JERSEY’s new ferry services provider has released a “provisional” timetable while it works to finalise its planned sailings for next summer – with the full schedules now expected to be published at the start of next year.
In an update issued this afternoon, DFDS said it was still in discussions with a number of ports – including Poole, Portsmouth and Saint-Malo – as it looked to firm-up arrival and departure times across its routes.
The Danish shipping giant, which has won the tender for the Island’s freight and passenger ferry services, had previously stated its intention to release its summer timetable by the end of last week.
“We understand that Islanders want to see the new timetable as soon as possible and we are working with all stakeholders to finalise departure and arrival times for all our routes to and from the Island,” the operator said in this afternoon’s statement.
It explained that it was providing a “provisional” timetable to give Islanders “an idea of what the summer timetable will look like”, adding that it expected to release the finalised set of schedules in the beginning of the new year.
Chris Parker, DFDS’s route director for Jersey, said: “We appreciate that everyone is keen to learn about the schedules, and we are working to get this done as quickly as possible.”
He continued: “Our focus is the get the schedules right and we want to make sure that we consider all the diverse needs of the island for both passenger and freight transport, as wells as the operational dependencies of the ports we serve.”
The statement added that the schedules will be “subject to change once inter-island links have been decided upon”.
The “typical schedules” for July and August can be viewed below:
