P&O Ferries to move to £150m Tilbury berth

P&O Ferries is to move to a purpose-built £150 million river berth on the Thames at the Port of Tilbury which will treble its freight capacity to 600,000 units a year by 2020.

Tilbury2 intends to build on a 152 acre site which was part of the former Tilbury Power Station and will include a new deep water jetty in the river Thames.

Janette Bell, chief executive of P&O Ferries, said: “I am looking forward to working closely with the team at Forth Ports to relocate our operation on the Thames to a state of the art new terminal and river berth.

“The river berth will enable us to cut our crossing time by one hour to seven hours, meaning that our customers will be discharged an hour earlier at 5am, enabling them to bypass the morning rush hour on the M25. The punctuality and reliability of the quay to quay service will be further enhanced by no longer having to negotiate a lock to exit the port.”

Charles Hammond, group chief executive of Forth Ports which owns Tilbury, said: “As we prepare for the examination of our development consent order for Tilbury2, this new long-term partnership with P&O Ferries provides a strong economic and market underpinning of our intended development plans to grow UK trade and create further employment opportunities within Tilbury.”