Nantes-Gijon MoS set for September

A new, state-financed “Motorway of the Sea” (MoS) service between the French port of Nantes-Saint-Nazaire and Gijon, in Spain, which had been due to start at the end of March, is now likely to be launched in September, it has been revealed.

LD Lines MD Christophe Santoni tells IFW the delay is largely due to the administrative procedures related to the approval of the financing of the service by legislative bodies in both France and Spain, taking longer than had been initially expected. 

“These (procedures) are set to be completed by 31May in France and by mid-June in Spain,” he says. “We are now looking at a launch date for the service during the first half of September.” 

At the start of year, the European Commission approved a €30m (US$36.8m) package of aid from France and Spain to fund the Nantes-Gijon service, which will be operated by GLD Atlantique, a joint-venture between French ro-ro operator LD Lines and its Italian counterpart, Grimaldi Lines (Naples). 

Christophe Santoni

It will launch with three weekly round trips, each crossing taking approximately 14 hours, with departures from the two ports at 10pm and arrivals before noon the next day. 

“We subsequently plan to upgrade the service to a daily frequency, depending on the level of demand generated,” says Santoni. “There is scope to capture a broad range of cargo, including perishables, given the duration of the crossings.” 

GLD Atlantique has yet to decide which vessel will ply the route, but Santoni says it will be similar to the Norman Voyager, and carry up to 110 truck and trailer units. 

The €30 million is being granted over a four-year period and the service will also benefit from an additional €4 million subsidy, spread over seven years, from the EU within the framework of its Marco Polo II funding programme for projects that shift freight from roads to sea, rail and inland waterways. 

Nantes-Gijon will be the second MoS LD Lines has participated in, having launched a service between the French Mediterranean port of Toulon and Rome Civitavecchia in 2005, also with Grimaldi (Naples). This was withdrawn in March 2009, due to the operating losses it was accumulating. 

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Santoni explains: “Even with good load factors, it is very difficult to be profitable, because to attract trucks onto a ship you have to be cheaper than road haulage, whose rates are already extremely competitive. 

“On occasion, it is necessary to sell at a loss in order to generate business. A service of this kind is simply not viable without state subsidies, granted within the framework of transport policies based on sustainable development, and, in particular, the reduction of the number of HGVs on the main road freight corridors in the EU.” 

He adds that in the case of the Toulon-Civitavecchia MoS, the public funding had been insufficient. 

The new Nantes-Gijon service is expected to absorb between 3% and 5% of the HGV traffic transiting the western Pyrenees – the equivalent of around 40,000 trucks a year – a figure projected to rise significantly in the longer term as sailing frequency increases. 

Earlier this year, the port of Nantes boosted its ro-ro capacity with the inauguration of a second terminal, representing an investment of €16m, and it is “ready to welcome the Nantes-Gijon service whenever its launch takes place”, says a spokesman for the French Atlantic port. 

There are also plans to launch an MoS from Nantes to another Spanish port, Vigo, in 2011with Acciona Transmediterranea Ferries as the operator. 

LD Lines is also considering a project to launch another MoS between France and Italy (Sète-Genoa) in partnership with Grimaldi (Genoa), but plans remains at a preliminary stage, says Santoni.