Dorset bids farewell to Barfleur ferry
Ferry Online Travel News 22/12/2009
Brittany Ferries to sail from Portsmouth to Spain
The English town of Dorset will soon be losing the Barfleur cross-Channel ferry, which has been operating there for the past 17 years. While once very popular, the falling cost of flight tickets and a number of other factors have meant mean that less and less people are using the service to cross the Channel to France, making the ferry virtually redundant.
It has been revealed by Brittany Ferries that the Barfleur ferry, which sails between Poole and Cherbourg, has been losing money since 2003. In order to stop haemorrhaging money, the company has made the tough decision to discontinue this service in the spring of 2010.
However, Brittany Ferries also announced that they have purchased a new £75 million ferry, which will sail on the route from Portsmouth to northern Spain.
Mr Parker is the vice chairman of the Poole and Cherbourg management committee. In a recent interview he commented that: "Poole and Cherbourg have been twin towns for almost 30 years and it will have a cultural impact. This is [also] a bitter disappointment for the economy of both towns with a loss of tourism trade. We are totally devastated to lose the Barfleur - 80% of the passengers who travelled on it were from the UK."
According to Brittany Ferries spokesman Stephen Tuckwell, the company has been working hard to come up with news way to serve its passengers and buy ships for propular routes.
However, anyone who wants to set sail on the Barfleur ferry only has a few more months to make this journey from Dorset to France.
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