P&O Ferries, a subsidiary of DP World owned by the UAE government based in Dubai, has announced plans to close the Dublin-Liverpool route towards the end of the year, reports RTE News.

The Irish Sea route connecting the Irish capital to Merseyside in north-west England will be axed due to the unavailability of a berth in the city for next year, the company said.

"Without agreement with the port owner to provide a berth in Liverpool, it is impossible for P&O Ferries to continue operating on this route" it said in a statement.  

(Afloat adds the port on Merseyside is operated by the Peel Port Group, the UK's second largest ports operator).

"Extensive negotiations with the owner of our Liverpool site to extend our lease at the port or find an alternative site for our Liverpool-Dublin service to operate from have been unsuccessful.

"P&O Ferries is committed to serving our Irish Sea customers and has explored all options to continue sailing on this route".

"Unfortunately, despite the utmost efforts by P&O Ferries to find a viable solution, no suitable alternative has been offered that would enable us to maintain the current service into 2024.

"We are saddened by our forced withdrawal from this route, which will reduce competition and the choice of sailings available to customers on a crossing where there is currently only one alternative operator."

The route which is P&O's only service between the Republic of Ireland and the UK is served by twin ropax ferries, Norbank (as seen above in Dublin Port) and Norbay.

Together, the 17,464 gross tonnage ropax ferries make 24 sailings a week on the 8 hour route that is mainly used to transport freight with each vessel carrying 125 trailer units.

In addition the ropax vessels carry motorist-only based passengers with up to a 114 capacity that includes provision for 12 accompanied freight truck drivers.

The Dover headquartered, P&O intends to redeploy the ropax twins on other routes of the company's network which includes freight only routes on the North Sea (see story) between the UK and mainland Europe. Afloat adds in addition, P&O operate passenger/freight routes on the North Channel route of Larne-Cairnryan (see 50th anniversary), Dover-Calais and Hull-Rotterdam.

"We are now beginning a consultation process with our employees affected by the intended closure of this service," it said.

"We will offer support to affected colleagues to find alternative employment within our business, or where that is not possible, help to find employment elsewhere.

"We have also worked to ensure that where possible our customers affected by the intended closure of the Liverpool-Dublin route can access alternative services with other operators.

"We remain fully committed to serving customers on our Irish Sea crossing between our ports in Larne and Cairnryan, where we recently celebrated our 50th year of operations, and on our network around the UK."

RTE News which has much more here on the development including the response of politicians and hauliers as the President of the Irish Road Haulage Association said he is "saddened" by the announcement about the end of the Ireland-UK route.

For further coverage of the closure from a UK perspective, the Liverpool Echo reports on the historic Irish Sea route which in March 2022 formed part of the controversial mass sacking by P&O of almost 800 seafarers and staff.

In January this year, Afloat reported the switch of terminals within Dublin Port between P&O Ferries and rivals Seatruck, which was acquired in November 2022 by the giant ro-ro operator, CLdN, based in landlocked Luxembourg.