There's been discussion on and off of reviving the Newcastle - Bergen\Stavanger ferry. Even when it ran it wasn't a big ship (apart from the last two years when DFDS ran it) and appeared to be used by mainly mini-cruise passengers to Norway and Norwegians coming to the UK to go very specifically (I knew a lot of Norwegians who used it this way) shopping to the Metrocentre and then to get drunk in Newcastle cheaply before getting the boat home. As soon as cheap air travel arrived in bulk its raison d'etre vanished. Sadly I can't see it returning, I say sadly as the journey up from Stavanger to Bergen past fjords and under huge bridges etc was an amazing experience.