French ferry firm opens new post-Brexit routes bypassing UK

https://www.theneweuropean.co.uk/brexit-news/europe-news/brittany-ferries-ireland-france-freight-services-brexit-7302228

by williamsharris • 5 years ago

61 33 5 years ago

theneweuropean.co.uk

peteretep• 5 years ago

Why on earth is this posted here?

RedShift1• 5 years ago

Because they "hacked" their way around regulations?

bryanrasmussen• 5 years ago

evidently some people on HN were interested in it.

bayindirh• 5 years ago

Yet it's another small yet important effect of Brexit, as it's discussed here in great detail, no?

Symbiote3• 5 years ago

Lots of political news is posted. It generally doesn't last very long before being flagged.

belorn• 5 years ago

It might have gone past unnoticed, but the ferry industry (at least in Europe) in general has been shrinking significant the last 20 years. At the same time air travel and car usage has gone up. Train usage seems to sit somewhere between.

A revival of the ferry industry, even if it just because of brexit, is interesting. The industry is also in dire need of modernization and electrification, and if done, could be much more ecological than bridges and increased road capacity. Energy efficiency in transport is generally in favor of more transportation over water.

Jonnax• 5 years ago

There's a term called the UK "landbridge" [0] where about 150,000 lorries a year on its way from mainland EU to Ireland would go through the UK to the shortest ferry distance to Dublin.

It looks like with Brexit, the paperwork and associated costs have reached a point where firms are seeing value in just ferrying around the UK.

[0] https://www.instituteforgovernment.org.uk/explainers/trade-u...

DrBazza2• 5 years ago

The removal of 150,000 lorries per year from Cross Channel freight in Kent, and off of UK roads in general is a good thing in itself.

It reduces carbon emissions - 600 miles from Dover to Fishguard or Holyhead, there and back. That's a lot of diesel. It reduces wear and tear on the road infrastructure. It increases capacity at Dover/Folkestone. It even improves driver safety - less fatigue, and less time driving.

jfengel• 5 years ago

That's an interesting observation. Why weren't they doing it before?

DyslexicAtheist• 5 years ago

this is fantastic news for Ireland. They'll be absorbing a lot of the business that has traditionally gone to the UK (or stayed in the UK):

"And Irish traders too are seeking direct links to Western France."
Port of Cork chief executive Conor Mowlds said it was a "hugely positive" development for Cork.
"Importers and exporters now have further transport options to get their freight direct to the EU and bypass the UK Land-Bridge," he said, adding the new travel corridor will "strengthen the region by offering more flexibility to Irish customers, ensuring supply chains are maintained".

NI remains a problem for EU as it's currently like a Trojan horse within the EU[1] and will/is used to bypass the tariffs and import/export taxes. Europe should do everything to support a United island of Ireland by staying tough on the sea-border between IE/UK.

(off-topic: as the old joke goes wrt the DUP "What's the difference between an apple and an orange? There is no such thing as an apple bastard!").

[1] Northern Ireland suspends Brexit checks amid safety fears for port staff: https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2021/feb/01/northern-ire...

Symbiote3• 5 years ago

I'm sure it's great for the port, but it's worse for other businesses.

Before brexit, it was cheaper and faster to drive across Britain.

dfgdghdf• 5 years ago

Indeed. It's interesting that the conservatives in the UK have chosen sovereignty over free trade. These aren't Thatcher tories.

PhantomGremlin3• 5 years ago

Northern Ireland suspends Brexit checks amid safety fears for port staff

There's unstated background in that article, I'm not complaining about that, I'm sure it's common knowledge to people in the UK.

But I'm not really clear on who is mad at or threatening whom. Let's take the very beginning of the article:

Brexit checks on animal and food products arriving into Belfast and Larne ports have been suspended amid fears over the safety of staff

Are we talking about goods from Northern Ireland (not part of EU?) arriving at a port prior to being shipped to EU? Or are they arriving from EU into a port in Northern Ireland?

Who is doing the threatening? Why?

throwaway0a5e• 5 years ago

Nobody's really threatening anyone yet but the UK and Ireland doing what they can to allow the open border status quo to continue between NI and Ireland because to do otherwise would be to conspicuously wipe their ass with the good Friday agreement and few on either side really wants that.

They're not worried about a shootout. They're worried some irate person gets in fisticuffs with a customs worker in a manner that creates a viral video that creates political problems.

netsharc• 5 years ago

It's all written there... the article mentions "loyalist communities", had to look it up, but DDG summarizes Wikipedia:

Ulster loyalism is the political movement for maintaining Northern Ireland within the United Kingdom.

But for some more background info: Northern Ireland is now within the customs zone of EU, and the "EU border" is between the Irish and British islands; otherwise the border would have to be between Ireland (EU) and Northern Ireland (not EU); this has been a cause of conflict in the past, and the UK also signed an agreement in the past that there would be no such border.

So adding a border between NI and Great Britain is pissing off the people who see it as creating a big separation between the 2 parts of the country known as the UK.

raesene9• 5 years ago

There's been quite a few ferry routes starting between Ireland and France. The paperwork/delays on the landbridge mean it's more economical to do it this way.

There appears to be quite a significant disruption to trade at the moment to/from the UK with a lot of trucks which brought goods from Europe, returning empty.

breakfastduck• 5 years ago

I mean, yeah. Why wouldn't they?

arethuza3• 5 years ago

Business sees Brexit as damage and routes around it.

Apologies to John Gilmore!

prennert• 5 years ago

I had a discussion a few days back, wondering if and independent Scotland (with EU membership) could get an economic boost by being a land-bridge between a united Ireland and North Europe.

Take Leith (Edinburgh) to Hamburg. This route would take 16 hours at 30 knots. Leith to Rotterdam would be a bit quicker only take 13 hours. That compares to a Cork to St Malo which takes 11 hours.

Driving Hamburg to Warsaw takes 8 hours which saves 12 hours compared to driving St Malo to Warsaw (20 hours on google maps).

Belfast to Leith is maybe around 6-8 hours (incl loading and unloading at the ports), that leaves 4 hours which is about the distance driving from Cork to Belfast.

So from north (united) Ireland to north Europe it will be faster to go via Scotland. But even when shipping from Cork, the rest patterns for the drivers might be better going via Scotland, even if it takes about the same time on paper (8hours driving max at a piece instead of 20hours)

arethuza3• 5 years ago

I wonder if that might actually be some kind of justification for the infamous idea of a Ireland-Scotland bridge?

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-south-scotland-496610...

LargoLasskhyfv• 5 years ago

You can't do 30 knots on the Elbe river. I mean you could, but only once, because VERBOTEN! (Because of the waves, and such.) Cuxhaven would be more apt, but lacks Autobahn(to Hamburg). Same for Brunsbüttel. Furthermore Hamburgs Autobahn is almost always gridlocked, at least in parts(Especially around the Elbtunnel). Your map is not the territory, laddie :-)

throw0101a• 5 years ago

So when's the FR-IE tunnel going to be built? Roscoff-Cork is only ~500 km. :)

williamgrant• 5 years ago

HN has truly been scraping the bottom of the barrel for news sources this week. Please, continue posting news articles unrelated to HN from single-issue, hyper-partisan news publications.

gambiting• 5 years ago

I run a company that does a fair amount of trade in the UK from EU, this stuff is hugely interesting to me. If you have any problems with arguments in this article then please list them.

French ferry firm opens new post-Brexit routes bypassing UK

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