Hull to Zeebrugge ferry service needs to be restored – Yorkshire Post Letters

AS the country returns to something approaching normality, and holiday travel restarts in earnest, I am disappointed to see no interest in the rapid reinstatement of the Hull to Zeebrugge ferry.

Before its unseemly abandonment this year it had, for around 60 years, provided direct passage between GB and Europe that avoided a tortuous journey via the M25 or a long haul from the South Coast for freight and passenger traffic.

Arriving in Hull, it brought trade and tourism directly into the region as well as being the only ferry passenger route between England and Belgium.

Why are the appropriate local bodies, including Transport for the North and the Northern Powerhouse Partnership, not actively engaged in its rapid reinstatement? Surely, such a project should be enshrined in the ‘levelling up’ agenda coming from Westminster?

Perhaps P&O could be encouraged to transfer one of its vessels used on the Rotterdam service onto the Zeebrugge route.

If not, then surely the appropriate regional bodies should be engaged in urgent serious discussions with other shipping companies such as DFDS and Stena? They need to be incentivised to reopen the route before the end of 2021.

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