Guest 675- Registered: 30 Jun 2008
- Posts: 1,610
Over the last ten years there has been a steady decline in the number of cars (ie tourists) using Dover. The addition of a route to Boulogne, with a large capacity, has to be good news for the ferries and, hopefully, good news for Dover.
Politics, it seems to me, for years, or all too long, has been concerned with right or left instead of right or wrong.
Richard Armour
Guest 641- Registered: 12 Mar 2008
- Posts: 2,335
Boulogne has got so much for tourists and visitors alike, the 'Sealife' centre, if I remember it goes by the name of Nausica, the old town, fish market, shopping and lots more. I'm certainly looking forward to next year
Great picture there PaulB, I'm glad I don't live opposite you, with your telescopic lens, I'll have to keep me curtains closed. lol!
Guest 673- Registered: 16 Jun 2008
- Posts: 1,388
Quote: "Over the last ten years there has been a steady decline in the number of cars (ie tourists) using Dover."
Although car figures are marginally lower than ten years ago, the Port of Dover figures show a steady increase since 2004, attributed to tourists abandoning the low cost airlines due to all the delays at the airports and the restrictions on luggage. Much more importantly, freight has increased exponentially and freight is the lifeblood of the ferries.
This year has shown a downturn in all categories of traffic - up until the channel tunnel fire since when freight and coach figures have increased spectacularly. It now appears that the damage to the tunnel is much greater than that sustained in the 1996 fire and may take six months to repair. What the future holds, with the financial meltdown, who can say?
Quote: "The addition of a route to Boulogne, with a large capacity, has to be good news for the ferries and, hopefully, good news for Dover."
Good news for Dover. A full freight, tourist and footie service to Boulogne. Also the possibility of a daily service to Dieppe next year, and potentially to Ostend some time in the future.
Bad news for the existing ferry companies. May be the last straw for SpeedFerries and will take a great deal of traffic from P&O and SeaFrance. Norfolk Line may be relatively unaffected, running to Dunkerque. Their carryings have increased this year as opposed to the general decrease.
howard mcsweeney1- Location: Dover
- Registered: 12 Mar 2008
- Posts: 62,352
thanks for info andrew, i did wonder how they would berth the aquitaine there.
paul
the original press release clearly said the "western docks".
ed
would be nice to have a service to dieppe from here, some very interesting places to visit locally there,
i would imagine an overnight stay would be required though.
Guest 649- Registered: 12 Mar 2008
- Posts: 14,118
Guest 675- Registered: 30 Jun 2008
- Posts: 1,610
Sorry to disagree here Ed but DHB's own published figures show a steady decrease in car traffic every year over the last ten years. Lorries have increased over the same period.
Politics, it seems to me, for years, or all too long, has been concerned with right or left instead of right or wrong.
Richard Armour
Guest 673- Registered: 16 Jun 2008
- Posts: 1,388
Hi Chris
I am going by the figures on the DHB site which state in respect of tourist cars:
2004 - 2,506,667
2005 - 2,554,772
2006 - 2,647,060
2007 - 2,837,559
http://www.doverport.co.uk/?page=AnnualTrafficStatisticsGuest 675- Registered: 30 Jun 2008
- Posts: 1,610
Thanks for that Ed, I've just had to sort out that pile I call my filing system. So to complete the picture from DHB's Annual Report and Accounts 2007.
1997 - 3,558,335
1998 - 3,300,283
1999 - 3,003,364
2000 - 2,594,824
2001 - 2,554,931
2002 - 2,632,182
2003 - 2,581,573
Over the same ten year period the number of vessels entering the port (those that then carry the cars, lorries and agregates - which are on the increase but those vessels do not carry vehicles) has gone from 28,329 in 1997 to 23,148 in 2007.
So, back to my point, a vessel carrying 700 cars to Boulogne is good news and we can hope that it gets them back to 1997 levels.
Politics, it seems to me, for years, or all too long, has been concerned with right or left instead of right or wrong.
Richard Armour
Guest 673- Registered: 16 Jun 2008
- Posts: 1,388
Interesting that the number of vessels entering port has reduced by 5,000 movements, that equates to three or four ferries entering five times a day. Presumably reflects the massive increase in ferry size with the introduction of such as the Maersk D's and the Berlioz/Rodin vis a vis the earlier generation such as the Cambria/Manet etc. Whatever, there is major congestion at the Eastern Entrance at different times of the day as ferries wait for their turn to enter. The limiting factor is that they all need to swing in the same bit of water off the end of the piers. This is why DHB wants to build Terminal 2 in the Western Docks although there must be a big question mark over whether this will ever happen now.
The car figure is fairly irrelevant, it is freight that matters. The Norman Spirit is the old Aquitaine, ex Prins Filip, and carries a mix of trucks and cars. LD will be hoping that it is mostly freight as that is what pays the bills, her capacity is 110 trucks. They expect to carry 120,000 trucks and 133,000 cars in the first year. As each truck takes the space of three cars, the ferry should be about three quarters full of trucks and one quarter cars.
I imagine most of this will be taken from competitors as Boulogne would seem too close to Calais to generate new traffic. The single daily run to Dieppe envisaged for the New Year may well generate new traffic. If this comes off, it will be conducted by the Cote d'Albatre, one of the Transmanche Newhaven-Dieppe ferries. She conducted berthing trials on the Eastern Arm a few months ago.
Were car figures to rise, it would not seem to be of much value to Dover. They all drive straight past all the derelict and crumbling buildings direct to the docks, who wouldn't? A downmarket supermarket (super downmarket?) is hardly likely to entice them to tarry a while, if indeed it ever comes to fruition.
Size comparison Maersk Delft and SeaFrance Manet:
http://shipsintheportofdover.fotopic.net/c1416310.html
Pride of Aquitaine (Norman Spirit) when last in Dover:
http://shipsintheportofdover.fotopic.net/c1059794.html
Cote d'Albatre conducting berthing trials on ED1 on the Eastern Arm:
http://shipsintheportofdover.fotopic.net/c1470384.html
Pierre Gehanne (chairman of LD lines) blog - surprisingly informative, not something Dovorians are used to!
http://ldlines.com/blog/Guest 675- Registered: 30 Jun 2008
- Posts: 1,610
Always been one of my points Ed. "Oh look a supermarket," is not much of an add for the town and the published design makes no effort to look anything but functional.
Politics, it seems to me, for years, or all too long, has been concerned with right or left instead of right or wrong.
Richard Armour
Ross Miller
- Location: London Road, Dover
- Registered: 17 Sep 2008
- Posts: 3,695
Ed thanks for the photos
M Gehanne's blog is a pleasant surprise from the sort of guff we get from DHB, P&O Sea France etc
"Dream as if you'll live forever. Live as if you'll die today." - James Dean
"Being deeply loved by someone gives you strength,
While loving someone deeply gives you courage" - Laozi
howard mcsweeney1- Location: Dover
- Registered: 12 Mar 2008
- Posts: 62,352
do not forget we will have a nice new hotel with conference facilities to replace the concrete blob we have at present.
the DTIZ is not all bad news.
Guest 640- Registered: 21 Apr 2007
- Posts: 7,819
Yes we cannot have a development that caters for tourists/ vistors only. It would lie there defunct for most of the year, for nine months of the year. We need something fully functional for the whole year and for local people primarily, hence the supermarket, it will add life to the current no-go zone.
The Hotel will have lots of vistors, do up the underpass and these visitors can be merrily frolicking away on the beach in no time at all.
Guest 663- Registered: 20 Mar 2008
- Posts: 1,136
Well lets hope we don't have to wait to long but the sailings to boulogne are good news.
