Luxembourg based CLdN Ro-Ro has launched a further Atlantic Corridor route and a direct Portugal/Ireland link. The weekly service sails from Leixoes, near Oporto, each Friday arriving in Dublin on Monday morning. The vessel, initially the M.V. Clementine, later sails to Liverpool arriving that evening. She sails from there on Tuesday to Dublin from where she leaves on Wednesday for Leixoes arriving there on Friday morning.
The 2300 lane metre Clementine will carry a mix of trailer and container cargo and the launch of the new service builds on the success of CLdN in developing significant cargo volumes between Portugal and Ireland using existing services transshipping at Zeebrugge.
Following the new service introduction, the current schedule for the Santander/Liverpool/Dublin service has been altered taking out the second Dublin/Liverpool round trip. This will allow more slack in the schedule and enable sailings to keep on time meeting the challenges of the Bay of Biscay in winter. As the vessels being used on the Santander and Leixoes services are similar, the capacity availability on the Dublin/Liverpool service will remain the same.
Commenting on the new service, a CLdN spokesman said: “There is a real threat of disruption on the channel routes, as was demonstrated last year with the false Brexit dates and earlier this year during the COVID-19 crisis. Seeing as goods will have more of an administrative burden when using land bridge solutions, coupled with the British Government’s desire to promote unaccompanied solutions going forwards, we anticipate direct European Union trade between Iberia and Ireland, linking into Liverpool, UK will offer environmental benefits and be less prone to disruptions or interruptions as seen on the short straights.”
Also, on the Dublin/Liverpool route P & O Ferries is operating a schedule with up to four sailings each way on certain days of the week, while Seatruck is now running up to three times on the route. The Seatruck Panorama which, up to 3 September, covered a fourth daily Dublin/Liverpool rotation as required, has been chartered to Stena Line to add capacity on its Liverpool/Belfast service. Howard Knott