Transport chiefs bid to make waves and keep ferry running

Transport bosses are to launch a major drive to drum up more business for the Rosyth-Zeebrugge ferry amid fears the route could be axed.

Hauliers, freight companies and politicians from Scotland and the continent are being invited to a summit in the autumn to find out what can be done to make the service more appealing and put it on a more stable footing.

Operator DFDS Seaways scrapped the passenger ferry route at the end of last year after taking over Norfolkline. Freight services were initially increased from three to four sailings a week, but have now been scaled it back down again, using one ship rather than two.

The company has denied claims it is running down the Rosyth service with a view to transferring it to Newcastle, where it already operates ferries to Amsterdam.

But it admitted it was looking for more business to keep the freight route going.

The autumn summit is being planned by regional transport body SEStran, whose partnership director Alex Macaulay said it was important to maintain Scotland's only direct ferry link to mainland Europe. He said the message was "use it or lose it".

He said: "We are aiming to set up a joint business-to-business, politician-to-politician session in the autumn in combination with colleagues in Flanders, where Zeebrugge is, and in partnership with the Scottish Government and Scottish Enterprise.

"We want to see if we can persuade more hauliers and freight-forwarders to make use of Rosyth rather than the alternative of driving 200 miles down to England.

"We are doing some research on the flow of goods out of Scotland, which should identify the potential for more freight to go via Rosyth."

He said one issue was the trend towards more unaccompanied trailers being sent on the ferry and whether arrangements could be set up between hauliers in Scotland and Flanders to assist that.

Scottish Liberal Democrat leader Willie Rennie, MSP for Mid-Scotland and Fife, voiced fears about the ferry's future. He said: "They have run down the service and there is a danger it will collapse. It's clear they have a conflict of interest because they run a similar service from another close-by port. It would be cheaper for them to run it all through Newcastle."

DFDS route operations director Allan Hull denied the company was running down the service. He said there had not been enough demand for four sailings a week and a 40 per cent increase in fuel prices had made the route more expensive to operate.

The company slowed the ferry down to a more economical speed, making the crossing 27 hours instead of the previous 20 hours, but that does not suit driver-accompanied lorries and the crossing time has been reduced again to 23 hours.

He said: "We are determined to keep it going with three sailings because we believe that is probably what is required to make it viable.

"The support we are seeing could be better in order to keep the service going. We keep looking for new customers and would like Scottish industry to get behind us."