Irish Sea HSS

[leshuttle]

Stena Line’s HSS 1500 Stena Discovery terminated services to Hoek Van Holland and departed for lay up in Belfast on the afternoon of 23 January. It now joins the other two HSS 1500 vessels; Stena Voyager (Belfast-Stranraer) and Stena Explorer (Dun Laoghaire-Holyhead) on the Irish Sea.

It’s most likely that the Stena Discovery will spend much of its time serving little purpose in Belfast except for the few occasions when the two other HSS come in for servicing. Thoughts of it providing additional sailings on either of the Irish Sea HSS routes are very unlikely since the cost of fuelling it and air competition are making it hard enough to operate one alone per route.

It’s quite possible that the Stena Voyager may too face a gloomy future and with it Stranraer. The move down Loch Ryan from Stranraer to Cairnryan where P&O Irish Sea has a steady operation will almost certainly have consequences for the Scottish town and its rail service. The move which was proposed some years ago has not yet materialised with part of the reason being that the HSS has an uncertain future. Building the HSS’s unique link span along with foot passenger links down at Cairnryan would be a further waste of money should the vessel be later replaced by either a conventional ferry or a smaller catamaran such as is operated on the Fishguard-Rosslare route – neither of which could work with the HSS link span.

 

[Humberside]

It’s quite possible that the Stena Voyager may too face a gloomy future and with it Stranraer.

Stranraer is already planning for life without the ferry. It was awarded a casino license last week

 

[support-uk-rail]

My grandmother lives in Felixstowe, the UK's largest container port and just across a small channel to Harwich, where the HSS previously operated frequent services to the Hoek van Holland (Hook of Holland).

It is a shame that HSS Voyager has been put to little use. It was fast and fairly economical for it's status, and worked amazingly reliably on the Anglia - Holland routes. Now the routes have been replaced jointly by Stena Hollandica and Stena Britannica, the latter having failed 8 times in it's first year of service on the route.

However, this is good news for the residents of seaside towns Harwich and Felixstowe who previously had signs up along the beach warning swimmers to be careful during times of arrival/departure as the HSS caused serious waves.

HSS had a fairly bad safety record:

causes waves, sucked up a fishing boat on one occasion, lost over 10 vehicles in it's Hoek van Holland days.

I've also seen the HSS operate to Dun Laoghaire near Dublin in Ireland.

Apparently Irish Ferries put in a bid for Stena Voyager, as have a Spanish ferry company that currently do not operate, Espanferi.

 

[Humberside]

The HSS has been affected by rising fuel prices and the route in general by the low cost airlines

 

[rail-britain]

I've been on both HSS Discovery and HSS Voyager between Stranraer and Larne (Belfast)
They normally pass each other mid-route

Traffic levels are very good too due to the faster crossing time
The early morning sailings are a bit light for cars though, but this is a useful sailing to be in Belfast for 06:00 or Dublin for 08:00

 

[Flying Snail]

I've been on both HSS Discovery and HSS Voyager between Stranraer and Larne (Belfast)
They normally pass each other mid-route

I don't think so. HSS Stena Discovery has been laid up in Belfast port since it was taken off the Harwich-Hoek route in January. HSS Stena Voyager passes close by on it way in and out of the port but that is it.

The Belfast to Stranraer stena service uses one HSS only, none of the HSS routes has ever had twin operation.
Stena also have a conventional ferry on the route as well as a ferry on the Larne-Fleetwood route. P&O run a small catemaran (summer only) and two conventional ferries on the Larne-Cairnryan/Troon routes.

Belfast and Larne are two different ports approx 20 miles apart.

I would be very suprised if the HSS Discovery ever sees passenger operation again unfortunately. If one of the others has a serious problem then it may be swapped but long term the future for all three is looking pretty bleak. If it doesn't find work soon the Discovery will start to become a spare-part donor for the other two.

It is simply a cost issue, the massive turbines use too much fuel. 10 years ago when they started operation this was not an issue, high speed catemarans with water jet propulsion were the new thing for ferry operations but with the huge increases in fuel costs and the decimation of foot passenger traffic to the low-cost airlines they are just not good business anymore. Even the small catemarans are going out of fashion now, they are not nearly as thirsty as the HSS but with the ever increasing cost of the black stuff they are quickly becoming the unwanted children of the ferry world. The real money is in freight traffic where time savings are not a big issue and 50,000 tonne superferries carry more freight for less money.

The DunLaoghaire-Holyhead HSS now only has 2 return sailings, at one time it made 5. It will be around for another year or two but longer than that is highly doubtful.

The Belfast service is the healthiest. Mainly because it has much less open-sea to cross so the turbines are at full power for much less time, running at half-power saves an enormous amount of fuel. It still has 4 return sailings a day and the biggest immediate threat to it is the closure of Stranraer, the cost of building another linkspan at a different location would be too much.


Moving from Stranraer to Cairnryan won't do much for the rail connections either and with DunLaoghaire under threat (if the HSS is withdrawn it won't be replaced and all services will use Dublin Port) Fishguard-Rosslare will be the only remaining Irish Sea service with a rail connection at both ports.

 

[rail-britain]

I don't think so. HSS Stena Discovery has been laid up in Belfast port since it was taken off the Harwich-Hoek route in January. HSS Stena Voyager passes close by on it way in and out of the port but that is it

I've definitely been on both of them
Normally it's the Voyager, but the Discovery has a slightly different interior