{"id":361066,"date":"2026-01-09T15:04:11","date_gmt":"2026-01-09T15:04:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/361066\/"},"modified":"2026-01-09T15:04:11","modified_gmt":"2026-01-09T15:04:11","slug":"the-uk-is-getting-a-new-direct-ferry-service-to-europe-in-2026","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/361066\/","title":{"rendered":"The UK is Getting a New Direct Ferry Service to Europe in 2026"},"content":{"rendered":"

How committed are you to slow travel? So committed that you would swap a swift two-hour flight from\u00a0Scotland<\/a>\u00a0to\u00a0France<\/a>\u00a0for a 20-hour ride on open water? Soon, that could be a very real option.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Danish company DFDS wants to launch a brand new ferry service from the port of Rosyth (around half an hour from Edinburgh<\/a>) to the French city of Dunkirk this year.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Plans for the new ferry, titled \u2018Project Brave\u2019, were\u00a0brought to the table in 2022 and\u00a0the service was\u00a0lined up to launch in spring 2025. There were delays due to lack of funding and the need to build a new border control facility process certain goods at Rosyth. But now, officials are working on removing the need for the facility. If everything goes to plan, the\u00a0service\u00a0could launch this as soon as the spring.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The boat would run three times a week and take\u00a0a total 20 hours to get from one port to the other, making it one of the longest ferry routes in Europe (second only to the\u00a0Portsmouth to Bilbao service, which lasts between 27 and 30 hours). Initially, it\u2019ll be able to carry 51,000 passengers a year, with hopes to increase that to 79,000 later down the line. MPs estimate that it could bring a \u00a311.5 million of\u00a0boost to the Scottish economy.<\/p>\n

Back in August,\u00a0Scottish MP Graeme Downie, said: \u2018A regular passenger and freight ferry service from Rosyth to Dunkirk would be an incredible boon for the Dunfermline and Scottish economy, making trade easier as well as making it simpler for people from Europe to visit the Kingdom of Fife.<\/p>\n

\u2018These matters can be complex but we have taken a huge stride towards making this ferry service a reality.\u00a0I want to thank the secretary of state for Scotland and his officials for their work and assistance in finding a way to ensure a Border Control Post is not required at Rosyth. Their efforts make it more likely a passenger and freight ferry to Dunkirk could begin as soon as next year<\/p>\n

\u2018We are not quite there yet and, in particular, a small amount of infrastructure is needed at the Port of Rosyth. However, as the ferry is one of the projects in the strategy of the Forth Green Freeport I am hopeful we can overcome this problem as well.\u2019<\/p>\n

It wouldn\u2019t be the first time that a ferry has run from Scotland to mainland Europe. There was previously a service between Rosyth and Zeebrugge in Belgium, which took 17 hours and ran four times a week \u2013 but that was permanently axed as a passenger service in 2010.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Did you see that\u00a0a\u00a0\u2018Museum of Failure\u2019 is coming to the UK in 2026<\/a>?<\/p>\n

Plus:\u00a0The beautiful north African city that is getting its first ever direct flights from the UK<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Stay in the loop:\u00a0sign up to our\u00a0free Time Out UK newsletter<\/a>\u00a0for the latest UK news and the best stuff happening across the country.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"How committed are you to slow travel? So committed that you would swap a swift two-hour flight from\u00a0Scotland\u00a0to\u00a0France\u00a0for…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":361067,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[4821,59,57,58,50,4822,387,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-361066","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-united-kingdom","tag-categories-travel","tag-gb","tag-great-britain","tag-greatbritain","tag-news","tag-news-transport-travel","tag-travel","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/361066","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=361066"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/361066\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/361067"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=361066"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=361066"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=361066"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}