I remember sitting on a bench at Dun Laoghaire DART station in the mid 1990’s waiting for a train into Dublin and seeing a poster for Irish Ferries then new Isle of Inishmore. It proclaimed the new ship as Ireland’s new Space Ship. And indeed she was. 50% larger than the virtually new Isle of Innisfree that she replaced and capable of carrying far more freight and passengers she was light years ahead of pervious ships on the route. It was a golden time on the central corridor with competitor Stena Line introducing the ‘largest, smoothest fast ferry in the world’ the magnificent Stena Explorer and a steady stream of every larger ro-pax vessels on their own Dublin services.

Fast Forward 25 years and Stena’s giant fast ferry is long since gone and after lasting only 4 years on the Dublin run, Irelands space ship was cascaded to the secondary Pembroke – Rosslare service and replaced by the even larger Ulysses. And that’s where the central corridor capacity boom really ended.

2021. The mid 1990’s seems a lifetime ago. It’s as if we are now living in some nightmare! Two words, COVID and BREXIT have spelt disaster for the central corridor routes. COVID has obliterated the last remnants of a passenger connection which has been in decline for many years and whilst this absolute destruction may be the bottom of the curve with vaccines being administered and life hopefully returning to normal, for now, there are fewer passengers crossing the Irish Sea since the days of steam ships.

Freight, the reason for the every growing ships of the late 1990’s has also been dealt a temporary mortal body blow thanks to the United Kingdom’s departure from the European Union and the imposition of new administrative processes and checks on cargo moving between the two countries. This coupled with the need for COVID testing of lorry drivers and very heavy stockpiling of goods before Christmas has meant that cargo movements are very, very low with Stena Line in particularly simply cancelling ferry sailings.

But it isn’t all doom and gloom, quite the opposite. Freight is moving to Ireland, but it’s taking a different route. Avoiding the UK and the administrative processes, checks and bureaucracy seems a very logical thing to do if you want to move cargo from the mainland EU. The so called land bridge through the UK has lost its appeal despite being quicker, it is now altogether more complicated and that’s the last thing that hauliers need.

Freight routes to Ireland from Europe have been increasing steadily over the past 20 years or so but never to the point where they have really impacted on the land bridge. CLdN operate a (slow) service from their base in Zeebrugge to Dublin which takes 31 hours, almost 3 times as long as the land bridge, Brittany Ferries have been steadily increasing their presence offering routes to France and Spain from Cork and latterly Rosslare. CLdN recently started services to Portugal and Spain again on slow cargo ships.

But it’s Danish company DFDS that have really stolen a march on sailings from Dunkirk to Rosslare that are the saviours of the hour. Boldly announcing in November 2020 that they would be offering sailings of just under 24 hours 6 days a week using 3 ships. Ships that they didn’t even have at the time.

They managed to muster an admirable armada very quickly. Having recently taken on the Kerry from Stena Line (which had previously operated on services from France to Ireland for Brittany Ferries) for service in the Baltic, she was an obvious choice being the right size, having the required service speed capability and enough berths for the new route. The Optima Seaways, a close relative of the Kerry already in DFDS hands was another obvious choice although her spell on the route is likely to be quite short as she is required back on her own route. Finally, and proving the true flexibility of shipping, from Sweden the Gotland Ferry Visby, a high freight and passenger capacity ship with an impressive turn of speed completed the trio.

The quickly assembled fleet are believed to be sailing full. Such is the demand for capacity from accompanied freight keen to avoid the UK. Whilst the service is almost 24 hours, the quickest the land bridge could be achieved excluding waiting times at port would be around 14 hours. Customs checks and administration could easily eat into some of the time difference and certainly any delay in clearing at Dover could be damaging if onward sea connections via Wales are missed.

DFDS have two huge ro-pax vessels under construction in China for Baltic service which will release several smaller ships that could well be destined for the new route, Athena, Regina and Victoria Seaways could well be perfect for the new operation with all the required capacities and capabilities required.

Since DFDS started service, Stena Line have also doubled their number of sailings on their own Rosslare – Cherbourg service using the spare freight only Stena Foreteller running opposite the Visentini built Stena Horizon (A design derivative of Kerry and Optima Seaways). In a move somewhat overcooked by the press, Stena Horizon is currently away for maintenance for a couple of days and the new Stena Embla has been drafted in as a replacement offering much greater capacity, and it seemingly being well utilised. This is a temporary move and the Embla is shortly due to relocate to her intended Belfast – Birkenhead service. Stena will however be using sister vessel Stena Estrid on a service to Cherbourg at weekends in lieu of service to Holyhead, a smart move no doubt as traffic to Holyhead is very low.

Irish Ferries have deployed the W B Yeats to Cherbourg, the service she was intended for, an early move as she usually spends the winter on the Holyhead service. Again this is being hailed as a major investment in the service, in truth its nothing more than a schedule change.

Brittany Ferries have announced that they intend to run their Cap Finistere on their Rosslare – Cherbourg service for several months, again hailing this as an enhanced service to meet demand. And it is but it is far from the investment that DFDS have made.

No doubt there is a huge shift of traffic from the short Holyhead to Dublin and Southern Wales to Rosslare routes. Stena Line suggest that traffic is 70% down from Holyhead and 75% down on the Fishguard service, numbers that are truly shocking.

It is believed 150,000 lorries a year from the EU use the land bridge services, it is thought up to a third of those will eventually travel on direct services from France to Rosslare.

How the mighty central corridor services have fallen. Traffic will no doubt pick up but the potential loss of 1,000 lorries a week on the central corridor is bound to hurt.