Severn Link was a ferry operating company founded in 2010 that intended to provide ferry services across the Bristol Channel in England and Wales. The route was to have been served by two ex-

Wightlink Wightlink is a ferry company operating routes across The Solent between Hampshire and the Isle of Wight in the south of England. It operates car ferries between Lymington and Yarmouth, and Portsmouth and Fishbourne and a fast passenger-only ...

40 metre "Fastcat" passenger ferries capable of running at 34 knots and carrying up to 360 seated passengers. The journey by ferry was expected to take around 50 minutes, compared to 3.5 hours by road. The first route was planned to be a passenger service between

Ilfracombe Ilfracombe ( ) is a seaside resort and civil parish on the North Devon coast, England, with a small harbour surrounded by cliffs. The parish stretches along the coast from the 'Coastguard Cottages' in Hele Bay toward the east and along t ...

and Swansea, to start at Easter 2010, but a major investor who held the mortgages on the two catamarans pulled out, and talks to find a new investor were still ongoing in autumn 2010 with launch said to be delayed until 2011. Later plans were for a ferry service linking Ilfracombe with

Cardiff Cardiff (; cy, Caerdydd ) is the capital and largest city of Wales. It forms a principal area, officially known as the City and County of Cardiff ( cy, Dinas a Sir Caerdydd, links=no), and the city is the eleventh-largest in the United Kingd ...

, docking at Penarth. Severn Link were planning on a more direct link whereby the ferry would dock in Cardiff, and the company said that it was considering other ferry services between Penarth and Minehead, and between

Porthcawl Porthcawl (, ) is a town and community on the south coast of Wales in the county borough of Bridgend, west of the capital city, Cardiff and southeast of Swansea. Historically part of Glamorgan and situated on a low limestone headland on the S ...

and Ilfracombe. In 2012 the company confirmed that although the withdrawal of an investor and problems with landing facilities had led to delays, and the two

catamarans A Formula 16 beachable catamaran Powered catamaran passenger ferry at Salem, Massachusetts, United States A catamaran () (informally, a "cat") is a multi-hulled watercraft featuring two parallel hulls of equal size. It is a geometry-stab ...

had been sold, there were still plans to start a service. In 2018 it was indicated that plans for a ferry service were "still very much on the cards". In 2021 a Devon MP called for the proposal to proceed.

References

External links

Severn Link (official site)
Bristol Channel Water transport in Devon Ferry companies of England Proposed transport infrastructure in the South West of England Proposed public transport in the United Kingdom {{England-company-stub