Euroferries - another 6 months on and still not started sailing

I was updating the Brittany travel routes page on our Gite website to remove the LD Lines service from Dover to Boulogne as I reported on the Blog earlier this week.

In doing so I noticed the Euroferries entry which I had commented out from the travel page as in March I'd given up waiting for Euroferries to start their new service after a whole series of false starts this year and last (see earlier Euroferries postings).

There's an interesting posting on Thanet strife's Blog about who actually owns Euroferries and some Google maps photos of their "nerve centres of operation" (i.e. residential addresses).

The latest update from the EuroFerries website is that they are reporting "Sailing schedules & fares currently being updated. Apologies for any inconvenience, bookings will be available again shortly" - i.e. nothing happening.

Euroferries - doesn't look like they started service today

I've said much on Euroferries in previous postings, most recently reporting that EuroFerries had cancelled the lease on the ship they were going to use in January.

But despite all the problems they've had in the past (and possibly that they don't have a ship), the Euroferries website still claims that they are "the leading fast ferry operator on the English Channel" and on their service schedule it shows sailings commencing on 1st March - i.e. today.

Well there's absolutely no sign of life on their website and when I tried their customer services number there was just a recorded message to greet me. When I tried to book a sailing I was told to select a date after 18th March 2010, but it never managed to find any available crossings.

Another false dawn ...

A couple of weeks ago I realised I was rather optimistically showing Euroferries on the travel choices for getting to our Brittany Gite page so I promptly removed it until something more concrete happens.

Ferry collection - More Condor from Poole, less P&O from Portsmouth and even less EuroFerries

A quick catchup on some ferry bits of news that I've come across in the last couple of weeks ...


First up coming after the news that Brittany Ferries are stopping their year round summer ferry from Poole to Cherbourg, Condor Ferries have been quick to respond that they're increasing summer crossings from Poole to St Malo with 30 additional sailings of their high speed catamaran service. Condor point out that "St Malo and Cherbourg are less than 85 miles apart".

I also reported that Brittany Ferries are increasing their Portsmouth-Santander Spanish service and this news has recently been followed by an announcement from P&O that they're finishing their Portsmouth to Bilbao service in September this year.

It's interesting how one ferry company (Brittany Ferries) can be reporting that they're doing bumper service from the UK to Spain, so much so that they've bought a second boat to increase the number of sailings, whereas P&O have found the route to be "loosing millions" and after 15 years have pulled the plug. The two Spanish ports are less than an hours drive apart so I guess there'll be a lot of P&O customers who will now switch to Brittany Ferries who find themselves in a monopoly position.

And finally news of EuroFerries. I've reported a number of times about EuroFerries stop-start approach to commencing operations from Ramsgate to Boulogne, the most recent being news in November when the service start was pushed back to March 2010.
Well the news once again isn't good.

ThisIsKent reported last week that EuroFerries have cancelled their lease on the Bonanza Express which was to be used for the new service. EuroFerries logo has been painted out from the boat which has now returned to its shuttle service in the Canary Islands.

EuroFerries website still tantalisingly offers crossings "from £49" and shows a timetable starting on 1st March, but without a boat you do have to wonder how likely this is to get off the ground. More "wait and see" again ...

Euroferries now delayed until 2010

I guess it was inevitable that after several announcements of Euroferries new service from Ramsgate to Boulogne that was due to start in March, but was delayed in March, June, August, September and was finally due to launch on November 14th - when I commented that this wasn't a good time to start a new service with bookings dropping off during the winter season.

On this is Kent there's the (sadly unsurprising) news that on Wednesday (25th November) Euroferries announced that they won't commence sailings until 2010.

There's no publicly announced revised start date for the service, and I tried a few booking enquiries on Euroferries website but drew a blank from there as well.

It was always going to be difficult launching a new service into the competitive channel ferry business; Speedferries tried and failed spectacularly, so we'll have to wait and see whether Euroferries ever does make it off the starting blocks.

Travel updates - new services from Euroferries, Celtic Link, LD Lines and RyanAir

Been making some updates to the French ferry and airline routes page for our self-catering Brittany cottage.

First up, thanks to Richy who left a comment on my last Euroferries posting, as at long last Euroferries finally launch their Ramsgate to Boulogne service with a crossing time of 1 hour 15. Bookings are now being taken for sailings from November 14th and a few searches indicate that Euroferries are being quite price competitive with return crossings coming in for £66.50.

You can book up to April 2010 (but not beyond) so whilst the peak summer crossings are not yet available you can at least book a Christmas or Easter break.

Next, I've also added newcomer Celtic Link who are operating LD Lines' Roscoff to Cherbourg service for them and additionally running a Portsmouth to Cherbourg service of their own.

There's also some been some changes to the LD Lines service as they've moved their fast cat from the Dover/Boulogne service onto Portsmouth/Le Havre - slashing the journey time from 5 ½ hours to just 3 ¼ hours. Dover/Boulogne still continues with a conventional ferry but obviously takes a little longer without the fast cat.

I also noticed that RyanAir have introduced new services from Birmingham to Dinard, Bournemouth to Nantes and Leeds Bradford to Nantes so more updates there as well.

Phew !

If anyone actually travels with Euroferries or Celtic Link then please do leave a comment to say what you thought of the new services.

Ferry news snippets from Euroferries, Condor and P&O

Three little ferry-related news snippets:

First up is EuroFerries where the news is there is no news. I've written a few articles about EuroFerries proposed new service from Ramsgate to Boulogne, most recently on 1st August when at a press conference they announced that "service would commence during August".

Well it's early September now and the Euroferries website remains unchanged, still saying they'll launch in August so it's a bit of a poor reflection if they can't even update their own website.

There's further speculation and commentary over on Kent based 'The Big Blog', most recently on August 25th with a video of the Bonanza Express still sitting in Tenerife, not painted in EuroFerries colours, doing nothing. Most recent suggestion is that the boat will arrive in the UK by September 10th.

Don't hold your breath on this one methinks ...


Secondly following on from P&O's €360m contract for two new Dover/Calais 'super' ferries, there's a press release on P&O's website announcing that they've completed the keel laying at Rauma shipyard in Finland for the first of the new boats which is due into service at the end of 2010.


And finally, spare a thought for Condor Ferries who according to the Jersey Evening Post managed to let a door fall off a ferry whilst it was enroute to France. Apparently passenger safety wasn't compromised and a temporary repair has now been made.

Euroferries press conference - commencing operations in 'late August'

I first passed on the news back in March of Euroferries announcement of a new ferry service from Ramsgate to Boulogne that was due to start on 31st March and this date came and went without the service launching. By June there was still a holding page on their website and it looked like the service had been nothing more than a pipe dream.

Well on Friday as announced on Kent Online Euroferries held a press conference at Ramsgate Port and finally confirmed that the service would be going ahead with crossings on the Incat Bonanza Express taking just 75 minutes.

There's a fuller press release on Euroferries website which I've repeated below:

EUROFERRIES announces today it will commence its planned Fast Cross Channel Passenger Ferry Service between the ports of Boulogne & Ramsgate during August.

EUROFERRIES recently announced fast ferry services will operate from its two dedicated ferry terminals located within the ports of Boulogne and Ramsgate and have now signed agreements with both Ports.

The fast ferry the “Bonanza Express” will be operated by Euroferries in conjunction with its partner, FRED OLSEN who over the years has developed its highly regarded fast ferry service.

EUROFERRIES initial service, commencing late August will comprise of 5 daily crossings, with Bonanza Express an Incat 96m with a capacity of 146 first class and 570 additional passengers, carrying a combination of cars and luxury coaches. Capable of an operational speed of 38 knots it enables the channel crossing to be completed in a time that favourably competes port to port with the Channel Tunnel crossing time.

A second vessel will join the Bonanza Express service increasing passenger capacity and will also carry a combination of cars and luxury coaches.

EUROFERRIES are responding positively to passenger demand for a fast, efficient and friendly crossing, combined with the use of comfortable seating and attentive cabin crew providing an “in-seat” shopping service. The latest internet technology will further improve our customer experience bringing further added value customer benefits.

Euroferries Chairman, Per Staehr today said : "Euroferries signing of this Agreement with Thanet District Council enables us to look forward to building a long term relationship with the local community. Our new five crossing a day high speed service, will be focused on tourist traffic and takes full advantage of the new motorways both to Ramsgate and Boulogne along with the fast turn round terminal facilities within both Ports.

This agreement permits us to shortly announce the release of the new web booking service, further details and the provision of our new commuter coach service between London’s Stratford Hub and Ramsgate serving Canterbury and the Medway towns. Whilst, today is Thanet District Council's special occasion, we are delighted to attend and to welcome our partner Fred Olsen. The impending arrival of Bonanza Express, Incat 96m in its new Euroferries livery will provide the opportunity for Euroferries to welcome you when we will make further announcements."

Further announcements will be forthcoming in the near future including Euroferries partners, ferry services, timetable, pricing and booking arrangements in addition to further announcements regarding the introduction of Euroferries commuter coach service between London and Ramsgate.

Personally I find the suggestion that the service will be up and running by the end of this month a bit over optimistic when they haven't announced prices and can't yet take bookings on their website; and the idea of a second boat also sounds fanciful - surely it'd be good business sense to prove that the service is viable with the first boat before obtaining a second?

Unfortunately even if they do manage to launch in August they'll all but have missed the peak school holiday period and they'll now be looking to pick up passengers on an unproven route as Winter approaches.

We shall see ...

Euroferries - no sign of ferry service starting from Ramsgate to Boulogne

Last time I blogged back in March 2009 there was no news of Euroferries launch despite their website announcing in was starting in Spring 2009 and then would 'commence imminently'.

June 2009 and no update on the Euroferries website.

There is speculation and counter refutation of any news following a recent announcement on This is Kent (news), photos apparently showing the boat recently painted in Euroferries colours, but the most discussion is on The Big Blog's Euroferries announcement posting where they are up to 250 comments to date.

Summary seems to be that the proposed boat the 'Bonanza Express' has been berthed at Las Palmas in Gran Canaria for the past 6 months and that the Port of Boulogne have confirmed that they're not in active discussions with Euroferries as to starting a service.

So don't hold your breath on this one ...

Still no launch news from Euroferries

Last week Euroferries website tantalisingly started saying that "Fares, online ticket reservations and further information will appear on www.euroferries.co.uk week commencing 16th March".

Well by my reckoning it's now (as at Friday 20th March, 7:50pm) definitely past "week commencing" and there's still no further details about their proposed fast ferry service from Ramsgate to Boulogne.

To whet your appetite, there's some pictures of the boat that they'll be using out of the water at Ramsgate harbour over on "The Big Blog", a local Kent-area Blog.

SpeedFerries SpeedOne judicial sale goes ahead

Back in January I wrote with details of SpeedFerries administrators proposals which included selling SpeedOne which was pretty much the only asset that the company had left, although there was some £12m owed to various creditors including Bank Of Scotland and Incat (the Australian manufacturers).

I read tonight on Lloyds List that judicial sale of the boat will now go ahead following representations to the High Court in London on Thursday.

Lloyds goes on to comment that in the current "market conditions" it's unlikely that the creditors will be able to recoup all their debt when the boat is sold.

On a more positive note there's announcements on both BBC News and Kent Online of a new Ramsgate to Boulogne service that EuroFerries are starting from March 31st.

The EuroFerries service is due to run four times a day and take 75 minutes for the crossing. Unfortunately there's no further details of the service or pricing on EuroFerries website yet.