Lords plead to reinstate Hull to Zeebrugge North Sea ferry route

The ferry, that used to sail nightly from Hull to Zebrugge, could take up to 880 passengers

Ministers have been urged in the House of Lords to help reinstate a passenger ferry route from Hull to Belgium to aid Yorkshire's economy.

The Pride of York last sailed in December when the route from the East Yorkshire port was axed.

P&O Ferries announced in October the service would close due to a drop in demand because of coronavirus.

Baroness Vere of Norbiton, transport minister, told critics it was a commercial matter for the operator.

The move had come under fire from several peers at question time.

Liberal Democrat peer Lord Wallace of Saltaire said the government's "levelling-up agenda" required ministers to keep such links going.

Lady Vere said the local impact was "very regrettable" but she was satisfied that the UK's "national freight resilience has not been compromised".

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It was not in the public interest to maintain "empty capacity at public expense", according to Lady Vere

Lord Newby, also for the Liberal Democrats, said as the government was spending billions on running "almost entirely empty" trains during the pandemic, it should press P&O to keep the route open.

It wouldn't be in the public interest to maintain "empty capacity at public expense", according to Lady Vere.

Conservative Baroness McIntosh of Pickering urged ministers to do all they could to reinstate the service and use Hull's spare capacity to ease the freight "bottleneck" at Dover.

Lady Vere said there were currently 19 routes from the east coast of England across the North Sea.

She said there continued to be services for both passengers and freight from Hull to Europe through Rotterdam.

Passenger use of the ferry service had been declining since 2014 and the ships were "ageing and economically obsolete", she added.