Ferry links Dover Strait and Transmed

Keeping up to date with changes in European ferry services could be a full-time job these days. We used P&O Ferries for a crossing from Calais to Dover last week, and very fine it was too. A lovely crossing on a crisp, clear winter day as foot passengers on the Pride of Burgundy. P&O have had a monopoly on the short-sea route since the demise of Sea France in November. But this week comes news that LD Lines and DFDS will début on the route on 17 February. No doubt the Thomas Cook European Rail Timetable will include the new operators in an upcoming issue. Whether LD Lines and DFDS are as accommodating to foot passengers as P&O we shall have to wait and see. On their Ramsgate to Ostend route, LD will not accept foot passengers. Nor will DFDS on the Dover to Dunkerque service.

Meanwhile, the February edition of Cook’s European reports on changes in Mediterranean shipping. Grimaldi Lines has amended its ferry service from Livorno (Italy) to Tanjah (Morocco), so that the intermediate stop is now at Barcelona rather than Valencia. The revised service is incorporated into an enhanced Table 2580 in the February Cook’s timetable.

But the Grimaldi flag will still fly in Valencia, with the Italian shipping operator launching a new route for 2012 from Valencia to Salerno with an en-route stop at Cagliari in Sardinia. The new service features as a new table — numbered 2662 — in the European Timetable.