A new cargo and passenger ferry service directly linking Scotland and France could launch later this year as part of a €40bn (£35bn) regeneration programme at the port of Dunkirk. The proposed route would connect Rosyth in Fife with Dunkirk, reviving a link that last saw freight ferries eight years ago and passenger services 16 years ago.
The regeneration plan, backed by about €4bn in private and public investment, will transform the 60-year-old port area into a hub for low-carbon energy projects, battery factories and maritime logistics. Patrice Vergriete, the mayor of Dunkirk, said: 'We are betting on the energy and ecological transition to redevelop an industrial region.'
The port's redevelopment is being watched across Europe as a potential model for reindustrialisation. Marie-Pierre de Bailliencourt of the Institut Montaigne described the area as a 'laboratory' and 'testing ground for European industrial renewal'. Dunkirk, site of the famous second world war evacuation, saw its heavy industry decline from thousands of jobs to just a few hundred by the 1980s.
Key projects include the Verkor car battery factory opened in December, a partnership with Renault Alpine on hydrogen fuel cars, and ArcelorMittal's switch to electric arc furnaces supported by €850m in French subsidies. A €1.7bn clean-up of a former refinery site will host a battery factory, biofuel plant and import-export terminals.
The Scottish route would initially involve one ship sailing three times a week from Rosyth, with a 20-hour crossing. It is expected to be operated by Danish firm DFDS and may appeal to Scottish rugby fans attending the Six Nations tournament. Freight-only services to Belgium ended in 2018, and passenger services ceased in 2010, leaving Newcastle as the nearest ferry option for Scotland.
