Announced this morning that cross channel operator My Ferry Link will cease operations on 5 July. Its ships have been sold to DFDS.
The company had been subject ot protracted action by the Competition and Markets Authority over it's ownership by Eurotunnel. Although the company won the latest round in the Court of Appeal the CMA had intended to press on to the Supreme Court. In effect Eurotunnel have thrown in the towel.
An alternative bid from a French workers co-operative was deemed non-viable.
With just two operators, P&O and DFDS, expect fares to rise soon.
|
|
Never heard of them, where do they go to and from?
|
>> Never heard of them, where do they go to and from?
Dover Calais using former Sea France vessels Rodin & Berlioz plus the freight only Nord Pas de Calais.
|
>> Never heard of them, where do they go to and from?
Now? nowhere and no place.
|
|
Prices are already eye-watering. 700 sheets, Portsmouth-St Malo for my summer holiday this year. Tunnel booked again. Was hoping to cut out some driving, but not at those prices.
|
>> Prices are already eye-watering. 700 sheets, Portsmouth-St Malo for my summer holiday this year. Tunnel
>> booked again. Was hoping to cut out some driving, but not at those prices.
Just booked Dover Calais out 20/7 back 11/08 with P&O for £180 (car and caravan). Was faffing and thinking about which was cheapest and trying to save a tenner or so when I heard about MFL jacking in.
Bearing in mind some DFDS crossings were full already thought it best to move now.
For some bizzare reason P&O is considerably cheaper when priced in Euro. By taking that option I got a flexible fare for what the 'basic' would have cost in sterling. Option of cancellation and full refund plus flexibility across a +/- 4hr window on the day.
|
|
Tunnel - £167 for me this summer. Sod the boats. Way faster and easier.
|
Tunnel is my preferred option too.
Friends took a ferry couple of weeks ago when we took the tunnel. They were so disappointed with the ferry that they cancelled their return and got a tunnel ticket instead.
|
>> Tunnel - £167 for me this summer. Sod the boats. Way faster and easier.
Difficult to get it much below £180 each way with the caravan.
|
Portsmouth-St Malo for me. Tunnel is OK while you're (briefly) in it, but what possessed them to link the most inaccessible corner of England to the equivalent corner of France? Getting there and back is an utter pain - the French side is tedious enough but Folkestone to home last year took five hours - that's enough to take the shine off a holiday.
BF crossing was paid for in Avios, the proceeds of last year's global dashing about. I tell myself it's the family's compensation for all those absences.
Difficult to get it much below £180 each way with the caravan.
Think of it as a message from the cosmos, Bromp. You know the solution.
|
"what possessed them to link the most inaccessible corner of England to the equivalent corner of France"
Because they're the corners with the shortest distance of sea between them, so the tunnel was cheaper to build?
|
Sigh. Must be St Literal's Day in Ireland.
}:---P
|
"what possessed them to link the most inaccessible corner of England to the equivalent corner
of France"
Dover is a problem because from pretty much anywhere in UK London gets in the way.
Not so bad at the French end though. There's a thoroughly decent motorway route keeping well east of Paris going to Jura/Alps/Med etc.
Aiming west and south is a bit more difficult as either Paris or Rouen is in the way. I've never fancied the peripherique and major sections of the Parissiene 'M25' is subject to ridiculous height restrictions. So it's Rouen for me.
The Pont Mathilde must be open again by now so at least that's one hurdle down. Alternatively at cost of a few extra miles the Pont Flaubert provides a pretty simple link via N338/A139 onto the A13 then the N154 via Chartre etc to pick up the A10 and it's links SW of Paris.
It's also possible to avoid Rouen altogether taking the RD round to west and using the Pont de Brotonne.
|
Bromp, I wonder how does the all-in cost of getting from A to B towing the caravan compare between detouring via the Tunnel rather than getting the ferry.
Say the ferry to St Malo is £700 as quoted above, and the tunnel is £360 return. But then you have to drive down to Dover instead of Portsmouth and back from Calais to Rennes.
Any time I've tried to figure out a saving going landbridge from Ireland, for example, it ends up looking cheaper and quicker just to stick with Brittany Ferries into Roscoff by the time I allow for extra fuel and meal stops at UK and French motorway prices. Or maybe that's just man-maths at work because I really rather enjoy the crossing on the Pont Aven :-)
|
I used to go on the north sea ferries as a jolly but as others have said the prices in the past few years have gone right up. I used to enjoy a trip out to Belgium and a few beers, a gamble and watch a bit of entertainment on board but it's got just too expensive to bother with anymore. Ports on the south coast are too far to bother faffing about with. Pity i enjoy travelling by ferry far more than by aircraft. Work trips are always far too far to go by ferry. Pity.
|
|
My missus and I use Portsmouth to Caen or Le Havre. I try to avoid going anywhere near the SE these days.
|
Portsmouth and Dover are about the same journey length for me now
|
>> Portsmouth and Dover are about the same journey length for me now
>>
About 30 miles shorter to Portsmouth from here than Dover with bonus of avoiding that London.
I cannot think I'd save enough French miles/tolls or overnights to cover extra ferry cost. My destination this year is Le Mont Dore in the Auvergene. It's only 100km less from Oustreham than from Calais. An overnight crossing might obviate need for an en-route campsite but camping municipal at Chartres is what, maybe 25 Euro?
|
|
North sea ferries have no competition it is run from a Middle East Company.They can price it whatever they think to get away with.A shame Hull could easily run another ferry company and have day crossings to Belgium and Holland.8am leave from Hull arrive about 8 pm in Rotterdam.
|
|
I suppose their competition is the Harwich to the Hook run by Stena lines which is probably the best ferry running out of the UK.
|
>> Tunnel - £167 for me this summer. Sod the boats. Way faster and easier.
>>
...but rarely a cheap option. At least you get a decent chance to stretch your legs and wander round on the ferry.
|
|
Brittany Ferries in particular have always been stupid prices. We used to live c.20 miles from Portsmouth, but it was rarely viable to use the Portsmouth-based channel routes.
|
Never driven the route but I have done it plenty of times. My preferred way of crossing the channel is the Eurostar, 2 hours from London and you're in Paris, just 4.5 hours travel time from Manchester. However it is expensive (cost me £116 on Saturday to get to London from Paris as it was last minute) and that was the cheapest slot I could find.
If going by coach which I have also done several times, I much prefer the ferry to the tunnel, the ferry gives you a chance to get some food and have a cheeky pint etc. The drink prices are actually very reasonable on the ferry too, the food prices not quite so.
The crossing on coach from London to Paris is around 9 hours, so to me there has to be a very big saving compared to the Eurotunnel.
|
|
Seems that the occupation of Berlioz and Rodin by their former crews has finally ended. Berlioz has been renamed Cote de Flandres and Rodin Cote des Dunes. Should enter DFDS service in the Spring.
|
I make the crossing around twice a year but not with a car. My preferred crossing is Eurostar via London, so quick and comfortable but if I have to go by coach then I much prefer the ferry.
I really don't like the Euroshutle, especially when it is dark you can't really tell when you're out of the tunnel. I really do like getting some over priced food on the boat just apart of the holiday experience.
|
>> Seems that the occupation of Berlioz and Rodin by their former crews has finally ended.
>> Berlioz has been renamed Cote de Flandres and Rodin Cote des Dunes. Should enter DFDS
>> service in the Spring.
Was down at Hawkinge in the caravan three weeks ago. Both vessels now in service with DFDS on Dover Calais.
|
My Ferry Link to Close - sooty123
