Utilizing Brexit, the Axis connecting Cherberg with Ireland tripled its attendance within a year. In 2021, 100,000 trailers passed through the port of Cotentin, up from 34,000 a year earlier.

Trailer traffic between Cherberg (Channel) and Ireland has tripled in one year. Brexit learned this Thursday from a French port that the direct axis between France and Ireland was “more competitive” than that passing through England. As a result, “in 2021, Port Cherberg recruited 7 dockers on permanent contracts and 12 on permanent contracts. Combined with the quality of their work and the development of traffic, it will be possible to make their contracts permanent in 2022,” a press release said. Port.

“From January 1, 2021, the port of Cherbourg has tripled the Ro-Ro traffic between France and Ireland, from 33,888 trailers by the end of December 2020 to 100,000 by the end of December 2021,” the port states. The number of unattended trailers has doubled (from 20 to about 45,000), the press release said.

17 hours crossing

The port had announced in February 2021 that it would triple the number of trailer traffic in January 2021 compared to January 2020. But Ole Bockmann, head of Irish ferry operations in France, described the jump as “temporary”. About ten dockers were in training that day, along with forty regular dockers.

The port of Cherbourg “offers one of the shortest maritime routes between Ireland and the mainland, with an average crossing time of 17:00”, which is about six hours longer than joining England’s Kalais, say communicators. Three companies offer connections between Cherberg, Rosler or Dublin: Stena Line, Irish ferries and Brittany ferries.

Cherbourg is in competition with other ports. The Danish company DFDS is offering a line between Ireland, Dunkirk and Brittany ferries departing from Roskof. Prior to Brexit, the “UK Route” between the Republic of Ireland and the European Union used 150,000 lorries each year.