Irish and British road hauliers have called on the Irish and Welsh authorities to keep changes to Holyhead’s ferry schedule introduced in January after heavy storms damaged the Welsh port.
“Ironically, the new schedule has had a transformative and positive impact on the flow of trade between Holyhead and Dublin,” said the Irish Road Haulage Association and the Road Haulage Association UK.
Instead of two ferries leaving “at broadly the same time” from the Stena Line-owned port, there are now “seven spaced sailings a day” leaving both Dublin and Holyhead, the two haulier organisations have told Ministers.
However, Stena now wants to revert to the previous Holyhead ferry times, which would affect its own sailings and those of the other ferry company on the Dublin-Holyhead route, Irish Ferries, which it has power to do.
So far, the two haulage bodies have written to Minister for Transport Darragh O’Brien, Minister for State for Transport Seán Canney and the Isle of Anglesey County Council asking to “take such steps as may be required” to ensure the January schedules stay in force.
A ramp needed to get trucks and cars on-board ferries was damaged in Holyhead when two ferries were forced into the structure by high winds during Storm Darragh. This led to the closure of the port for a month, causing major interruptions in Anglo-Irish trade.
In a bid to get back into business, Holyhead was reopened in a month with only one ramp in operation. This meant arrival and departure times had to be spaced out during the day.
However, truckers are much happier with the schedules and want to keep them. Congestion in Dublin and Holyhead has reduced, speeding up traffic flow and customs checks.
Nearly 500,000 articulated trucks were carried on all Irish Sea ferry routes last year, with 26 million tonnes of so-called “roro” (roll-on/roll-off) truck freight carried on the Dublin/Holyhead routes alone.
With sailings now leaving Dublin at 4am and 8am, trucks are off the M50 and roads surrounding Dublin Port before the “rush in the morning and likewise with sailings early in the afternoon HGV traffic is off the M50 before evening rush hour”, the haulage bodies said.
“The more dispersed sailing schedules also provides more competition and choice on the key routes, and reduces the potential impacts of the increased dominance of any one carrier, or port,” they said.
[ Watch: Drone footage captures before and after of storm damage at Holyhead PortOpens in new window ]
Two working ramps at Holyhead with only one being used at any one time “leaves a spare ramp for maintenance or at times if this ramp should get struck, or damaged,” they told Ministers and the Welsh local authority.
Changes to ferry schedules, some of which still have historic links to the mailboat traffic of generations past, do not have to be signed off by officials in Dublin, London, or the Welsh government.
“The current schedules are a significant improvement on the previous timetables and should be kept in the interests of efficiency, competitiveness, connectivity and the environment,” said Eugene Drennan of the Irish Road Haulage Association.
“The big thing is that we should never again have the total dysfunction that we had because of the storm last year. We have five to 12 storms a year and the ramps regularly get hit by a ferry,” he said.
