Irish and Welsh leaders pledge to review progress on Holyhead port closure in new year
Irish and Welsh leaders have agreed to review progress around repairing Holyhead port in the new year.
The busy ferry port in Anglesey, North Wales, was forced to close following damage during Storm Darragh and is not set to reopen until January 15 at the earliest.
All ferry services between Dublin and Holyhead are currently cancelled, upending travel plans for thousands in the festive season.
Irish premier Simon Harris spoke with First Minister of Wales Eluned Morgan on Friday about the impact of the ongoing closure of the port on the movement of both people and freight between Ireland and Great Britain.
Ongoing efforts
It is understood that both leaders acknowledged the ongoing efforts being made on both sides to ensure that people travelling home for Christmas are able to do so.
They also discussed the importance, in all scenarios, of ensuring sufficient port capacity to maintain the supply chains vital to both economies, and agreed to speak again in the New Year to review progress.
The Taoiseach said they spoke of the need to find workable alternatives while Holyhead remains closed.
“The closure of Holyhead port has caused a lot of heartache and disruption for people and traders this Christmas,” he said.
“I took the opportunity this afternoon to take stock of the situation with the First Minister of Wales, Eluned Morgan.
“We discussed the importance to both Wales and Ireland of ensuring sufficient port capacity to support vital supply chains between Ireland and the UK, and the need to find workable alternatives for as long as Holyhead remains out of commission.
“We expressed a shared wish to see Holyhead return to operation in January, and we agreed to speak again in early January to review matters at that point.”
Fishguard
On Friday afternoon it was confirmed that additional ferry services have been put in place to help deal with the closure of Holyhead Port until at least the middle of January.
Stena and Irish Ferries are setting up sailings at alternative ports, with Irish Ferries due to begin a new service from Fishguard later today (20 December).
The ferry companies are contacting their customers, and passengers are also being encouraged to check the ferry companies’ websites for the very latest information.
Cabinet Secretary for Transport and North Wales Ken Skates said: “I’d like to thank everyone for their efforts so far in working to ensure people can travel to and from Ireland.
“Both myself, the Cabinet Secretary for Economy, Energy and Planning and the First Minister continue to work closely in partnership with the Irish Government on this issue. There have been extensive efforts to bring everyone together to quickly and effectively find and implement solutions, also including the UK Government, the Metro Mayor for Liverpool and others.
“I understand how important it is for people to be able to travel home at this time of year, the ferry companies are delivering on alternative routes and I thank them for this. I would urge passengers to check the ferry websites to find the latest information on how they can travel.
“Partners such as Transport for Wales and local authorities have also been working to ensure smooth traffic flow to the alternative ports, as they will experience increased activity.
“I know the situation will have caused anxiety at this particular time of year, when travel to see loved ones is so important. I am grateful to all our partners who have made every effort to deal with this situation.”
Further information is available here:
Ferry to Ireland, France & Holland from UK | Stena Line
Ferry Travel To Ireland | Book Now | Irish Ferries
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Isn’t the port owned by a Scandinavian family.
This is an amazing opportunity to promote modal shift by replacing outdated and unacceptable car ferries with a narrative-changing pedalo hire scheme, transforming Holyhead port into a resilient and empathetic active travel gateway that is pro-NATO and anti bad things, in line with our values in today’s Wales. A minor royal might even give us an award for it.
Here is a video of the actual collapse.
You can see the Irish Ferries Vessel MV Ulysses is manoeuvring away and the stern of the 50,000 Tonnes vessel pushes into the Dolphin and the collapse results. Most likely exacerbated by storm force winds pushing on the ship from the other side, creating a pivot between the stern and the bow of the vessel. The forces must have been enormous.
https://uk.news.yahoo.com/holyhead-port-dolphin-collapses-incident-144458643.html
The MV Ulysses is the largest car ferry in the world!
She can carry 1342 cars and 2000 people. The total engine power is 31.5 megawatts, but most importantly for this incident, she has three bow thrusters but only one at the stern.
The winds speed at the time was horrendous gusting at over 80mph.
Blowing side on to the ship, I’m not sure any structure would have been up to it, why on earth would set sail in such strong winds?