Irish Ferry Sailings - Ferries Irish Ferry Sailings

Useful Irish Ferry Sailings Information

You will find lots of Irish Ferry Sailings 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.

The Port of Hollyhead is located at the far west of the Isle of Anglesey in North Wales. The Ferry Terminals, one for passengers & one for vehicles, are operated by Stena Line & Irish Ferries, operating services to Ireland. There are frequent buses and coaches to Anglesey and Holyhead from England and Wales. On Anglesey there is a local network of buses which service all parts of the island. Holyhead is on a main rail line with connections and services from most parts of the UK (4 hours from London; 2 1/2 hours from Manchester).

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.

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.

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.

Red Funnel Ferries have sailed between Southampton and the Isle of Wight and Cowes for over 140 years. The journey takes around 55 minutes and is available 364 days a year. Formed in 1861, the Southampton Isle of Wight and South of England Royal Mail Steam Packet Public Limited Company has the longest name of any quoted company in the UK.

Irish Ferry operator Irish Continental Group plc known locally as Irish Ferries operates on the following routes. Dublin to Holyhead and from Rosslare to Roscoff, Cherbourg, and Pembroke. Irish Ferries was formed in 1972 and it's first operations were between Rosslare and Le Havre. In 1992, Irish Ferries took over B & I Line which operated ferry services between Dublin and Holyhead. The company's flagship ferry "Ulysses", is the world's largest car ferry.

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.

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.

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

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.

Ferries that carry cars across a large waterway are sometimes referred to as "RORO" ferries (roll-on and roll-off) for the ease by which vehicles can board them and then leave. Roll on roll off ferries are usually quite large, conventional ferries named for the ease by which vehicles can board and leave.

SeaFrance was launched on 1 January 1996 following the end of an agreement between Sealink and SNAT. That same year, SeaFrance Ltd. was established and was responsible for the sales and marketing of the new service in the UK as well as port operations in Dover. SeaFrance has since extended its sales operations throughout Europe with representatives in Germany, Belgium, the Netherlands, Spain and Italy.

Cable ferries operate over short distances across a number of the UK's inland waterways. Some cable ferries actually use the power of the rivers current to move the ferry forward. Most cable ferries though are operator controlled. Originally rope or steel chains were used to connect the ferries from ones side of the riverbank to the other. These have now been replaced by much stronger and more durable steel wire.

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.

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.

Brittany Ferries is a French ferry company that operates between France, Spain, the UK and Ireland. The company was founded by Alexis Gouvernnec in January 1973. The first operations were between Roscoff in Brittany and Plymouth in the South West of England. The company was originally called BAI (Bretagne-Angleterre-Irelande).

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Useful Irish Ferry Sailings Information

Useful Ferry Information