Am I The Only One With A Sinking Feeling About Euroferries?

It's more than six months since our MP Dr Steve Ladyboy trumpeted the new Euroferries fast service from the Millionaires' Playground to Boulogne, and so far this fuzzy internet photo of the repainted former Fred Olsen tub parked up in the Canaries is all we've seen. Just what is going on?

Judging by the banter on the Brittany Ferries Enthusiasts' forum, not a lot. The latest commentator sighs: 'Common sense would tell you it's not happening... this year at least.' Whether the hitch is down to Thanet Council's Degeneration and Pisspoor Planning Department, headed up by deputy leader Roger Latchford OBE and senior council officer Brian White, who knows? Or maybe Euroferries themselves aren't the full shilling?

Meanwhile much more info about what the service would offer, should it ever get out of the doldrums, has emerged from the French side of La Manche. Riffling through a recent copy of La Semaine dans le Boulonnais, I chanced upon this article. It seems as if the garlic munchers are getting frustrated by all the delays too. La Semaine writes:

The [Boulogne] Chamber of Commerce will neither confirm nor deny whether the new service is imminent at the moment, despite frequent meetings with Euroferries. The difference, however, with LD Lines [who started a new supercat service from Dover to Boulogne recently] is that Euroferries intends to put the accent on coach transport. Their plan is ambitious: to run shuttle buses to London and Canterbury to fetch tourists to Ramsgate for the boat for Boulogne.

So even if the service gets off the ground, or sandbank, or whatever the nautical metaphor might be, there ain't gonna be many visitors for Ramsgate. Most of the tourists will be whisked straight down to the port in coaches to whizz off and spend their money in Boulogne, without decamping for so much as a quick cafe au lait and a plate of frites in our town centre!