Stena Line seeks to secure alternative Irish Sea crossings as Holyhead Port remains closed

Stena Line is continuing to work at pace to try and secure alternative Irish Sea ferry crossings as the closure of Holyhead Port enters a second week. 

Freight and passenger traffic on the busy Dublin-Holyhead route has been severely impacted following the closure of Holyhead Port on 7th December. Stena Line can now confirm that it has chartered the Ben My Chree vessel to operate on a new Dublin – Heysham freight route which is due to begin at 01:00 on Tuesday morning. 

This temporary service will provide an extra round trip between Ireland and Great Britain with approximately 850 lane meters of space for freight. We have also secured permission to take cars and passengers on additional Dublin – Birkenhead sailings on Stena Estrid, commencing at 03:30 tomorrow (17th) morning out of Dublin. These sailings are currently for car passengers with existing bookings on cancelled Dublin – Holyhead sailings.  

Johan Edelman, Stena Line’s Irish Sea Trade Director said: “The unprecedented closure of Holyhead Port in the run up to Christmas has caused major upheaval in freight flows between Ireland and Britain.  Our priority in the coming days will be to mitigate as much as we can by trying to secure as much additional capacity as possible throughout our Irish Sea network.  High levels of pre-Christmas bookings have made this a very challenging operation, but we are working around the clock to examine every conceivable opportunity. 

“I can confirm that our operational teams have now been able to establish a new temporary unaccompanied freight only ferry route between Dublin-Heysham which will launch on Tuesday 17th Dec providing one round trip per day. We have also established a new temporary route on Dublin-Fishguard for freight and passengers which will be served by the Stena Adventurer.  

“Extra sailings have also been introduced on our Dublin-Liverpool service provided by Stena Estrid. The Stena Estrid departs Dublin at 03:30 each morning and returns from Birkenhead at 14:30 each afternoon. This service is for driver accompanied traffic only. 

“This unprecedented port closure has created a difficult situation for everyone involved, including both customers and staff, so I would appeal for as much flexibility and patience as possible in the days ahead as we seek to reduce the pre-Christmas backlog.”

Stena Line