I note that among Brittany Ferries list of routes, they already have one currently serving Le Havre (X 7 times per week) from Portsmouth in the south of England.

Brittany Ferries also serves Caen (also called Ouistreham) Ferryport to Portsmouth.

Le Havre, located in Normandy on the right bank of the Seine estuary, is the second largest port in France. According to Brittany Ferries website, the ship "Etretat" makes this connection, offering the Eco Class of Brittany Ferries , with also the ship "Baie de Seine".

With most of Ireland's sea connections with France currently using Cherbourg (i.e.) Irish Ferries with it's new "W.B. Yeats" vessel and "mv Epsilon" on Dublin Cherbourg in addition to Stena Line with it's "Stena Horizon" vessel will be operating X 3 times per week on the Rosslare Cherbourg route.

I wonder if it makes sense to have a 3rd ferry operator from Ireland also using the same port of Cherbourg as entry point to France if there are longer inspection checks on freight cargo once the UK transition period after BREXIT takes effect. If road haulage firms face long delays at ports, will improved rail access be sufficient to have more operators  operating to/from the same entry point at Cherbourg while other Normandy ports such as Le Havre and Caen are less busy?

 

Following the official announcement by Brittany Ferries today of the replacement of the Cork to Santander route by a new Rosslare to Bilbao route commencing on 28th of February, there is now also some speculation as to whether Brittany Ferries may also open a Rosslare to Le Havre route using CF once she has been displaced by one of the Flexers next year although; a Rosslare to Le Havre link has NOT been confirmed by BF today. 

In the meantime, Brittany Ferries is to continue with it's popular Cork to Roscoff weekly sailings which resume from the Port of Cork's Ringaskiddy Ferryport from March to October during 2020.

Sources:
https://www.echolive.ie/corknews/Major-Cork-ferry-route-cancelled-4055dc59-d23f-404a-bc04-3cc3ab6f0f0b-ds

https://www.96fm.ie/news/96fm-news-and-sport/brittany-ferries-to-withdraw-cork-santander-service/

Hopefully CF will replace Kerry On Services to Roscoff and BilBao in 2021.

I wonder will we see a reaction from Irish Ferries or Stena to these developments.

I think the ferry operators you referenced wil almost certainly be looking on with great interest given that Irish Ferries parent company, Irish Continental Group (ICG) has had long established links to the continent through Rosslare Europort for quite a while. At various times over the years Irish Ferries operated Rosslare Le Havre, Rosslare Cherbourg and Rosslare Roscoff. Irish Ferries also had summer seasonal services ex-Cork Le Havre and ex-Cork Cherbourg which ran up until 1997 when it's two vessels "St. Killian II" and "St. Patrick II" were being replaced by the "MV Normandy" at the time. At present Irish Ferries only Ireland/France services for 2020 are it's Dublin Port to Cherbourg route. Stena Line currently has a Rosslare to Cherbourg service running X 3 times per week which was previously operated by the former Celtic Link ferries until around 2014.

There is nothing stopping any haulier using this service upon arrival in Cherbourg,

If hauliers find that Cherbourg becomes far too congested, particularly if the UK ends up crashing out if negotiations with the European Union stall and you are then into a "No Deal Brexit" scenario after December 31st. What then?

Perhaps hauliers might welcome an alternative entry/exit option to the region such as Le Havre as certain produce may only have a limited lifespan thus shortening it's shelf-life when it eventually goes on sale in stores. Add other complications like stormy weather conditions, tidal issues, technical problems with a particular vessel and all the knock-on effects of goods inspections/paperwork etc;   

Why on earth would Cherbourg become congested? In its heyday it had significantly more sailings and traffic than it has today and with the number of berths there and the standage space available there is plenty of scope to accept an increased number of sailings.
In a no deal scenario the limiting factor will be where the authorities deploy their resources and that choice will affect all the French (and UK) ports.

c'est vrai je suis de cherbourg avant il y avait les 2 bateaux p&o +  brittany ferries avait  le purbek et coutances pour le fret et corbière et tregastel pour les passagers +  irish ferries avait st killian et st patrick  et pandoro avec european diplomat pour l'irelande  + sealink southampton stena normandy pour passagers et stena challenger pour le fret 1996

Why on earth would Cherbourg become congested? In its heyday it had significantly more sailings and traffic than it has today and with the number of berths there and the standage space available there is plenty of scope to accept an increased number of sailings.
In a no deal scenario the limiting factor will be where the authorities deploy their resources and that choice will affect all the French (and UK) ports.

But we are not back in Cherbourg's heyday so; one cannot really expect things to just kick-start and run smoothly after all that time as that would be naive to assume! Do we even know yet if there is a new plan drafted and ready to run additional sailings or is this a rehash of the previous plans announced - if memory serves me correct the previous UK government administration awarded one contract worth £13.8 million to a firm, Seaborne Freight which had no vessels.

https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2019/feb/09/government-cancels-brexit-ferry-contract-with-no-ship-firm

It's a bit like saying the UK can handle Brexit because the UK left the European Union on 31st of January although; the UK is still bound by European Union rules and continues to pay into the EU budget etc; during the full transition period until 31st December. I would be surprised if they manage to agree a deal in time for the end of the transition period as this will be much more difficult that the EU Withdrawal Agreement which took far too long hence; my lack of confidence in their advance preparations.

On 1st January in the event that a "No Deal" on future trade situation arises with the EU 27 and if the authorities do not deploy their resources effectively enough, you could end up having prolonged delays at the ports, some of which may handle more business than others (albeit less than their "heyday") and if such delays were to become a common occurrence it would be of cold comfort to those hauliers transporting certain items such as perishable produce like fresh food which has a very limited shelf-life by the time it gets to the stores.

A legitimate concern to raise about a particular port(s) in a scenario that has not arisen before as no other "member state" has ever invoked Article 50 and withdrawn from the EU prior to the UK. Would it not perhaps make sense to spread the load to more port options to minimise potential delays...   

I can’t see either Stena or Irish Ferries leaving Cherbourg any time soon.  The livestock trade is quite important and Cherbourg has lairage space (unlike Le Havre to my knowledge).  Cherbourg is also soon getting a direct rail service to southern France - run by Brittany Ferries but it will take all trailer traffic - 42 trailers in both directions every day.  It’s also a shorter sea journey which means less fuel cost.

The Cap Finistere rumour seems to have stemmed in part from the rumour of Stena Superfast X becoming a France ship permanently (well she did in a way, but in this case it’s Marseille and Corsica) which was never going to happen.   With CF sharing a hull form suddenly she was going to sail to Rosslare in some people’s minds as she has successfully berthed in Le Havre of course and X at Rosslare.  There WAS a rumour that BF were going to do Rosslare - Le Havre rather than Roscoff at one stage with Kerry though.  Le Havre could still happen, but CF is hardly the ideal ship for a year-round service on that route.  There’s also the fuel penalty of sailing all the way to Le Havre rather than to Cherbourg or Roscoff. 

Additionally, Ireland doesn’t actually do that much trade with France in the grand scheme of things.  Belgium and Holland is a bigger market but there is a direct service (and potentially more to come) to there and the land bridge is quicker - even if accounting for a significant customs delay.  Ships only sail at around 20kts and have to go the long way round after all!  Is there the demand for another Ireland to France route given Irish Ferries for one seem to drop France first when they are a ship short?

If goods to and from Ireland continue to be treated the same way in France (why wouldn’t they?) there’s not really any reason there should be any issues at Cherbourg - the GB traffic will likely be segregated and held elsewhere to be checked and sealed.  Depending on what is agreed (and something will have to be, even if it’s a case of it being imposed by the WTO) it may be a case of everything being done in the U.K. anyway with French officials present if required (in the same way U.K. border force currently carry out checks in France).  The bigger worry for many will be checks between Ireland and Great Britain - there’s a heck of a lot of meat and produce shipped over to GB daily so checks could be a big blow to the rural economy.  The French have their own produce of course and enough to go around that BF was established to ship it to the U.K.!

As for the British Government contingency measures, those have been scaled back significantly.  The lorry park on the airfield appears to have been shelved, as has the concrete barriers on the motorway.  £50m is being invested in a retractable barrier, however.  The council at Ramsgate has withdrawn the funding for maintaining the ferry terminal afaik as well.  Current planning appears to be to provide additional capacity on existing services for essential items such as medicines should the worst case scenario occur.  To be fair there was only so much a few sailings out of Ramsgate could do - the problem will be customs check capacity rather than ship capacity!

I understand that Irish Road Haulage Association (IRHA) president, Verona Murphy during her term in office was part of a delegation that met with representatives at the Port of Le Havre with a view to exploring a Rosslare - Le Havre link some months ago with BREXIT looming. Verona was recently elected in Ireland's General Election as an "Independent" TD (member of Dáil Éireann) for the Wexford constituency so; I would imagine she will be representing various business interests in the south-east and Wexford which includes future potential links to/from Rosslare Europort.

I recall when the B+I Line withdrew it's Dublin to Liverpool route all those years ago to concentrate on it's Dublin Holyhead and Rosslare Pembroke Dock services, the Dublin Liverpool route was eventually resumed by another operator (now P&O Ferries) and has been running for many years to date. I think the Dublin Liverpool fell out of favour with B+I Line partly because it was a longer crossing than Dublin Holyhead although; there must still a business case to operate the route as otherwise no operator would continue to run a loss making service unless it qualifies for a subsidy of some kind?

Perhaps a Rosslare/Cork to Le Havre service will reopen some day too if the UK landbridge is no longer a viable option after 31st December in the event of no deal or extension of a transition period and transport becomes necessary via the continent directly going forward.

Le Havre and Zeebrugge specifically mentioned as possible new route options being considered ex-Rosslare Europort although; other European ports have not been ruled out as Rosslare Europort has been in negotiations with various shipping lines about it's potential as a gateway to Europe and to the UK," according to Mr Glenn Carr, general manager of Rosslare Europort on the same day (Friday 28th February 2020) that Brittany Ferries launched it's inaugural sailing from Rosslare to Bilbao.

This is the first time Brittany Ferries ran any of it's services from Rosslare, Co. Wexford as it has been only using the Port of Cork's ferry terminal since it first began offering passenger/freight services from Ireland which dates back to 1978.

Unfortunately, the Rosslare Europort/Irish Rail website does not seem to reflect the arrival of Brittany Ferries as a new operator and the website still displays Irish Ferries former routes to both Cherbourg & Roscoff which were axed from Rosslare since 2018!

On Saturday 21st March services will resume on the long established Cork to Roscoff route on Brittany Ferries flagship cruise vessel, MV Pont Aven which will run until late October.

Below is latest speculation regarding a potential Rosslare - Le Havre route with Brittany Ferries... 

A second line for Brittany Ferries departing from the port of Le Havre?
In the midst of the Brexit context, the company is working on the subject, and is considering turning to Ireland.

https://static.actu.fr/uploads/2021/01/brittany-ferries-ligne-le-havre-irlande-brexit.jpg
Brittany Ferries is considering the possibility of opening a line between Ireland and Le Havre. (? MC Nouvellon / 76actu)

By MC Nouvellon
Published on 14 Jan 21 at 8:14
"We are in discussions with the commercial services of the Grand Maritime Port of Le Havre" , confirmed Jean-Marc Roue. Asked about the development possibilities towards Ireland l ors of its recent passage through the ocean city , the president of Brittany Ferries explained that the company plancied on the hypothesis of the creation of a second line from Le Havre, already connected to Portsmouth, England.

This time around, it would be a matter of turning "probably to Rosslare" during the year 2021. All with "one ship affected, so probably more than one rotation" per week.

A track opened by Brexit
This would be the third line that Brittany Ferries would charter to Ireland. A long-term reflection, consequence of Brexit, whose border reestablishment has cut off the route of goods that previously passed between France and Ireland via the United Kingdom.

Faced with the changes announced on this "long bridge" circuit which "risked being a little compromised, or put in difficulty", details Jean-Marc Roue, the company had already announced the establishment of a weekly link between Rosslare and Cherbourg. The Le Havre trail is therefore now under study.

Courtesy: actu.fr
Source:
https://actu.fr/normandie/le-havre_76351/la-brittany-ferries-envisage-de-rouvrir-une-ligne-entre-le-havre-et-l-irlande_38678745.html