Heysham Port | |
---|---|
Location | |
Location | Heysham |
Coordinates | 54°2′11.93″N2°54′49.61″W / 54.0366472°N 2.9137806°W |
Details | |
Built | 1897 |
Opened | 1904 |
Operated by | Mersey Docks and Harbour Company |
Owned by | The Peel Group |
Type of harbour | Artificial |
No. of berths | 3 (Ro-Ro) |
Overall Quay Length | 1,000 m (3,300 ft) [1] |
Statistics | |
Passenger traffic | 143,417 (2021) [2] |
Heysham Port in Heysham, Lancashire, England, ships mainly roll-on/roll-off freight, with one passenger service run by the Isle of Man Steam Packet Company, which operates a twice daily sailing to Isle of Man. There are three freight routes run by
CLdN RoRo and Stena Line which all sail to Ireland daily. Heysham Port railway station links it to Lancaster via Morecambe. Adjacent to the dock site is Heysham nuclear power station.
In 1891, the Midland Railway, which already operated Morecambe Harbour four miles to the north east, gave notice of its intention to develop a new harbour at Heysham and appointed consulting engineers James Abernethy and his son to undertake a feasibility study of the project. The plan was for an enclosed dock accessed through a lock, this idea made no further progress.
In 1895, a much larger Heysham port plan was put forward by Messrs James Abernethy & Son, in conjunction with the Midland Railway's chief engineer. This formed the basis of the harbour which was built, although there were many changes as work progressed and the full scheme was never completed. In 1896, an enabling Act of Parliament was obtained for the construction of the harbour and the contract for construction was let in July 1897. The project cost about £3 million. [3] [4]
The first ship to dock at Heysham was the Antrim, one of the ships that the Midland Railway had ordered for Heysham services. She came into the harbour on delivery from builders, John Brown at Clydebank on the 31st of May 1904. The first passenger sailing was a day trip to Douglas, Isle of Man by the Londonderry on the 13th of August 1904.
The south jetty was built in 1909 to reduce silt build up in the harbour entrance, plans from 1907 show that two jetties where originally planned each side of the entrance, but a north jetty was never actually built.
In 1941 a deep-water berth (Ocean Jetty) was built to the north east of harbour entrance. This was to allow tankers which were too large for the port to berth at the new Trimpell refinery which produced aviation fuel. Much of the fuel produced would have been for fighter aircraft stationed in Britain during World War II. [5] After the Tranmere pipeline construction the Ocean Jetty berth was rarely used until its demolition in 1976.
Heysham Port was acquired by the Mersey Docks and Harbour Company (MDHC) in May 2001. [6] Then in August 2005 the MDHC was bought by and merged with Peel Ports Limited. [7]
Vessels that currently operate out of Heysham Port.
Image | Name | Built (commissioned) | Route(s) | Capacity | Port of Registry | Company |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
April 1998 (July 1998) | Heysham – Douglas (Back-up vessel) | 630 Passenger 275 Cars | ||||
June 2022 | Heysham – Douglas | 948 Passengers 237 Vehicles 75 Trailers | Isle of Man Steam Packet Company | |||
November 1998 (May 2009) | Heysham – Douglas (Summer TT and cover for Dry docking only) | 800+ passengers 200 vehicles | Isle of Man Steam Packet Company | |||
August 1998 | Heysham- Douglas (Summer TT and Cover Dry docking Only) | 12 Passengers 65 Trailers | Isle of Man Steam Packet Company | |||
1996 | Heysham – Belfast | 114 trailers | ||||
MS Stena Hibernia | 1996 | Heysham – Belfast | 114 trailers | Stena Line | ||
February 2012 (February 2012) | Heysham – Dublin | 151 trailers | ||||
March 2012 (March 2012) | Heysham – Warrenpoint | 120 trailers | CLdN RoRo | |||
January 2012 (April 2012) | Heysham – Warrenpoint | 151 trailers | CLdN RoRo |
The routes which Heysham port offers:
Peel is a seaside town and small fishing port in the Isle of Man, in the historic parish of German but administered separately. Peel is the third largest town in the Island after Douglas and Ramsey but the fourth largest settlement, as Onchan has the second largest population but is classified as a village.
Stena Line is a Swedish shipping line company and one of the world's largest ferry operators. It services Denmark, France, Germany, the United Kingdom, Ireland, Latvia, the Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Finland and Sweden. Stena Line is a major unit of Stena AB, itself a part of the Stena Sphere. It is a sister company to one of the world's leading tanker company Stena Bulk. Stena bulk is one of the top ownership tanker company in the world.
The Mersey Docks and Harbour Company (MDHC), formerly the Mersey Docks and Harbour Board (MDHB), owns and administers the dock facilities of the Port of Liverpool, on the River Mersey, England. These include the operation of the enclosed northern dock system that runs from Prince's Dock to Seaforth Dock, in the city of Liverpool and the dock facilities built around the Great Float of the Wirral Peninsula, located on the west side of the river.
The Morecambe branch line is a railway line in Lancashire, England, running from Lancaster to Morecambe and Heysham, where trains connect with ferries to Douglas, Isle of Man. To reach Heysham, trains must reverse at Morecambe.
Sealink was a ferry company based in the United Kingdom from 1970 to 1984, operating services to France, Belgium, the Netherlands, Isle of Man, Channel Islands, Isle of Wight and Ireland.
Heysham Port is a railway station on the Morecambe branch line, which runs between Lancaster and Heysham Port. The station, situated 7+3⁄4 miles (12 km) west of Lancaster, serves Heysham Port in Lancashire. It is owned by Network Rail and managed by Northern Trains.
Belfast Harbour is a major maritime hub in Belfast, Northern Ireland, handling 67% of Northern Ireland's seaborne trade and about 25% of the maritime trade of the entire island of Ireland. It is a vital gateway for raw materials, exports and consumer goods, and is also Northern Ireland's leading logistics and distribution hub.
The Furness and Midland Joint Railway was a joint railway in England owned by the Furness Railway and the Midland Railway. Construction was agreed in 1862 for a line from Carnforth, on the Furness system, to Wennington, on the Midland Railway line from Yorkshire to Morecambe. Royal assent was received in June 1863 and the contract for the route was let to Benton & Woodiwiss soon after at a cost of some £102,850.
The Isle of Man Steam Packet Company Limited (abbreviated to IoMSPCo or, locally, The Steam Packet is the oldest continuously operating passenger shipping company in the world, having been founded in 1830.
Twelve Quays is a ferry terminal and business park which is located between East Float and the River Mersey at Birkenhead, in England. Twelve Quays separates Woodside from Seacombe.
The Port of Dover is a cross-channel ferry, cruise terminal, maritime cargo and marina facility situated in Dover, Kent, south-east England. It is the nearest English port to France, at just 34 kilometres (21 mi) away, and is one of the world's busiest maritime passenger ports, with 11.7 million passengers, 2.6 million lorries, 2.2 million cars and motorcycles and 80,000 coaches passing through it in 2017, and with an annual turnover of £58.5 million a year. This contrasts with the nearby Channel Tunnel, the only fixed link between the island of Great Britain and the European mainland, which now handles an estimated 20 million passengers and 1.6 million trucks per year.
SeaCat was the marketing name used by Sea Containers Ferries Scotland for its services between Northern Ireland, Scotland and England between 1992 and 2004. The company was originally based in Stranraer later moving to Belfast. The name originates from the use of high-speed catamaran ferries.
MV Ben-my-Chree is a Ro-Pax vessel which was launched and entered service in 1998. The flagship of the Isle of Man Steam Packet Company, she primarily operated on the Douglas to Heysham route until being replaced by MV Manxman in late 2023.
Seatruck Ferries was a UK-based freight-only ferry company which commenced services in 1996. It became a subsidiary of CLdN and was absorbed into the Luxembourg-based parent's overall brand as CLdN RoRo in February 2024. It operated out of four ports on the Irish Sea, including Heysham and Liverpool.
HSC Manannan is a 96-metre (315 ft) wave-piercing high-speed catamaran car ferry built by Incat, Australia in 1998. After commercial service in Australia and New Zealand, she was chartered to the US military as Joint Venture (HSV-X1). Now owned and operated by the Isle of Man Steam Packet Company, she mainly provides a seasonal service between Douglas Harbour and Port of Liverpool.
Douglas Harbour is located near Douglas Head at the southern end of Douglas, the capital of the Isle of Man. It is the island's main commercial shipping port. The Port of Douglas was the first in the world to be equipped with radar.
MV Arrow is a 7,606 GT Ro-Ro ferry built by Astilleros de Huelva SA, Huelva, Spain in 1998 as Varbola for the Estonian Shipping Company, Tallinn. During a charter to Dart Line she was renamed Dart 6, reverting to Varbola when the charter ended. In 2005, she was sold to Malta and renamed RR Arrow. In 2007, she was sold to Seatruck Ferries, Heysham and renamed Arrow. In September 2022, it was revealed that she had been bought by Isle of Man Steam Packet Company for an estimated €9 million.
The Isle of Man Sea Terminal is the arrival and departure point for all passenger and car ferries operating to and from the Isle of Man, and is located in Douglas, the island's capital. It is one of the two main gateways to the Isle of Man, the other one being the Isle of Man Airport. It is operated by and is the main hub for the Isle of Man Steam Packet Company, which runs year-round sailings to Heysham, and seasonal sailings to Liverpool, Belfast and Dublin in the summer and Birkenhead at weekends in the winter.
MS Seatruck Performance is a ro-ro freight ferry that entered service with Seatruck Ferries April in 2012.
MS Seatruck Precision is a ro-ro freight ferry that entered service with Seatruck Ferries in July 2012.