There appears to be no further news re fleet movements,

Was looking through Ferries 2016 and noticed TT Lines Twins Peter Pan and Nils Holgersson would be very suitable for Dublin - Holyhead and Dublin - Cherbourg

171 Trailers - 744 Passengers 600 Cabin Berths.

Lovely vessels. They'd look great on the Irish Sea. They look a bit older than they are! They have that practical shape, something that I like about the Isle of Inishmore. Plenty of lane meters as well. 

Any indications as to how much extra traffic the Swift had picked up in the absence of Explorer?

Irish Ferries have a delay in publicly publishing passenger stats but indications are that although far from all of the Dun Laoghaire passenger trade has transferred to the Dublin route, Stena's net loss is a no brainer compared to the savings from not operating the HSS and operating an additional port.  Getting rid of the HSS is clearly the no-brainer it looked.

HSS loads could have gone to Superfast X, Epsilon, Swift and the airlines.

Any indications as to how much extra traffic the Swift had picked up in the absence of Explorer?

Irish Ferries have a delay in publicly publishing passenger stats but indications are that although far from all of the Dun Laoghaire passenger trade has transferred to the Dublin route, Stena's net loss is a no brainer compared to the savings from not operating the HSS and operating an additional port.  Getting rid of the HSS is clearly the no-brainer it looked.

This is off topic a bit but just in reply to PaddyL.  The reasons why HSS Explorer was withdrawn are clear and obvious (although obviously sad).  The reasons she wasn't replaced a few years ago and Stena left Dun Laoghaire and surrendered that share to IF and the airlines are a seperate matter.  More to it than cashflow & never forget the importance of market share in a competitive marketplace and nobody is more than surprised than ICG Plc at being given this share gift.

Pete

Pete

Any indications as to how much extra traffic the Swift had picked up in the absence of Explorer?

Irish Ferries have a delay in publicly publishing passenger stats but indications are that although far from all of the Dun Laoghaire passenger trade has transferred to the Dublin route, Stena's net loss is a no brainer compared to the savings from not operating the HSS and operating an additional port.  Getting rid of the HSS is clearly the no-brainer it looked.

This is off topic a bit but just in reply to PaddyL.  The reasons why HSS Explorer was withdrawn are clear and obvious (although obviously sad).  The reasons she wasn't replaced a few years ago and Stena left Dun Laoghaire and surrendered that share to IF and the airlines are a seperate matter.  More to it than cashflow & never forget the importance of market share in a competitive marketplace and nobody is more than surprised than ICG Plc at being given this share gift.

Pete

Pete

The loss in market share has been minimal for Stena going by their figures (which is what Paddy is saying), after all the HSS was making a single round trip for part of the year and even then was nowhere near capacity.  As for ICG being surprised, I highly doubt it.  The withdrawal of the HSS has been on the cards for some time, and well known about within the industry.  ICG have been waiting for Explorer to be withdrawn for years. 

I'd say withdrawing a craft which cost a small fortune to run and which year on year has been carrying less traffic for some time was a no brainer as well.  You make a huge assumption that running another craft from Dun Laoghaire would be profitable/viable.  in any case, it makes commercial sense to consolidate the operation to one port and two (potentially three) conventional vessels.  As I have said before, you only need to look at the decline in fast craft numbers in Northern European waters to see that these craft make less and less sense as time goes on.  If Stena wanted to add another ship, then it makes more sense for them to do so from the same port rather than continuing with a split operation with one of the ports being less than ideal for their core traffic. 

With regard to ICG, time will tell with what happens.   I'd suggest though that speculation as to suitable tonnage should go in its own thread, rather than here.

Damn, off topic again but I'll be brief and won't post about this again!

For clarity, nobody was surprised that HSS was withdrawn obviously.  What ICG were surprised by was that she wasn't replaced (whatever port that was to). Three years ago the business was all about consolidation but not now.  Have to think like a PLC (or indeed a sphere!).  Growth can either be organic or manufactured, when the two come together then shareholders are happy.  Cashflow can wait - all about the share.   

From the horses mouth the worry within the markets is that while Stena and IF have their Mexican standoff, they get sideswiped by another operator who lets say is in an expansionist frame of mind and is willing to throw money to build share.  Expect one of the duopoly to blink and the other to follow sharpish sooner than you think.

No assumptions.  When in doubt, ask a stockbroker and a shipping corporate man

Pete

Makes sense as last year Oscar had a bad xmas cancelling on a large number of occasions on the Rosslare Pembroke route Inishmore was away for a long period last year. On the southern corridor the Inishmore will ensure people can get home in both directions for the xmas period. Ensures a reliable service for freight to. But using Oscar up North it should retain a reliable service if Swift cant sail due to weather plus the southern corridor tends to be the rougher of the two routes.

Irish Ferries Christmas and New Year Sailing Schedule differs from other years.

Isle of Inishmore Continues on Rosslare - Pembroke service until it takes up Holyhead - Dublin service @ 240 AM on Monday 4 th January 2016,

The Dublin - Holyhead service operates as follows

Dublin Holyhead Holyhead Dublin

0155     0525       0800      1120  Oscar Wilde Dec 20 21 22 23 24 28 to 31, Jan 2
0805     1130       1410      1725  Ulysses Dec 20 to Jan 3 Excl 25, 26 Dec , Isle of Inishmore 4 to 14 Jan
0815     1015       1150      1340  Swift Dec 24
0845     1050       1150      1340  Swift Dec 20 to Jan 17 Ex Dec 24 25 26 Jan 1
1100     1430                             Oscar Wilde Jan 3
1415     1745       2000      2330  Oscar Wilde Dec 20 21 22 23 24 27 to Jan 2
1430     1630       1715      1905  Swift Dec 20 to Jan 17 Ex Dec 24 25 26
1700     2030       2330      0300  Epsilon Dec 21 22
2055     0020       0240      0555  Ulysses Dec 20 to Jan 3 Excl 24, 25, 26 Dec, Isle of Inishmore 04 to 15 Jan,

Isle of inishmore operates Pembroke 1445 Rosslare 1846 03 Jan 2015 and then repositions to Holyhead to
take over from Ulysses on 0240 Holyhead Dublin 0555 Sailing, Ulysses proceeds to Liverpool for drydocking.

Oscar Wilde operates Dublin 1100 Holyhead 1430 03 Jan 2015 and the then repositions to Rosslare to take over Rosslare 2045 Pembroke 0045 sailing on 03 January 2015 and operates until Pembroke 0245 Rosslare 0645 on Friday 29th January 2016 before routing to Falmouth for drydocking,

Epsilon operates Dublin 1530 Cherbourg 1130 on 02 , 9 , 16, 23, 30 Jan 2016

This of course could be modified slightly

Interesting times.

Friday 16:30 Swift only half way across Irish Sea, a bit windy out.
Saturday 24/10/15 20:55 Ulyssess sailing delayed until 23:30 for technical reason?
Anyone got infor on this?
On my last post I mentioned that I tried to book the14:30 Swift for the 1st Nov (sail/rail) both the web and a call to reservations said it was full. I then booked Stena for the same trip, but looking at IF site today it now has availability for the same date.

Friday 16:30 Swift only half way across Irish Sea, a bit windy out.
Saturday 24/10/15 20:55 Ulyssess sailing delayed until 23:30 for technical reason?
Anyone got infor on this?
On my last post I mentioned that I tried to book the14:30 Swift for the 1st Nov (sail/rail) both the web and a call to reservations said it was full. I then booked Stena for the same trip, but looking at IF site today it now has availability for the same date.

Yes, I think I posted somewhere else that the 14:30 seemed to be available yesterday.  Odd, perhaps some gremlins in the booking system.

Regarding the seasonal timetable, I would have thought it would have made more sense to continue the practice of moving IoI north to operate against Adventurer and SFX.  Has there been a shortage of vehicle deck space on the southern corridor? 

Regarding the seasonal timetable, I would have thought it would have made more sense to continue the practice of moving IoI north to operate against Adventurer and SFX.  Has there been a shortage of vehicle deck space on the southern corridor?

Oscar cancelled too many times over the last few years, not worth swapping Inishmore out I would think.

Oscar Wilde lost a lot of sailings last year

On my last post I mentioned that I tried to book the14:30 Swift for the 1st Nov (sail/rail) both the web and a call to reservations said it was full. I then booked Stena for the same trip, but looking at IF site today it now has availability for the same date.

The sailing you mentioned will be busy as it's the end of the mid-term break.

As long as there are refundable tickets sold and people have an incentive to inform the shipping company that they won't be travelling on the intended date, passengers' plans do change so spaces will become available before again being resold. 

I remember once buying a well discounted refundable Stenaline ticket months ahead of a popular travel time.  Sure enough the boat was eventually booked out well before the sailing date.  Our plans then changed.  It wasn't long after we got our refund that the space we'd made available was snapped up again.  Sail n Rail ticket prices don't increase, so if there's just one of you travelling and you're happy to keep re-checking availability a couple of times a day, you'll probably get your space.  Preferable to a 4 hour sailing in my book anyway.

Ulysses sailing 08.05 and return at 14.10 cancelled Ulysses must be getting some work done or a maybe a survey.