Liverpool City Council is has decided to appoint an advisor to evaluate its plans to build a permanent cruise terminal in the city, while Cunard Line has shown interest in the project, media reports said.
The council has identified a site at Princes Jetty on Princes Parade, just west of the location of the current temporary facility, as a potential location for a terminal that could handle turnarounds of ships up to 3,600 passenger capacity, a report on clickliverpool.com said.
The current temporary facility originally had a limit of 800 passengers, but this has since been expanded to 1,200 for turnarounds. However, it has handled non-turnaround calls by large vessels, such as Queen Mary 2 of Cunard Line, Britannia of P&O Cruises and Royal Princess of Princess Cruises.
Meanwhile, Cunard Line director Angus Struthers was quoted by Travel weekly as saying: "Liverpool will forever be Cunard’s spiritual home, and, as the world witnessed with the Three Queens spectacular last May, the city’s pride in this association, and the level of interest in Cunard across the whole northwest of England, remains strong.”
The company celebrated its 175th anniversary last year and all its three ships called at the port on a single day. In addition, Queen Mary 2 embarked a number of passengers at Liverpool for Boston and New York to commemorate the line’s first sailing on 4 July 1840 by the paddle steamer Britannia (not to be confused with the present day P&O ship).
"Though Southampton will remain Cunard's homeport, we look forward to working with Liverpool to see how we can develop a great experience for our guests. In particular, we will be looking at how we might be able to incorporate Liverpool into Queen Mary 2's iconic transatlantic crossings," Struthers was quoted as saying.
Unlike many cruise terminals, the one in Liverpool is within walking distance from the city centre. Should the new terminal built on the site now under consideration, this would remain the case with the new facility as well.
