Felixstowe Docks
- Thread starter Bigplumbs
- Start date
tillergirl
Well-known member
Old news I'm afraid. Maersk reported in the summer that they were using the Gateway.
Bigplumbs
Well-known member
They were still there yesterday
tillergirl
Well-known member
Not sure the exact date is fixed - if indeed it is ever a 100% here or there. Maersk were using the Gateway as it progressively opens. This is 2023
P1090633 by Roger Gaspar, on Flickr
You might not realise but you are in the middle of a war - a trade war. Many years ago, perhaps 10 years ago, the Gateway was started to enlarge and develop. The Port of London Authority started and completed an enormous dredging project (and remove historic wrecks) from the Sea Reach out to the Sunk. In conjunction the PLA also dredged the Princes Channel and started the process of telling 'smaller' shipping to use the Princes Channel or Barrow Deep as an alternative to the Black Deep and Knock John. The goal is/was the goal to accept post-panamax container ships. The Gateway claims to provide better links across the country: i.e. rail connections are more diverse and quicker access rather than the single tracked rail line to Felixstowe. Ditto road links. One dual carriageway to Felixstowe and the dreaded A14 to the West and an awful journey by road to the South. While for the Gateway, a new Thames tunnel is planned (the A13 already has the enlarged junction ready). In response, HHA has finished an equally enormous deepening of the Felixstowe docks and the approach channel to counter the Gateway's claims. All of this is why (in my view) the PLA wants us to ask permission to use the Black Deep. You can imagine what would happen if a larger than Panamax ship deviated off the Deep Water channel of the Black Deep.
You can be sure that the Gateway will want as many companies as possible to come and join. After all they have invested a fortune to develop the Container Port. The MSC has one headed to the Gateway right now.
P1090633 by Roger Gaspar, on FlickrYou might not realise but you are in the middle of a war - a trade war. Many years ago, perhaps 10 years ago, the Gateway was started to enlarge and develop. The Port of London Authority started and completed an enormous dredging project (and remove historic wrecks) from the Sea Reach out to the Sunk. In conjunction the PLA also dredged the Princes Channel and started the process of telling 'smaller' shipping to use the Princes Channel or Barrow Deep as an alternative to the Black Deep and Knock John. The goal is/was the goal to accept post-panamax container ships. The Gateway claims to provide better links across the country: i.e. rail connections are more diverse and quicker access rather than the single tracked rail line to Felixstowe. Ditto road links. One dual carriageway to Felixstowe and the dreaded A14 to the West and an awful journey by road to the South. While for the Gateway, a new Thames tunnel is planned (the A13 already has the enlarged junction ready). In response, HHA has finished an equally enormous deepening of the Felixstowe docks and the approach channel to counter the Gateway's claims. All of this is why (in my view) the PLA wants us to ask permission to use the Black Deep. You can imagine what would happen if a larger than Panamax ship deviated off the Deep Water channel of the Black Deep.
You can be sure that the Gateway will want as many companies as possible to come and join. After all they have invested a fortune to develop the Container Port. The MSC has one headed to the Gateway right now.
DanTribe
Well-known member
How will this competition affect the proposed expansion of the container port at Harwich Bathside Bay?
Is that still on the cards, not heard much recently?
Is that still on the cards, not heard much recently?
Momac
Well-known member
tillergirl
Well-known member
Certainly I know nothing recent about that. The rail link is perhaps better than Felixstowe but the road links are practically none existent. The A120 is beset with serious accidents already and linking to the A12 - ugh.
Binnacle
Active member
Are you aware of the CAA regulation about not flying drones over industrial sites ?
6. Keep at least 150m away from residential, recreational, commercial and industrial sites
Or do you choose to ignore that and other drone rules in the belief that they do not apply to you ?
M Hill
New member
There are also constraints around the bird sanctuary, along with a pair of something rare and unusual nesting on top of the cranes.
Yes, this won't be shown on Drone Assist, but there are still substantial fines/repercussions for the disruption of wildlife, especially when nesting.
PetiteFleur
Well-known member
A friend is at Felixstowe port - Maersk were offered much cheaper rates at Gateway and that's the reason. Some smaller ships will go Felixstowe and as mentioned, the road connections are not good at Gateway and when will the proposed tunnel be built? Not for a few years I bet...
Bigplumbs
Well-known member
You do get some ridiculous comments on here. How on earth can a drone at 100 m high disrupt anything. People do show incredible lack of understanding
M Hill
New member
So your drone has never attracted the attention of a flock of gulls let alone a pigeon on take-off, landing or even mid-flight?
My understanding of this comes from the written RA from the Port of Felixstowe while working as the skipper of a vessel to enable a drone pilot for the maiden arrival of Ever Ace and a basic understanding of the Wildlife and Countryside Act 1981.
Who has an incredible lack of understanding?
Binnacle
Active member
Tell us Plums please, is your camera drone registered with the CAA?
Bigplumbs
Well-known member
In answer to the last paragraph it is you
Plus let’s get real shall we and stop being a drone hater. Nothing was disturbed in the making of that video and not many birds are nesting in early January
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johnalison
Well-known member
Smaller wading birds have to eat half their body weight per day during cold weather. Any time not spent feeding during a tidal window can be critical to their survival. Energy expenditure is important to all birds at this time of year.In answer to the last paragraph it is you
Plus let’s get real shall we and stop being a drone hater. Nothing was disturbed in the making of that video and not many birds are nesting in early January
Mirror52330
New member
MSC have taken on Gateway#4 as a full time birth. Maersk are taking Gemini lines to London. That's 2 lines. Mainly the 350m-400m ships. I've been told this will equate to roughly two ships a week. 4 lines will still come into Felixstowe. Pla restricted to 16m draught with tidal windows. Felixstowe is capable 16m at any tide and in excess of 17m with tidal windows. One of the reasons for the maersk move is box rates. London twin lift containers and store them on the quay to get ships out quick and then tidy up after. Felixstowe have to be more organised and tidy up as they go but this slows them down. With the larger MSC and Maersk ships now going up with some 10K box moves, London don't have the quay space to stack and pack later. So on the larger ships, they are now struggling to do a quick turn around. On smaller amounts, London are incredibly quick. PoF don't seem worried by the move. Cma Cgm have already started routing some of there 400's in and other lines will always fill the gap. PoF is still the biggest in the UK with the best links.
PeterWright
Well-known member
Thanks for that detail, it must be a significant part of the reasoning for the Gemini shift from Felixstowe to Gateway. Gemini is a collaboration between Maersk and Hapag-Lloyd covering many of their larger ships, but the difference in depths between the two ports must prevent the deepest draft ships from going to Gateway.
Nonetheless this must represent a significant loss of business for Felixstowe, with MSC also having shifted some business there.
For large parts of the UK, Felixstowe has reasonable road links via the A14 and I have understood for many years that the single line track between Felixstowe and Ipswich is to be mostly dualled (all but the part which Ipswich allowed housing to be built on towards the end of the last century) so rail connection will improve. I guess the whole object of the major investment at Gateway was to steal some of thr business from Felixstowe, so we shouldn't be surprised. Felixstowe benefited in the 1970's from the complete failure of the Tilbury container port, built by the PLA but not used because the London dockers refused to operate it.
Peter.
Mirror52330
New member
Felixstowe now takes the deepest ships in the world. They use Felixstowe as a first port direct from the east. They come into Felixstowe deep, and unload enough to reduce the draft so they can go elsewhere.(Depth is much more variable than length) Cargo is then loaded onto smaller feeder ships and sent around Europe or wherever, the import thing being the main ship can now access smaller ports. My best guess is maersk will do this at Rotterdam with the Gemini project. It's not unusual for a ship out of London to come straight into PoF and vice versa. Especially common with MSC.
Bigplumbs
Well-known member
Many thanks and very interesting. Nice to see a comment relevant to the thread
Binnacle
Active member
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