Cork-Swansea Ferry discontinued.

evilivor

The Cork to Swansea ferry is to discontinue service with immediate effect after an interim examiner was appointed to the Fastnet Line group of companies by the High Court today

A statement said all booked passengers would be contacted in the coming days, and full refunds would be issued.

beer enigma

evilivor wrote: »

The Cork to Swansea ferry is to discontinue service with immediate effect after an interim examiner was appointed to the Fastnet Line group of companies by the High Court today

A statement said all booked passengers would be contacted in the coming days, and full refunds would be issued.

Sad but no great suprise - Wirh only one five berth cabin in board it was no use to families with three or more kids so missed out on a lot of holiday traffic

-Corkie-

Yes and it was too expensive aswell. Pity though.

C4Kid

This is the first I've heard of it! Just saw this by chance.

It may be no suprise but that's terrible :(. I was a bit of a fan and I hoped they would last longer then this. Sometimes I'd take a trip down to see the ship on the odd saturday afternoon.

teamD

ah thats a shame. It was way to expensive though, and it was pretty empty that last time i traveled on it.

aujopimur

Basic fares were ok, the fact that you had to book a cabin made it too expensive.

eth0

Any news article or anything to go with this? Is there any hope for it now?

I used it about 2 months ago to bring over a car, didnt have much luck with the weather and although the boat is showing its age it wouldnt be a whole lot better than that ould hape that does fishguard rosslare

miss_shadow

Aw no my parents went over on it Friday.. guess they won't be coming back

eth0

miss_shadow wrote: »

Aw no my parents went over on it Friday.. guess they won't be coming back

At least they wont be at you to empty their gazunder for a while

ScrubsfanChris

Had tickets for december to go over to the Munster v Scarlets game

Looks like I'll have to get on to Visa for a refund.

Bannasidhe

http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/breaking/2011/1101/breaking40.html

I hope they can save it - never been on it but I do 'own' a rivet (I believe it's on the top deck)..

THENORTHSIDER

Don't think its quiet finished yet . They are looking at the schedule they run and will run it peak season rather than all year around and other cost cutting measures. On saying that think it won't last. Have defended the company in the past,have used it in the past but they messed me about this summer so wouldn't be too quick to book again.

evilivor

The Julia is docked down on the quays at the moment - makes a freaky sight looking down at her from Oliver Plunkett Street.

beer enigma

evilivor wrote: »

The Julia is docked down on the quays at the moment - makes a freaky sight looking down at her from Oliver Plunkett Street.

Ahh that's what it it - saw it in the distance yesterday evening while driving past the opera house - looked huge for a cargo ship at low tide - mystery solved - looks spookily out of place

Corknewshound

A real shame - I have no doubt they will try and get it going again, but peoples' patience may be at an end!

beer enigma

Corknewshound wrote: »

A real shame - I have no doubt they will try and get it going again, but peoples' patience may be at an end!

I know they got the ship quite 'cheap', but as i said above - just wasn't suitable for families & I think that was a mistake. The idea of me being in one cabin with two kids & my wife in another with the other two kids wasn't workable & hugely expensive compared to the drive to rosslare.

I think their only chance is if they can convert some of the cabins into 5 berths or allow 2 adults 3 kids into a 4 berther, although maybe its not legal. Certainly since our third came along we've holidayed in Ireland & UK

tommyhaas

Can't say I'm surprised by this at all. If it wasn't economically viable before, what's changed that they suddenly thought it would be now? Relative to the price of flying, or indeed taking the ferry from Dublin or Rosslare to the UK, its far to expensive

beer enigma

Gone for good by the sounds of it - staff being briefed on the ship as I post & company being placed into liquidation or receivership later today

deRanged

really sad to hear this - both for those directly affected and all the knock effects to tourism.

aujopimur

Andip wrote: »

I know they got the ship quite 'cheap', but as i said above - just wasn't suitable for families & I think that was a mistake. The idea of me being in one cabin with two kids & my wife in another with the other two kids wasn't workable & hugely expensive compared to the drive to rosslare.

I think their only chance is if they can convert some of the cabins into 5 berths or allow 2 adults 3 kids into a 4 berther, although maybe its not legal. Certainly since our third came along we've holidayed in Ireland & UK

The ship was never purchased, the reciever could'nt offload it, so they financed the the purchase as a way to get it off their hands.

beer enigma

aujopimur wrote: »

The ship was never purchased, the reciever could'nt offload it, so they financed the the purchase as a way to get it off their hands.

Yes didn't mean to imply they had bought outright, but at €7.9m it was still cheap deal & they put over €2m of their own & investor money up front for it

gbee

Pity it's gone but this scheme would need a massive subsidy continually. That's not necessarily a bad thing as it could possibly bring benefits that are not obvious.

They were unlucky with the ship, it's a poor enough design to begin with for the route, and they had a major breakdown just before service, got a break from the Icelandic Volcano ash cloud but it continued to be dogged by mechanical failures resulting in missed and late sailings and so forth.

It's a pity it has to stop now, there was a lot of work done and the future looked reasonable if subsidised.

Judes

My answer would be depart Cork early in the morning, a day time crossing so passengers arrive at a reasonable hour into Wales i.e. early evening - cabins wouldn't be required - it would bring the cost of the trip down, so more passengers could afford to use it.

The ferry should then stay in Wales over night and depart earlier the next day so again passengers coming from the UK could get a day sailing also.

Cabins wouldn't be required - more entertainment on board - and people would spend the money on food/drink/entertainment as it would be viewed as the start of their holiday - and fun - as opposed to the high cost of a cabin and trying to scrimp/save on the journey.

Well, that's how I would have run it - and I'm sad I won't be able to watch it sail by my house any more. And very sorry for those who have lost their jobs and the knock on effect to Cork/Kerry/Wales.

Maybe if another organisation takes over or starts up a similar service, they may actually question potential passengers as to what they want from a ferry service.

eth0

A smaller and maybe slightly faster ferry should do better on that route.

The one they had was really a hape of shoite, although Stena Line's rosslare one isn't all that much better. They also had way too much staff on board and nearly 100% foreign, they might be a bit cheaper this way but won't earn them much sympathy from anyone looking to subsidise the ferry.

Day sailings not a bad idea. I had a look in the Pullman seat lounge and definitely not somewhere I want to sit for the night.

horgan_p

stena plus - the only way to go from rosslare to wales.

Last few times I was in wales airsofting it saved us. all you can eat/drink coffee and muffins , newspapers and sky tv. plus the seats are like lazy boys in that they fold right back.


Heard bad things about the cork ferry though , friends of mine were in wales the last time they closed down and they just literally got told tough s**t.

goldie fish

Judes wrote: »

My answer would be depart Cork early in the morning, a day time crossing so passengers arrive at a reasonable hour into Wales i.e. early evening - cabins wouldn't be required - it would bring the cost of the trip down, so more passengers could afford to use it.

The ferry should then stay in Wales over night and depart earlier the next day so again passengers coming from the UK could get a day sailing also.

Cabins wouldn't be required - more entertainment on board - and people would spend the money on food/drink/entertainment as it would be viewed as the start of their holiday - and fun - as opposed to the high cost of a cabin and trying to scrimp/save on the journey.

Well, that's how I would have run it - and I'm sad I won't be able to watch it sail by my house any more. And very sorry for those who have lost their jobs and the knock on effect to Cork/Kerry/Wales.

Maybe if another organisation takes over or starts up a similar service, they may actually question potential passengers as to what they want from a ferry service.

The exact opposite would be the norm, worldwide. There is very little for passengers, unaccustomed to travelling by sea for long periods, to do for a 10 hour or more crossing in rough seas. Leaving late in the evening is better because you can eat and drink after arriving onboard, then retire to your cabin, where you can sleep the inevitable seasickness away. Wake up in the morning with a slight hangover, enjoy breakfast before the ship arrives in port and drive off.
However the key point is a service such as this cannot survive on passengers, or tourists alone. Having a reliable capacity for R0-Ro freight is the key to surviving. Compare the amount of trucks using the Brittany ferries (summer only) and the rosslare-cherbourg route(same duration). The only thing that makes the Brittany ferry survive is that the ship operates another, more profitable route for the rest of the week.

The Operators of Julia had great intentions, but knew nothing about logistics or operating ships. You cannot operate any business on good intentions alone.

Sad to see this one fail. Hopefully someone will come along and do it right in the future.

kub

In all honesty i think that it was doomed from the word go. I would love to have seen it being a success.
What we have to consider is this, the previous operators of this route 'Swansea Cork Ferries' went off and sold their ship without first having a replacement.
Infairness if money was to be made on that route wouldn't those lads hung onto it?
Also if the route had any potential, why aren't Irish Ferries or Stena moving in to fill the void?

goldie fish

kub wrote: »

In all honesty i think that it was doomed from the word go. I would love to have seen it being a success.
What we have to consider is this, the previous operators of this route 'Swansea Cork Ferries' went off and sold their ship without first having a replacement.
Infairness if money was to be made on that route wouldn't those lads hung onto it?
Also if the route had any potential, why aren't Irish Ferries or Stena moving in to fill the void?

Swansea Cork ferries made a blunder, thinking they had a replacement ship lined up, but then that ship was sold to a higher bidder. To be fair the Original operators was quite a decent operation. They just fecked up big time, at a time when second hand ships were in short supply. Exceptionally bad timing.

kub

goldie fish wrote: »

Swansea Cork ferries made a blunder, thinking they had a replacement ship lined up, but then that ship was sold to a higher bidder. To be fair the Original operators was quite a decent operation. They just fecked up big time, at a time when second hand ships were in short supply. Exceptionally bad timing.

Was it that simple?