Tens of thousands of ferry passengers travelling home from Britain this Christmas could be facing travel chaos, with fears Holyhead repairs will not be ready for the festive rush.
The port has been closed due to damage caused during Storm Darragh.
Passenger diversions and a reliance on alternative ports with reduced facilities are all factors that are set to cause chaos later this week, with around 150,000 passengers hoping to travel on the Holyhead to Dublin route in the days leading up to Christmas.
The Government is considering asking ports which are set up solely to carry freight to put in place temporary facilities to be able to carry passengers, the Irish Independent understands.
Junior transport minister James Lawless will meet stakeholders, such as Irish Rail and the Irish Road Haulage Association (IRHA) this morning before meeting representatives of ferry companies Stena and Irish Ferries this afternoon.
It is up to ports and ferries to provide additional capacity in order to ease the backlog created by the closure at Holyhead port.
There also are labour issues at some ports, it is understood.
It is hoped extra spaces in locations such as Larne and Birkenhead, near Liverpool, will provide additional capacity.
An urgent rule change by the Department of Transport over the weekend saw Irish hauliers allowed to drive more and rest less in the run-up to Christmas, but industry sources say this is not a sustainable solution.
They predict “bedlam” later this week as diversions and sharply increasing passenger numbers will all come to a head.
Junior transport minister James Lawless. Photo: Steve Humphreys
The four ferries which usually operate the Holyhead to Dublin route are all booked to capacity with passengers and cars for each of its four-to-six daily sailings from Thursday, December 19, onwards.
It is hoped Holyhead will reopen by Thursday – but there are no guarantees the repairs will meet that deadline.
With the port unlikely to get the green light to open, thousands of cars are now set to reroute to different ports in Britain to travel home to Ireland.
At the moment, frustrated ferry customers are being rerouted to Birkenhead and are arriving into Belfast instead of Dublin, creating a longer ferry journey and major transport diversions for passengers.
A spokesperson for Irish Ferries said they have also increased capacity on the Pembroke/Rosslare route.
Holyhead would have processed 1,000 freight trailers a day. This is almost impossible to reroute around the UK without a build-up
Pembroke Port is on the southern west tip of Wales and is over a four-hour drive – or over 300km – from Holyhead in Anglesey, north Wales. Rosslare in Co Wexford is just over a two-hour drive to Dublin – 156km.
The two ferry companies based in Holyhead, Stena Line and Irish Ferries, are now facing a headache with their alternative port options for both passengers and freight.
Pembroke Dock is not big enough to facilitate the number of passengers expected to travel and Fishguard, another port in Wales, only has one scheduled sailing to Dublin a day.
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Neither port is serviced to the standard of Holyhead for passengers.
They are facing a similar challenge with freight, as neither Cairnryan Port in Scotland or Birkenhead suit the practice of drop-trailer deliveries, and only take accompanied freight.
This will not suit hauliers who need to drop their containers at the port.
“Holyhead would have processed 1,000 freight trailers a day. This is almost impossible to reroute around the UK without a build-up,” an industry source told the Irish Independent.
“Operation Stacked means efforts are being made to reroute ferries and to increase staffing hours, but it is only going to cause chaos as we get closer to Christmas.
“We are lucky in that the weather has been reasonably calm this week and it’s kept everything ticking.
“Minister James Lawless is only being told a small part of the story. It is expected to be bedlam in the coming days.”
We must count Holyhead out. Now, we have this mayhem and very tight lines to get the capacity
The minister met with Welsh transport secretary Ken Skates yesterday evening to “explore all possible solutions to this problem through the use of alternative Welsh port”.
Transport Minister Eamon Ryan is also due to hold a meeting with British transport secretary Heidi Alexander this week.
Meanwhile, representatives of the IRHA are due to meet Mr Ryan and Mr Lawless today.
IRHA president Eugene Drennan said he now expects “trouble for the freight”, as passenger numbers swell in the lead-up to Christmas and they are rerouted to other ports in Britain.
“We must count Holyhead out. Now, we have this mayhem and very tight lines to get the capacity,” he said.
“It’s almost Christmas. Passengers and people with children have to get priority, but they should have more ships on the lines and the ports should be working overtime. Only for the hauliers’ association, we’d be in total disarray. We upped the ante all week to force the Irish Government into meeting us.”
Eugene Drennan of the Irish Road Haulage Association
An Post has said the parcel backlog due to the port closure is now down to the last 16,000 parcels, which are currently en route.
However, Mr Drennan said this did not reflect the seriousness of the issue with the supply line.
“If it’s on this side of the water, it’ll be delivered, but they [An Post] are not the link between Ireland and England. We are, the ship is and the fishing lines are,” he said.
“An Post has delivered what has arrived, but they can’t deliver it if it doesn’t come.”
Owner of Travel Extra, Eoghan Corry, said: “I don’t have any faith that Holyhead will reopen on Friday. Even if it does reopen, we have two ferry companies using the same berths.
“Under normal circumstances, at Christmas, we’d see 33,000 cars using that route. That’s around 100,000 passengers in cars and another 40,000 to 50,000 foot passengers.
“A large number of those passengers are carrying a lot of bags and presents. People take the ferry and the car, as they’re able to carry things that Ryanair wouldn’t allow on board.
From an air point of view, there’s no real remedy there to offer additional capacity
“People will have to use another ferry route, which looks increasingly likely. And it’s quite a distance to drive to alternative routes. So this is quite an inconvenience for around 100,000 passengers over the Christmas period.
“The ferry capacity is there. It’s the port capacity that’s the problem. And Holyhead is the second-busiest port in the UK.
“I expect the ferry companies to deal with capacity, but the real issue is not being able to use Holyhead as a convenient port.
“The main thing is don’t panic. The ferry company is obligated to get you there. They’ll offer an alternative route, or refund.”
Mr Corry said some passengers could consider flying but he reminded people there is a passenger cap.
He suggested Belfast being another route for people to fly into if they encounter any issues.
“From an air point of view, there’s no real remedy there to offer additional capacity,” he added.
He expected the busiest days for travel to be December 22 and December 27.
Responding, a spokesperson for Ryanair highlighted the ongoing passenger cap issue, which they said “has effectively blocked airlines from adding further seasonal routes for winter 2024”.
Aer Lingus was also contacted for a response.
A spokeswoman for the Department of Transport said that “all efforts were being made in the background to resolve the problems associated with Holyhead’s closure”.
She added that a substantial backlog in freight had been cleared and all efforts will be put into ensuring everything is done to help freight and passengers travel this Christmas.