New Ferry Route from Scotland?

A snowHead

New ferry route between Scotland and Europe set to launch next year

A new ferry route between Scotland and mainland Europe has been announced. Starting next year, there will be a ferry link between Rosyth and Zeebrugge, near Bruges.

The route will initially be for freight transportation when it launches in spring 2023. However, the mayor of Bruges has stated that passenger transportation is on the table.

A statement from DFDS and Ptarmigan Shipping reads: “Ptarmigan Shipping and DFDS have signed an agreement with the intention to further investigate the possibility for a new ferry route between Rosyth and Zeebrugge with a target date being early 2023 for freight. This is all subject to the support we can get from the market and stakeholders, which will be our focus during the next few months. A further study is being carried out regarding the passenger business."

Well, if the route is extended to include passengers then it could be useful for Scottish skiers travelling to the Alps. Very Happy

A snowHead

That must be a 24 hour+ journey. A long time in the North Sea in winter!

Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?

All comes down to cost, if you’re driving to the Alps you’re most likely doing it for a cost reason. If the ferry is £600 then that sort of conflicts

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Sounds great, more for summer than winter for me though. Love driving tours through the Alps and will save driving down to Newcastle.

Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.

This route has been tried before and was ditched as there wasn't the freight traffic to make it profitable.

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As @Matt1959, points out, this route requires a minimum amount of freight to make it economically viable.

Currently, it is possible to drive from Edinburgh to Newcastle in less than 3 hours, and get an overnight ferry to Amsterdam* (approx 17 hour journey). The ferry from Rosyth will take considerably longer (possibly 24 hours?), so will need a monetary saving to encourage hauliers to move to the service.

*Even with this existing alternative, many drivers prefer to drive to Dover, suffer delays and get a cross channel ferry.

The route via Zebrugge would be suitable for goods with a destination East or South of that Port. Anything heading west of Belgium would most likely use the current routes.
The article doesn't make any comment about regularity of services, but there would have to be a minimum of daily sailings to persuade transport managers to make the move, and a significant subsidy from the Scottish Govt to make the prices competitive.

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Incidentally, during discussions on the Scottish independence thread of the likelyhood of border controls between Scotland/rUK if iScotland rejoined the EU*, I suggested that this would be required as an essential alternative to trying to transport goods through a "3rd Country".
(especially as it was being suggested by certain Nationalists that Scotland/EU trade would increase exponentially as a result of rejoining)

However, I did point out that it would need to be competitive with existing alternatives, and therefore need subsidies.

*much longer timescale now apparent than at the time.

I was ridiculed for the suggestion by said persons.
It was claimed that I was an Idiot because the "route" already existed. They were unaware it had not carried passengers for over 15 years, and that the freight service had stopped in 2018 following a ferry fire. It was eventually conceded that was there was no current ferry. However, it was also claimed that the service would never be needed.

Of course, said persons also disputed that there would be any restrictions between iScotland/rUK in such a scenario, and that even if there were, the "Irish solution" could be used.
Someone described it as "Unicorn thinking". Very Happy

They were also ignorant of the fact that there are no direct ferry services between Scotland and the Irish Republic, purely for economic reasons of cost and time.
(all seaborne goods currently go via Larne and road to the Republic, or road to Holyhead and ferry to Dublin).

As a joke, I suggested an alternative direct route to the EU via the Irish Sea, which surprisingly, was taken as a viable option. Puzzled

After all it is free

If it is competitive with Newcastle-Amsterdam I would be interested. Zeebrugge is also a better jumping off point for driving to alps and Rosythe is the right side of the bridge for me also. Bring it on. Very Happy

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It sounds like it might be an option, but huge reservations. The old Hull/Zebrugge was great, but since its demise we go via Dover, which is not ideal. The trouble with the Amsterdam route is that IMV it requires a further overnight when driving down to the French Alps. Also all the the North Sea routes suffer from the problem that they only have one sailing a day. So if you miss it you have a day to wait.
I personally cannot see the passenger service from the Forth working at least in winter as there is not enough 2 way demand. The Northern Europeans do not bring their motorhomes to the Highlands in winter. And, if is not viable year round it is unlikely to be viable at all. When the service last ran it was every other day, which itself made it less attractive for the reason outlined above.

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New Ferry Route from Scotland?

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