IRISH FERRIES
ISLE OF INISHMORE
suffered a fire on board at approximately 02:30 on Wednesday July 30,
2008.
The was caused by a
fault in a thermal boiler used to preheat fuel for use in the ship's
engines.
The incident was detected by members of the crew
and the unit shut down to minimize any risk. At the time of the
incident, the vessel was preparing to sail on the 02:45 sailing from
Pembroke Dock to Rosslare.
Some 227 passengers and 89 crew were on board at
the time. In accordance with agreed procedures all passengers were
immediately alerted and were ready for disembarkation should that have
been required. All emergency services were alerted, as is the practice
in these situations. All passengers were accounted for and kept fully
informed of the situation. All were safe and unharmed and at no point
were any passengers in danger.
As a result of the fire the 02:45 Pembroke to
Rosslare and the 08:45 Rosslare to Pembroke Dock were cancelled.
ISLE OF MAN DEPARTMENT OF
TRANSPORT
DOUGLAS
HARBOUR -
MAY 2008 TRAFFIC FIGURES
Total harbour traffic (including Steam Packet passengers and vehicles,
cruise vessels, etc):
|
|
May |
Year to Date |
|
|
Passengers |
Vehicles |
Passengers |
Vehicles |
|
2008 |
74,144 |
24,468 |
193,681 |
60,637 |
|
2007 |
71,339 |
25,917 |
198,506 |
63,170 |
|
%Change |
+3.9% |
-5.6% |
-2.4% |
-4.0% |
Route Performance:
|
Route
|
%Change |
2007 |
2008 |
|
Belfast |
Minus 5% |
2,473 |
2.342 |
|
Dublin |
Minus 30% |
916 |
637 |
|
Heysham |
Plus 1% |
30,730 |
31,167 |
|
Liverpool |
Plus 8% |
32,225 |
34,679 |
|
Larne |
Minus 15% |
1,544 |
1,307 |
|
Troon |
All Minus |
63 |
Nil |
Director of Harbours, Captain Michael Brew comments:
“May
passenger figures are very good allowing for the fact that Centenary TT
traffic will have been included in 2007. For example, the 2008 year to
date figure for passengers is 12.7% up on 2006 and for vehicles is 21%
up on 2006.”
DOUGLAS HARBOUR - JUNE 2008 TRAFFIC FIGURES
Total harbour traffic
(including Steam Packet passengers and vehicles, cruise vessels, etc):
|
|
June |
Year to Date |
|
|
Passengers |
Vehicles |
Passengers |
Vehicles |
|
2008 |
81,465 |
26,587 |
275,146 |
87,224 |
|
2007 (08/07 % change) |
100,734 (-19.1%) |
41,402 (-35.8%) |
299,240 (-8.1%) |
104,572 (-16.6%) |
|
2006 (08/06 % change) |
87,572 (-7.0%) |
32,571 (-18.5%) |
259,397 (+6.1%) |
82,503(+5.7%) |
Route Performance:
|
Route
|
%change
(07/08) |
2007 |
2008 |
%change
(06/08) |
2006 |
|
Belfast |
Plus 2% |
3,407 |
3,473 |
Plus 19.8% |
2,899 |
|
Dublin |
Minus 13% |
2,434 |
2,119 |
Plus 4.1% |
2,036 |
|
Heysham |
Minus 26% |
48,292 |
35,948 |
Minus 9% |
39,500 |
|
Liverpool |
Minus 17% |
39,594 |
32,737 |
Minus 9.1% |
36,033 |
|
Larne |
Minus 70% |
4,094 |
1,189 |
Minus 57% |
2,745 |
|
Whitehaven |
All Plus |
nil |
231 |
All Plus |
Nil |
|
Troon |
All minus |
323 |
nil |
All minus |
Nil |
Director of
Harbours, Captain Michael Brew comments:
“The high level of passenger and vehicle
traffic for the centenary TT in 2007 has distorted the reporting of
these statistics. I have therefore included the 2006 figures for
comparison. They show that the underlying growth remains very
satisfying. For instance, there was been a 6% growth in passenger and
vehicles over the two years.”
ISLE OF MAN STEAM
PACKET COMPANY
VIKING - suffered and
unfortunate mishap as she was departing from Liverpool on the 11:15
sailing to Douglas on August 01 when she was caught by a squall and
pushed back onto the linkspan pontoon this resulted in damage to the
shell plating on the port side of the vessel. However, with the hull
gashed it was necessary to disembark passengers and send them up to
Heysham for the 14:15 BEN-MY-CHREE sailing. This also had the knock on
effect of delaying the BEN-MY-CHREE. VIKING retreated to Alexandra Dock,
Liverpool for repairs.
A revised timetable
was implemented on Saturday and Sunday whereby the sailings to Dublin on
Saturday and Dublin on Sunday were cancelled and SNAEFELL deployed on
the Liverpool service. However, with insufficient space available on the
small Incat some overflow passengers had to be diverted via Heysham.
 SNAEFELL was delayed
on her sailing from Dublin on Friday as she attended to 'Maydays'
enroute to Douglas. One was in Dublin Bay and the other off Chicken
Rock, however, both incidents were attended to by marine rescue services
and her assistance was not required.
[SNAEFELL passing New
Brighton - April 02, 2008 © Adrian Sweeney]
SNAEFELL did not
appear to be operating anywhere near full power on Saturday. Her delayed
evening departure from Liverpool did not get away until around 20:00 and
arrival in Douglas was around midnight. AIS revealed that she averaged
around 20knots for most of the crossing.
JAMES FISHER &
SONS
ATLANTIC OSPREY -
the ro/ro nuclear fuel carrier is subject to a ban by the French
authorities which discovered "non-conformities" concerning thermal
regulation over a shipment of plutonium in May 2008.
An appeal has been
lodged
LAXEY TOWING
COMPANY
The tug WENDY ANN came
to the assistance of a small fishing vessel which broke down and drifted
onto the concrete 'stabits' on the Douglas Breakwater on Thursday July
31, 2008.
The fishing vessel was
hold and started to take water. However, the WENDY ANN was able to get a
line aboard the vessel and tow it into Douglas Harbour.
Damage to the fishing
vessel resulted in it being craned from the water.
EX-LIVERPOOL TUGS
CANADA - the former
tug which passed to Smit on acquisition of the Adsteam operation on
Merseyside now operates as the WELLINGTON at the Port of Gibraltar.
PEEL PORTS
Liverpool Fresh Produce Terminal
A major initiative that will dramatically reduce road
miles travelled by transport supplying the British public with fresh
produce, is now underway at the
Port of Liverpool.
A
major initiative that will dramatically reduce road miles travelled by
transport supplying the British public with fresh produce, is now
underway at the Port of Liverpool.
A
£6 million fresh produce terminal is rising on the quayside at Royal
Seaforth Dock and is due for completion in October, enabling the
transfer of thousands of tonnes of fruit and vegetables from road to
ship.
Go-Associates, the firm behind the development, is initially targeting
the Spanish fresh produce season, offering a cost effective all-water
alternative to the 300 trucks trundling into Britain from the Continent
every day with fruit from Spain.
Operations Director Andy Rickard pointed to the two million tonnes of
fresh produce supplied to the UK by Spain every year – half of it
destined for the North of the country.
"Most of this major trade is moved by road on trucks carrying just 26
pallets each from the main growing areas of Spain," he said. "The
situation cries out for high volume direct delivery by sea. Liverpool
Produce Terminal will offer a state-of-the-art fresh produce terminal
capable of discharging a 5,000 pallet ship in 24 hours and ideally
located to reach any part of this vast market of 30 million people
within a truck driver’s tachograph driving day.
"Liverpool Produce Terminal will maintain the cool chain but eliminate
up to two truck journeys from the logistics chain – the journey to and
from the pack house as we are planning to open a pack house adjacent to
the Terminal."
The
90,000 sq ft cool store located alongside the Royal Seaforth Container
Terminal and the site of the Port of Liverpool’s planned £100+ million
Post Panamax River Container Terminal, will be operated around the
clock, employing as many as 100 permanent and supplemental staff.
Go-Associates report an enthusiastic response to the Liverpool facility
from fresh produce suppliers and buyers. Said Mr Rickard: "Food shippers
are increasingly responsive to growing public concern about greenhouse
emissions and the contribution to this problem made by road haulage – as
sighted by the recent commitment of some 40 members of the food and
drink industry federation to cut the environmental and social impact of
domestic food transport by 20% by 2012."
"Ten million tonnes of fresh produce are shipped into the UK each year
and half of it comes up to the northern half of the country. It makes
economic and environmental sense to bring that volume to the deepsea
port that is closest to the population of 30 million people and is
served by the best motorway network for rapid distribution direct to
supermarkets."
Frank Robotham, Marketing Director for Peel Ports Group, which owns and
operates the Port of Liverpool, said: "The development of Liverpool
Produce Terminal is another example of how the Port of Liverpool with
its central location, continues to make major contributions to the
reduction of truck road miles. LPT is set to make a most significant
contribution to the food transport industry’s response to economic and
environmental pressure to cut food miles and the carbon footprint.
"The terminal will also enable Peel Ports Group to supply fresh produce
to the whole of the UK through the new facility at the Port of Liverpool
in the North and its established operations at the Port of Sheerness in
the South East of England."
SWANSEA - CORK
Three local
authorities have agreed to work together to restore the
Cork to
Swansea ferry
link.
The news emerged
after a meeting on July 29 between the mayors of
Cork city,
Cork county and
Kerry along with the respective city and county managers and the
South West Regional Authority's director and chairman.
Mayor of Cork
county Noel Harrington, Cork city's mayor
Brian
Bermingham and mayor of Kerry Tom Fleming held talks on the issue in
Cork County Hall with Cork's county manager, Martin Riordan, Cork's
city manager Joe Gavin, Kerry county manager Tom Curran and the
authority's director, John McAleer and its chairman, Cllr Jim Corr.
Mr Harrington,
who has pledged to make restoring the ferry link one of his main
priorities for his term as county mayor, described the talks as "frank
and open".
He said they plan to
make contact with other stakeholders in the coming weeks to get their
views on how best to approach the issue.
"We are doing
everything we can to explore every possibility to reinstate the
ferry," he said.
The next meeting of
the group is due to take place next month.
Yesterday's
meeting marks the start of the first concerted cross-party
political effort at regional level to address the issue which has
begun to hit the region's tourism business.
The authority is
the statutory public body with responsibility for strategic
planning in the region.
Mr McAleer has
described as crazy, the fact that a region so dependent on tourism does
not have a ferry link to a potential market of 60 million people. The
Swansea-Cork Ferry company announced in late 2006 it was ceasing
operations on the route.
An attempt was made
last October by its former managing director, Thomas Hunter-McGowan,
to form a new company. However, the attempt failed after the
Port of
Cork refused to
invest
€3
million in the project.
Port authorities
said they couldn't invest in one company when there was a rival
consortium also seeking to reactivate the service.
The region is now
facing its second season without the vital ferry service, which
brought close to 100,000 people to the region every year.
A study showed the
demise of the ferry link cost the region an estimated
€38
million in 2007.
Almost 1,300 people have signed the online petition at
www.bringbacktheswanseacorkferry.com .
[IRISH EXAMINER] |
