{"id":7560,"date":"2026-02-10T06:31:10","date_gmt":"2026-02-10T06:31:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/7560\/"},"modified":"2026-02-10T06:31:10","modified_gmt":"2026-02-10T06:31:10","slug":"a-scotland-to-france-ferry-could-relaunch-under-35bn-regeneration-plan","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/7560\/","title":{"rendered":"A Scotland to France ferry could relaunch under \u00a335bn regeneration plan"},"content":{"rendered":"

A ferry<\/a> service directly linking Scotland<\/a> and France<\/a> could relaunch later this year as part of a \u20ac40 billion (\u00a335bn) regeneration project at the port<\/a> of Dunkirk.<\/p>\n

The prospective cargo and passenger route from Rosyth in Fife to Dunkirk in northern France<\/a> is part of a plan to regenerate the 60-year-old port area.<\/p>\n

It has been 16 years since passenger services ran a route from Rosyth to Europe.<\/p>\n

The last freight ferry<\/a> connected to mainland Europe nearly eight years ago, ceasing after an onboard fire in 2018.<\/p>\n

Amid speculation about the route\u2019s return, Dunkirk Port officials stated last week that they hoped to see the new crossing in place before the Six Nations<\/a> rugby tournament in early 2027.<\/p>\n

Port supervisory board vice president and Dunkirk Mayor Patrice Vergriete said: \u201cThe question is not \u2018is it going to happen\u2019 but rather \u2018when\u2019,\u201d reported The Scotsman.<\/p>\n

If viable, the ferry route could make Scotland<\/a> more accessible for tourists travelling to France<\/a> by car.<\/p>\n

The most recent major ferry service from Scotland<\/a> took freight and passengers from Rosyth to Zeebrugge in Belgium.<\/p>\n

Superfast Ferries ran the route from 2002, with Danish company DFDS<\/a> eventually taking over before the passenger service was scrapped in 2010 due to insufficient demand.<\/p>\n

DFDS<\/a> is expected to operate the proposed 20-hour crossing three times a week.<\/p>\n

A DFDS<\/a> spokesman told BBC Scotland News there was \u201cno firm timeline yet\u201d on launch dates or schedules.<\/p>\n

They said: \u201cDFDS is still interested in the service, and we are actively engaged in constructive discussions with the local authorities.<\/p>\n

\u201cProgress is being made, and we remain optimistic about the potential of this new route.\u201d<\/p>\n

Previous attempts to reinstate the route were set back while the Scottish government looked to establish a new border control post for checking farm produce.<\/p>\n

A Scottish government spokesperson said: \u201cWe are continuing to work with DFDS to assess the long-term commercial viability of the proposed service.<\/p>\n

\u201cA consultation on proposals to amend the minimum requirements for the location of a border control post ended last week, and next steps will be announced in due course,\u201d reported BBC News.<\/p>\n

Read more: Direct ferry from UK to Norway could be restored after 18 years<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A ferry service directly linking Scotland and France could relaunch later this year as part of a \u20ac40…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":7561,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[6052],"tags":[6329,6057,6328,6330,6332,234,6333,6331,5262],"class_list":["post-7560","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-dfds","tag-bbc-scotland-news","tag-dfds","tag-dunkirk","tag-ferry-route","tag-ferry-service","tag-france","tag-proposed-service","tag-rosyth-to-zeebrugge","tag-scotland"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7560","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7560"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7560\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/7561"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7560"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7560"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7560"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}