EUROPE

Santander luke warm regarding shortsea initiative

21 years ago

The port authority of Santander has decided for the moment not to participate in a project to promote shortsea shipping links in the North Sea. A spokesperson for the authority explained that it had declined to join in the initiative given that the project was insufficiently developed.

However, future participation is not being ruled out.

The ports of Cherbourg, Rosslare, Poole, Ostend and Cuxhaven are nevertheless going ahead with the project, which will encompass six or seven sailings per week from each port, with the service composed of at least three vessels. Sources at Cherbourg have calculated that after three years, such as service could be carrying 120,000 semi-trailers per year. This would be the equivalent of transferring annually 1.8m tonnes from road to sea.

Significantly, at a recent meeting of the ports, Italian railway operator Trenitalia was also present, along with ferry companies Ferryways, Dalom, Celtic Ferries and Brittany Ferries.