Talking to an ex-colleague in Germany who´s now a planner,he was saying nsf are finishing,dont know if it is true but thought for some it would be the end of an era.I spent many nights (good and bad) on these ferries over the years,especially Norbay ,Norbank sitting round the big table at dinner and met some good people(not all)some of which are still good friends,in fact this is one of the things I miss not being on the job any more.I was thinking how many other people on here have memories(god or bad) or if anyone knows if its true or not. Cheers Joe . ex Franken Transport Bergen (N.L.) Powerline Emmerich (D.) and Morley (G.B.)
A friend of mine uses the Rotterdam-Hull route quite a lot. He has been told that some of the routes are being cut but they are not all finishing. I think Hull-Zeebrugge is one that is going to go which will obviiously force more people to use the other routes.
There are plenty of other ferries running those routes.
There are two other companies running Immingham and Killinghome to Zeebrugge, Rotterdam and the Hook. It is the passenger business that P & O are trying to cut down on, P & O Freight are making money
Used to use NSF from Ipswich to Europoort just over 10 years ago,it was like belonging to a club.There were only two ships on the route,one UK crewed and one Dutch crewed but they only took 12 drivers each and every week you’d see the same faces from the same companies,like Van Maanen (who I worked for at the time) Spalding Haulage,H.C.Wilson,some guys from Arne Jensen who pulled for Ferrymasters and one or two other regulars.
We all used to have a good laugh on there together.
I’d normally get the night sailing and used to arrive in Ipswich at around 7.30pm book in,get your cabin sorted and then have dinner and a few beers in the bar.At around 11pm after they’d loaded all the un-accompanied trailers they’d call you down to drive the trucks on.Then it was back to the bar.
Didn’t very often get to use the ‘Love Boat’ then,usually only on a Monday night 'cos the Tor-Line from Immingham didn’t sail on a Monday.
Have used it two or three times over the last couple of years though and I don’t think it has the same quality since P&O took it over.
Wheel Nut:
There are plenty of other ferries running those routes.There are two other companies running Immingham and Killinghome to Zeebrugge, Rotterdam and the Hook. It is the passenger business that P & O are trying to cut down on, P & O Freight are making money
I know theres other ferries and I’m not interested if P&O are making money.it just brought back memories of times past and wondered if anybody else on the forum thought the same.I agree with K.W. it wasnt the same after P&O took over. Happy Days. Cheers Joe. Happy New Year to all.
I remember the Bolton Abbey that ran to Europoort before the Nor Series.
There were some good yarns told on the ferry, and still a few to be beaten. Sunday night was always the Panalpina, Yeardley, MAT fight with rounds of Curries against allcomers
I also remember dropping trailers on the Black Hut and having to go inside the shed to have containers lifted