On the 10th March 2011, Fastnet Line celebrated its first anniversary of the Cork to Swansea route, which resumed on the corresponding date a year earlier after a four-year hiatus.

Fastnet Line’s return to the route has boosted economies in Ireland and Wales, with more than 80,000 passengers travelling between Cork and Swansea in the ten months from March to December last year. The service received a further boost this week, after Kerry County Council approved a €50,000 bond investment in the Fastnet Line operation between Cork and Swansea.

Speaking in reference to the anniversary, Fastnet Line’s chief executive officer, Phil Jones, said: “We were delighted with our first year of operations and learned a lot, but that is in the past now and we look forward to the challenges ahead.

“We are determined to build on the solid foundations we have created and with tight cost control and an aggressive strategy for marketing in the UK, supported once again by our partners in Tourism Ireland, we intend to do everything we can to increase numbers this year.”

Conor Buckley, the chairman of West Cork Tourism Co-Op, which owns Fastnet Line, called for “everyone to use the route from Cork to Swansea in both directions.”

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