Stena Line ferry company said on Monday that it is continuing to work at pace to try and secure alternative Irish Sea ferry crossings as the closure of Holyhead Port enters a second week.
Freight and passenger traffic on the busy Dublin-Holyhead route has been severely impacted following the closure of Holyhead Port on December 7, according to Stena Line. The company has cancelled all sailings on the Dublin-Holyhead route until December 20.
Stena Line confirmed that it has chartered the Ben My Chree vessel to operate on a new Dublin-Heysham freight route which is due to begin at 01:00 on Tuesday morning. This temporary service will provide an extra round trip between Ireland and Great Britain with approximately 850 lane meters of space for freight.
The company has also secured permission to take cars and their passengers on additional Dublin-Birkenhead sailings on Stena Estrid, commencing at 03:30 (17th) morning out of Dublin. These sailings are currently for car passengers with existing bookings on cancelled Dublin-Holyhead sailings.
Johan Edelman, Stena Line’s Irish Sea trade director, said: “The unprecedented closure of Holyhead Port in the run up to Christmas has caused major upheaval in freight flows between Ireland and Britain.
“Our priority in the coming days will be to mitigate as much as we can by trying to secure as much additional capacity as possible throughout our Irish Sea network. High levels of pre-Christmas bookings have made this a very challenging operation, but we are working around the clock to examine every conceivable opportunity.
“I can confirm that our operational teams have now been able to establish a new temporary freight only ferry route between Dublin-Heysham which will launch on Tuesday 17th Dec providing one round trip per day.
“We have also established a new temporary route on Dublin-Fishguard for passengers and freight which will be served by the Stena Adventurer. To support our foot passengers, we are operating a free bus service for transport between Holyhead and Fishguard for passengers with existing Holyhead – Dublin bookings.
“Extra sailings have also been introduced on our Dublin-Liverpool service provided by Stena Estrid and we are pleased that we have now secured permission to carry cars and their passengers on this route going forward.
“This unprecedented port closure has created a stressful situation for everyone involved, including both passengers and staff, so I would appeal for as much flexibility and patience as possible in the days ahead as we seek to reduce the pre-Christmas backlog.”
