Irish Fast Ferry - Tickets Ferries

Useful General Irish Fast Ferry Information

You will find lots of Irish Fast Ferry information and resources here at ferryireland. Ferries come in all shapes and sizes, from small cable ferries all the way up to almost cruise boat size proportions. Ferry crossings from the mainland UK to Europe are as popular as ever due to the increasing demand for European travel.

The Channel Tunnel has only served to make the ferry boat operators more competitive and real fare bargains are now regularly offered.

P&O Ferries was formed after the Stena Line sold its 40% share in P&O Stena Line in 2002. P&O Portsmouth and P&O North Sea Ferries merged into the P&O Ferries operation and managed from Dover. Prior to the P&O Stena joint venture, operations from Dover, Felixstowe, Portsmouth and Cairnryan were all conducted under the P&O European Ferries name. P&O European Ferries was the name given to the operations of Townsend Thoresen after the P&O group purchased them in 1987. Townsend Thoresen was formed in 1968 after Townsend Brothers Ferries combined forces with Thoresen Car Ferries.

Swansea Cork Ferries sails between Swansea in South Wales, ideally situated on the M4 motorway, and Ringaskiddy, Co. Cork in Ireland, the Gateway to Kerry, Limerick and Clare.

Travelling the Swansea Cork Ferries route means saving up to 400 miles of tiring driving on a round trip, leaving you within easy reach of all holiday destinations.

Thanks to the convenient sailing times, visitors to Ireland can look forward to arriving first thing in the morning, refreshed after a full nights sleep and wide awake to the beauties and fun a holiday in Ireland offers.

There are a wide range of facilities on board including bars, restaurants, cinema and kiddies playroom.

Most UK sailings depart from Swansea at 9.00pm and arrive in Ringaskiddy, Cork at 7.00am. This allows you sample the restaurants, bars and duty free shop on the Superferry before settling down to a good nights sleep. Rise in time for a hearty breakfast before starting a full days holiday, rested and refreshed. All cabins are ensuite so your comfort is guaranteed.

Irish Ferries has adopted the motto “The Low Fares Ferry Company”, reflecting our determination to offer customers the very best in ferry fares value. This is a long term strategy that will continue to unfold as we underline our commitment to offer bigger and bigger fare cuts that deliver greater and greater travel value – free of add-on taxes.

Low prices are our promise for the future… a promise you can monitor and profit from by logging on to our website frequently.

The Most Modern Fleet; Over the last number of years, Irish Ferries has invested over €450 million in new fleet and port facilities. We now have the most modern fleet in Europe including Ulysses the World’s Largest Car Ferry and our Dublin Swift fast ferry. In 2005 we carried nearly 2 million passengers on our 4 routes in and out of Ireland.

Stena Line was founded by Sten Allan Olsson when he acquired Skagenlinjen in 1962 and is one of the world's largest ferry operators. Stena Line has ferry services around the UK and Scandinavia. In 1990 Stena Line doubled it's size with the acquisition of Sealink British Ferries. After a number of name changes the company is now known locally as Stena Line (UK) and operate all of Stena’s ferry services between the UK and Northern Ireland.

In designing ferries the route length, the number of likely passengers or vehicle capacity required, speed requirements and the water conditions the craft must deal with are all taken into consideration.

Sea ferries dock at specialised facilities designed to position the boat for loading and unloading. These areas are called the ferry slip. If the ferry is carrying vehicles or railroad cars an adjustable ramp called an apron may form part of the ship and is used for loading and unloading.

The cross-Channel ferry route was established in 1841. This was to ensure that there was a link between the British and the continental rail networks.

At Dover all ferries, apart from Hoverspeed services, arrive and depart from the Ferry Terminal at the Eastern Docks. Hoverspeed's fast SeaCat ferry service operates from the Hoverport at the Western Docks. P and O ferries have up to 35 return crossings per day from Dover to Calais, with a crossing time of around 75 minutes. Sea France have up to 20 return crossings per day with a crossing time of around 70 minutes. Hoverspeed have up to 15 crossings per day with a crossing time of just 60 minutes. Services are available 364 days a year.

Cities that are surrounded by waterways such as Venice use ferries extensively as part of their public transport system. In such cases ferries are employed to do the work of bridges and tunnels as their relative capital cost is much lower. These foot passenger only ferries are sometimes called waterbuses or even water taxis.

A boat or a ship carrying passengers and sometimes their vehicles, on scheduled services is often reffered to as a ferry. Certain ferries are even able to transport railroad cars and other large cargo depending on their size.

Hydrofoils have a high cruising speed and have largely taken over on some routes across the English Channel and replaced the aging hovercraft fleet.

Ferries are ideal for transporting passengers and vehicles over medium to long distances such as the type that run across the English Channel between the U.K. and Europe. The English Channel is one of the busiest ferry crossing areas in the world. The Channel Tunnel has taken some of the crossing business away from the ferries, but they are still very much in use due to the shear volume of traffic crossing between the U.K. and Europe.

Superfast Ferries an Attica Group company was formed in 1995 and is based in Athens, Greece, together with Blue Star Ferries. Superfast Ferries operates lines in the: Adriatic Sea: Ancona and Bari, Italy - Igoumenitsa and Patras, Greece; Baltic Sea: Rostock, Germany - Hanko, Finland; North Sea: Zeebrugge, Flanders - Rosyth, Scotland.

Useful Ferry Information