Back to France for Easter week

I'm currently sitting on the harbourside at Dover, waiting for the 10:40 DFDS ferry to Calais.

Just me going for Easter week. Toby is off to grandparents and Jack is, well Jack. So Mum at home to keep Jack in check and feed the pets.

Good drive down to the port although I could see it will be hazy on the channel.   Yesterday I flew my microlight to Damyns Hall near Dartford Crossing and it was very hazy until late afternoon so I expect the same today - not much fun flying when you can't see much in front of you.   I'm sure the ferry captain will have GPS and Radar to ensure we don't run into anything on the way.

Despite thinking that there is not much to take to France the car is completely full !
Bringing over a new freezer,  flatscreen TV,  a big pile of laminate flooring and more tiles and trim to complete tiling the downstairs bathroom.

Not a quiet week ahead of me then ...

 

PS: Thanks for the free wifi Dover harbour, much appreciated

 

Port of St Malo

Arriving in at the port of St Malo.  Slept on the floor of the recling chair lounge as there was more room than being in a reclining chair (that I paid £5 for the privilege of having), but actually slept quite well.   Croissants and coffee for breakfast and now I'm here in France.

The scary bit, driving onboard the Ferry

I'm travelling over to Brittany with Brittany Ferries, Portsmouth to St Malo, so only an hour's drive to the Gite on the French side.

This is the bit that Liz doesn't like, driving up the ramp onto the ferry:

 

 

Dismantling the ferry after our journey to France

We're over in Brittany on holiday at our Gite for 10 days at Easter.

Took the Brittany Ferry overnight sailing from Portsmouth Caen which was a good crossing although a lengthy drive to the port through the rain and UK motorway queues.

Typical Jack though on the ferry. Woke up in the morning to find that he had managed to drop his mobile phone down the side of the seat on the ferry, necessitating us getting a crew member and then an engineer (complete with his overalls on) to dismantle the seat in order to retrieve it.

Never a dull moment!

When Duty Free ruled the cross-channel routes

I've just read an interesting article on this is Kent entitled 'When duty free shopping ruled the waves on the English Channel and its fleet of ferries', recalling the halcyon days of the cross channel ferries, when takings from duty free sales could be £1m a weekend, and there were 22 ships plying the channel routes.

How it's all changed now.

Worth a read.

Eurotunnel 'gives in' to the CMA and sells its passenger ferries to DFDS

In what is probably the final step in the long running competition review for Eurotunnel's MyFerryLink operation, that I have reported on several times including January's update, Eurotunnel have today issued a press release that it holds a binding offer from DFDS for a let to buy sale of the ferries, Rodin and Berlioz.

The press release goes on to say that for the remaining vessel, 'Nord Pas de Calais' which carries freight, Eurotunnel wishes the competition authorities to allow it to continue operating the vessel alongside the fixed (rail link).

MyFerryLink's website states that they will cease operations on 2nd July (after Eurotunnel decided not to renew the lease of the two ferries to MFL).

It will be interesting to see what if anything the Competition and Markets Authority makes of this sale of the ferry assets to DFDS as I would have thought that this might now put DFDS in a dominant position. Yes they will continue to compete with P&O and Eurotunnel but DFDS already has 5 ferries on the Dover/Calais and Dover/Dunkirk routes, making 44 crossings between them each day, so I would be surprised if they really have the need for another 2 ferries as well on the same routes.

Maybe this could mark the reopening of the Dover/Boulogne route that ceased in 2010 with LDLines?

Breaking news: Competition Appeal Tribunal rejects Eurotunnel's appeal to continue with MyFerryLink service

I've written about this before in 2013 when the Competition Commission first got involved and with an update in early 2014, but the long and the short of it is that the Competition Commission decided that Eurotunnel's acquisition of SeaFrance assets and setting up MyFerryLink created unfair competition on the Dover/Calais straights that when combined with Eurotunnel's undersea traffic would create a market dominance.
Eurotunnel has appealed this decision at several junctures including the Competition Appeal Tribune and today they finally reached the end of the road as the Eurotunnel Judgement was handed down by the C.A.T.

In essence the C.A.T. has rejected all of Eurotunnel's claims and as such the original Competition and Markets Authority appeal decision that Eurotunnel must cease MyFerryLink operations within 6 months stands.

Eurotunnel's press release talks of the 'illogical' nature of the CMA decision but confirms that MyFerryLink will now be put up for sale. MyFerryLink is still not making a profit (despite Eurotunnel claiming its commercial success) so be interesting to see whether one of the existing ferry companies (DFDS or P&O) makes a bid - which will surely get referred to the CMA as well - or whether a new entrant wants to join the market.

As pointed out by Kent Online, up to 600 jobs could be affected with the closure of MyFerryLink if a buyer cannot be found.

MFL is still operating and taking bookings, even just now giving out sailing details and prices when I tried for Autumn 2015, but presumably this will cease.

MyFerryLink rebranding

Surely not a date-related activity (hint: look at the date) from MyFerryLink who have just announced their rebranding to MyFerretLink:

Of course the Competition Commission have been investigating Eurotunnel's purchase of SeaFrance vessels to form MyFerryLink since October 2012, which has been back and forth since then with the CC provisionally confirming that it does have jurisdiction in the Eurotunnel/MyFerryLink case on the basis that Eurotunnel acquired the SeaFrance vessels and staff and was able to start up MyFerryLink rapidly almost as a going concern. Eurotunnel responded with incomprehension of the Competition Committee provisional ruling (perhaps somewhat unsurprisingly), ending ominously with "if prior to its final decision the Competition Commission does not wish to review its perspective on the competition which exists across the Strait of Dover in the light of the current reality, Groupe Eurotunnel will withdraw its ferries from the Channel".

So the jury is still out on that one, but back to MFL, is this a cynical attempt by Eurotunnel/MyFerryLink to hide their new identity? Who knows, but at least they did go to the trouble of an amusing 30 second MyFerretlink video, giving away free cuddly ferrets and announcing that you can save £29 and take your ferret across the channel for free during April!

See also Dover Express's article on rebranding of MyFerryLink to MyFerretLink.

There's a barney brewing above and below the Straits of Dover

Changing topic slightly, I've been following with interest recent developments in the emerging spat between Eurotunnel and the Competition Commission over the recently launched MyFerryLink.

Last summer I wrote about SeaFrance going into liquidation and then in June Eurotunnel announced that they had bought 2 of the 3 defunct SeaFrance vessels, spending €65m in the process, and in August I included photos of their nearly launched new Dover/Calais service named MyFerryLink.

Some might think it odd that the undersea channel tunnel ferry operator is funding what is effect a direct competitor to Eurotunnel whose ferry boats will carry freight and passengers over a pretty much identical route.

P&O and DFDS as the other two incumbent Dover/Calais ferry operators at this point cried "foul" and their unhappiness was further intensified when Eurotunnel considered bidding for the concession to run Boulogne and Calais ferry ports as well.

In October 2012 the whole Eurotunnel/SeaFrance takeover was referred for investigation to the Competition Commission. Preliminary findings from the Competition Commission's investigation into Eurotunnel's actions were that Eurotunnel acquired the boats to prevent DFDS doing so and that "the transaction may be expected to result in a substantial lessening of competition in the freight and passenger markets. This could be expected to lead to an increase in the prices charged".

The Competition Commission's recommended remedy for the Eurotunnel/SeaFrance issue is for Eurotunnel to dis-invest in MFL (i.e. sell the boats), but the possibility of P&O investing in its place was also rejected as being another conflict of interest.

Eurotunnel not surprisingly contests this point of view and in an interview with ThisIsKent, the chairman and chief executive officer of Groupe Eurotunnel said: "Eurotunnel intends to continue to work with the Competition Commission to allay the concerns raised by existing ferry operators and to demonstrate that the creation of MyFerryLink is a good thing for the market as it is both pro-customer and pro-competition".

Today Eurotunnel published their formal response to the Competition Commission's report, saying that:

• Groupe Eurotunnel took part in an open and transparent tender process for the assets of the defunct company, and put forward the best offer
• The acquisition was approved by the French Competition Authorities, subject to some restrictions including a requirement not to market a bundle of Tunnel/Ferry options
• Eurotunnel considers the maritime activities of MyFerryLink to be complementary to those of Le Shuttle, in particular for the new breed of super-large lorries that won't fit onto the tunnel trains
• Eurotunnel does not envisage the activity putting the two incumbent operators at risk.

The CC's deadline for resolution of the issue is currently set at 22nd of April so there will no doubt be further spats and press releases over the forthcoming month.

One news item that the Competition Commission will undoubtedly take into account when coming to their final ruling is that for the first time in Eurotunnel's 19 year history, official Government statistics reveal that it outperformed the ferries. When the tunnel was first built it was predicted that the quicker undersea route would serve as the death-knell for the ferry operators, but its taken all this time for rail passenger numbers to overtake the ferry operators - in 2012, 20 million people used Le Shuttle or Eurostar services, compared to 19.7m travelling by sea.

Spirit of France manoeuvring in Dover Harbour

We're sitting on board MyFerryLink's "Rodin" waiting to sail to Calais when Spirit of France moved in front of us.
For a £35m vessel it didn't look all that different from the other cross channel ferries,and only appears to be marginally taller than "Pride of Canterbury" in the next berth

Ferry pricing peculiarities

I'm off to our Brittany Holiday Gite next week, a combination of using up my remaining holiday allowance from work and taking the opportunity to go and do some more work. I've an accumulation of things to take over to the Gite since we were last over there in August 2012 and so by going it'll clear up some space in the garage as well.

Some of the ferry companies (notably Brittany Ferries and LD Lines) are running a lesser service with not all routes running and a service not being run every day, and having had a quick look at their sites I didn't find any crossings I fancied.

So it was down to the shorter Dover/Calais or Dover/Dunkerque routes with P&O, DFDS (Norfolk Line as was), and newcomer MyFerryLink who took over the SeaFrance boats in late summer last year.

I wanted to go out early on Saturday morning so I could drive down through France during the day and call in at Leroy Merlin to buy some 2-core 6mm mains cable for the oven in our slowly-being-converted-second-Gite, and then return back on Friday night late so we didn't have to rush out of the Gite and we'd be back home in time for youngest son Jack's birthday party on the Saturday.

P&O's service in February is roughly once an hour, and I quite fancied going out on one of their new massive €360m super-ferries, now named Spirit of Britain and Spirit of France after they were forced to withdraw from cashing in on the Olympic theme with the originally chosen names of Olympic Spirit and Olympic Pride.
P&O wanted £82 for the return crossing (£45 outbound and £37 return), but with a £4 supplement if I used a credit card.

Next up I tried DFDS who are now sharing boats with LD Lines and are sailing again about every hour, but two out of every 3 boats go to Dunkerque rather than Calais. It doesn't makea lot of difference but Dunkerque is a slightly longer crossing and slightly further autoroute drive, so a Calais crossing is preferable.
Unfortunately at the time I wanted to go DFDS were operating only a Dunkerque sailing, and wanted a slightly cheaper £74 for the return journey (£39 out and £35 return) with the option to pay by paypal for no credit card fees.

Last up was MyFerryLink who with only two boats (Rodin and Berlioz) are running the smallest number of crossings, only 5 crossings each way each day between Dover and Calais.
MyFerryLink offered to take me for £69 return (£34 out and £35 return) with no credit card surcharges.

Remember all these crossings were on the same dates and as near as I could get the same time of day, so it shows the value of shopping around.

In the end I decided that the MFL outbound sailing and the DFDS inbound sailing offered the best timings for me and it was with some trepidation I searched for the single journey prices.

Sometimes you find that the return prices are much cheaper than the single prices, especially if the return journey is completed with a certain number of days and I have heard that it can even be cheaper to buy a return and not use the return ticket although I've always been to scared that the ferry company would then surcharge the full single ticket price if I misused the return ticket in this way.

Anyway, it wasn't a problem this time, My Ferry Link's single ticket price to Calais was still £34 with no surcharges so job done, ferry booked.

DFDS however did surprise me. The return journey was coming out at £74 (made up of £39 for the outward leg and £35 for the return leg from France), but when I went to book just a single ticket from Calais to Dover they only wanted £33 to take me one way ! Why it should cost £2 more to sail on the same boat for a return journey instead of a single, I don't know, but I'm happy to have made the saving, and the all-in price came out at a very respectable £67 for the two ferry trips.

How peculiar !

MyFerryLink starts service, taking over SeaFrance's vessels

You may recall that I wrote back in June about the demise of SeaFrance and the surprise purchase of their assets by Eurotunnel.
In amongst the list of blog postings I was going to write about once I'd come back from holiday was my conjecture as to the new replacement service, but Craig over on ThisFrenchLife and Dover Port itself have both beaten me to it yesterday.

Dover Port announced the introduction of MyFerryLink as a new ferry provider on the Dover/Calais route, initially with 16 crossings a day using the sister-ships 'Berlioz' and 'Rodin' (both purchased from Sea France).

Craig on TFL posted two articles yesterday, announcing the introduction of the new service, and then later on, that the timetable and online booking service is now available.

What I was most amused about was that the MyFerryLink website is just a single page deep and then redirects you through to seafrance.com to handle all the actual booking and ferry service details.
The SeaFrance website has only undergone a superficial makeover from when Sea France went into receivership last year, and all the photos of My Ferry Link's ferries appear to have been suspiciously Photo-Shopped with the new MFL logo being super-imposed onto the side of the existing Sea France boats.

What I can however claim a first on though is this shot of the MFL check-in booths that we snapped as we came through Calais 2 weeks ago:

Beautiful crossing to France

On Saturday we set off for a 2+ week holiday in our Brittany holiday home, and it looks like we've found the summer sun at last.  We crossed over with DFDS (a very reasonable £74 for a peak summer return trip), and as we stood on the deck of the ferry it was Toby who noticed it first that we could see the hills of the French coast opposite on the other side of the channel.

I can't think of when we last crossed over in such perfect conditions, there was hardly any swell at all and as we sailed over both the UK and French coasts were visible all the way.
It's a bit small on this picture taken as we were disembarking in Calais, but if you zoom in to the harbour entrance you can see the famous white cliffs of Dover some 22 miles away.

So far in our holiday the weather has held and it's been really hot and sunny. I'm even getting a sun-tan!

And FYI, this is how the photo got uploaded with the Blogger Android app direct from my phone - yuck !

Surfing whilst sailing .. or clicking whilst crossing?

Recent news in from Irish Ferries that Wifi is now free to all passengers on their Irish Sea crossings.

Having a quick comparative look at the other ferry companies to see whether they do Wifi or not, as I blogged about in 2009, NorfolkLine (now DFDS) offer free wifi to their passengers, and Brittany Ferries offer free Wifi in their port buildings but charge onboard the actual Brittany Ferry boats (at a rather steep £4 per hour or £8.50 for 3 hours).

Condor seem to only have Wifi in the Jersey port (but its free) and LD Lines seem to offer Wifi onboard the boats that Transmanche ferries operate (Côte d'Albâtre and Seven Sisters), but not the boats that sail under the LD Lines company name.

Surf's up !

An Ignominious end for SeaFrance .. or is it?

Word of the day - "Ignominious" ?

A wonderful word that I had perfectly in mind for the title to this Blog posting, but then recent events have tried to spoil my plans, but I won't be thwarted and am still going to use Ignominious. There I said it a third time.

Anyway, I digress,

Whilst passing through Dover the other day on my way to the Gite (see swimming pool filter installation story), I was reminded of the sad tale of Sea France.

Sea France for those that don't know, SeaFrance went into liquidation on January 9th this year after the French courts ruled that a French government bailout was illegal and the company was forced to cease trading.

As I drove through Dover the sad demise of the Ferry company was all too evident on the checkin lanes where the SeaFrance name had been hastily sticky taped over on the signs over the lanes:

And on the French side in Calais when I returned back through the port the SeaFrance checkin booths were now hidden by recently erected DFDS booths that now stood in front of them. As I drove along the quayside to load onto my boat I spotted the SeaFrance ferries were now tied up and looking forlorn (although still rather ablaze with lights) in Calais port:

And that was to be my Blog posting about an ignominious end to SeaFrance.

But just when I was about to publish this prose, news came through from Craig over on ThisFrenchLife that Eurotunnel has been successful in its bid to buy three of the SeaFrance ferries for €65 million, and I found more news on the BBC website that a key condition imposed by the French courts was that the SeaFrance ferries would be leased back to a workers co-operative.

There's a brief press release from Eurotunnel on their site, but other than confirming the same facts and stating that the ferries would require "a technical overhaul before being brought into commercial service" (to catch up with necessary maintenance work), there's no details of when, the new company name, etc.

Obviously it would make most business sense if the ferries could resume operation before the peak summer holiday period, but even so I suspect that Eurotunnel will have missed the proverbial boat as most families will surely have booked their summer ferry crossings by now and they're unlikely to be able to pick up a lot of trade even if they were to start operation imminently?

Dover spends a pile of money

A few weeks ago I came across news that Dover was investing £11m in upgrading berth infrastructure at the port in order to accommodate the new super-ferries (such as P&O's Spirit ferries) in berth 3.

At the time when I read the article I thought it was saying that Dover had spent their £11 million on "just" a 4 metre wide pile that weighed in at 246 tonnes, and that this was an awful lot of money to pay for a single metal pile sunk into the harbour seabed.

The Dover press article only really hints at the size of the construction work and when I was passing through Dover on my way to the Gite with a load of work to do I was able to see that two of the ferry berths were closed off whilst it looked like they were pretty comprehensively refurbishing and extending them.

Consolidation on the high seas - DFDS and LDLines joint venture

Building on the back of the announcement that DFDS and LDLines were launching a Dover-Calais ferry service earlier this year, the two companies have now announced that they will form a joint company for ferry routes on the English channel and between France and Tunisia.

This new service is expected to come into formal operations on 1st July and will comprise the following ferry routes:

• Dover-Dunkirk (which is currently operated by DFDS)
• Dover-Calais (the existing DFDS / LD Lines partnership)
• Portsmouth-Le Havre (currently an LD Lines service)
• Newhaven-Dieppe (LD Lines operating under the Transmanche Ferries banner)
• Marseille-Tunis (LD Lines)

There is further details of the company share ownership, passenger numbers and ferries on the DFDS press announcement.

Not directly related to the joint venture, but I guess a sign of good customer takeup on the Dover/Calais service that started on 17th February, DFDS have announced a second ship for this route.

The new vessel will be known as the 'Deal Seaways'.

And where did the Deal Seaways come from? It's our old friend from Brittany Ferries, Barfleur, that ceased service on the Poole Cherbourg route in 2009, came briefly back into service last year, but has spent most of the intervening years moored up on a river inlet in Caen.

Now showing a sparkly new Blue and White DFDS paint scheme she's back in service at long last now.

Wonder what colour the DFDS/LDLines joint venture boats will be painted? Barfleur could set a record time for the shortest paint-job on a ferry if it's anything other than Blue and White!

DFDS and LDLines launch the new Dover/Calais Service

Following right on from the Blog news of Sea France's demise and DFDS's announcement of a new Dover/Calais route I just received an email today from DFDS Seaways announcing that the new Dover Calais service that they're running in conjunction with LD Lines will start operation on 17th February this year.

Right now there's scant information on either DFDS or LD Lines's website, just a brief announcement of the new Dover/Calais route, and a "special launch offer" link that's broken and takes you you a page that doesn't exist !

It looks like the new route has been hurriedly added to the DFDS website because there's no details of the journey time, what boats are being used, or anything about Calais at all. The LD Lines website has a single link to the new route but that takes you over to the DFDS website so no more news there either.

The email I received from DFDS did however have details of the launch offer:

Book by 14 February, using offer code DC12, for travel on the Dover-Calais route between 17 February and 13 December 2012 for just £29 each way during low season dates, or for £39 each way during peak season† dates.
You can even make a free amendment to your booking before 30 June 2012.

I personally quite like DFDS, the boats are very clean and modern and the crossing prices are extremely competitive. It's only the slightly longer 2 hour crossing to Dunkerque and subsequent half hour additional drive back towards Brittany that have been slight negatives. With the Calais route both of these concerns will go away so P&O will be into another price war I wouldn't be surprised.

Postscript update 6th February
A few additional updates as more news is now appearing on the DFDS website including a Press release and the Sailing schedule. DFDS have announced that the service will initially be operated by LD Lines' Norman Spirit (which used to run on LD Lines' Dover/Boulogne service before it was canned in 2010), and a second boat will come into service once they've secured it.
The service will run 5 times a day in each direction and is scheduled to take an hour and a half to cross. Checkin 45 minutes before the sailing time and Pets are allowed.

So all in all a very similar service to P&O. Only a little bit cheaper.

Travel updates for Aer Arran and Sea France

Aer Arran announced yesterday that they're starting two new Aer Lingus Regional routes including a Shannon to Rennes service that will operate throughout the summer months, complementing the existing summer service from Cork to Rennes and Dublin to Rennes.

Rennes is the capital of Brittany and the airport is about an hour's drive from our Brittany holiday home so this new service should hopefully give our Irish holiday guests a few more options to stay with us.

Aer Arran ought to update the European route map on their website though as they've rather mistakenly portrayed Rennes as being just a short distance to the South West of Paris. In reality Rennes is about 150 miles away and is much more to the West of Paris than it is to the South. Rennes looks to have transplanted Orleans on the map, much to the surprise of both cities I'm sure!

I took the opportunity to update the Brittany ferry and flight choices travel page of our website with the new Aer Arran service; also removing Aer Lingus from the page as they've now stopped their Irish flights into La Rochelle and Lorient as they're now instead acting as flight subcontractors for Aer Arran on their services into France.

Also removed from our website was Sea France who went into liquidation on the 9th January 2012. As the SeaFrance website rather sadly says:

Urgent information

On 09th of January 2012, the Commercial Court in Paris informed us of their decision to liquidate SeaFrance. From now on we are prohibited to continue trading.

Customers who have a valid reservation which has not yet been used will be refunded in full as soon as possible.
Customers who have a reservation which has been used one way will be transferred on arrival at the port to another company for the return journey

DFDS Seaways have announced on their website an intention to start a new Dover-Calais ferry service in conjunction with LD Lines - effectively taking over some of the Sea France assets - but other than the news release on the 10th January of their intent, there's been nothing more since (and there's no announcements at all on the LD Lines website).

Watch this space as they say!

Who’s winning the war in the Dover Cross-Channel Ferry Routes?

I came across an interesting article recently on the DFDS Seaways website (aka Norfolk Line as they used to be), announcing how for the sixth year they had increased market share on the short channel routes out of Dover.

Within the news article is a graph (reproduced below) from IRN Ferrystats that shows the percentage of car ferry traffic out of Dover carried by the different operators (Hoverspeed, LD Lines, NorfolkLine/DFDS, Sea France, Speed Ferries and P&O Ferries).

Graphically you can see the demise of Hoverspeed (in 2005) and SpeedFerries (in 2008, whom I’ve blogged about lots of times before), both of which were pulling in 12% of passenger numbers, and of course LD Lines who entered the Dover marketplace in 2009, talked enthusiastically about increasing their service following the introduction of the Norman Arrow, and then of course LD Lines pulled out of Dover in 2010. LD Lines only reached 5% of Dover passenger numbers so I guess the service cancellation was pretty inevitable.

Of the three operators that have remained constant during this 8 year period:

• SeaFrance has more or less remained constant with 24 or 25% of the market share
• P&O has seen a steady decline from 58% in 2003 down to 43% last year
• And Norfolkline/DFDS has been the winner, picking up passengers from the other failed operators as well as no doubt also taking customers from P&O as well, with a steadily increasing market share rising from 3% in 2003 to 30% in 2010.

Statistics can be spun any way you want of course and what this doesn’t show is how passenger numbers through Dover have changed over this period, so no doubt other ferry operators will be able to show equally positive figures when looking at just passenger numbers or car numbers or somesuch other fact, but on simple market share analysis it looks like DFDS is doing quite well.