New ferry services delayed

New ferry services delayed

The two vessels that are to ply the routes between Jersey and Carteret and from St Helier to Granville have not yet been approved by the French maritime safety authorities.The Gorey-Carteret service was due to start on Saturday and that from St Helier to Granville a few days later.The vessels still need final approval from the Paris-based Bureau du Contr?le des Navires and, as a result, the relevant safety certificates for the ferries have not yet been issued.

However, today an official naming ceremony for the ferries – the Victor Hugo and the Marin Marie – will go ahead as scheduled in Cherbourg.The ferry services are to be run by a subsidiary of Connex, the French transport company which operates the Island’s bus service.

Both ferries are scheduled to operate daily services during the summer months and run two or three times a week for the rest of the year.The new services are being introduced by the Conseil Général de la Manche in an effort to stem the decline in ferry traffic between Normandy and the Channel Islands, which in the last decade has fallen from 135,000 passengers a year to 39,500.

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