The Port of Southampton is a major passenger and cargo port located in the central part of the south coast of England. It benefits from a sheltered location, unique "double tides", close proximity to the motorway network and good rail links. Owned and operated by Associated British Ports since 1982, the port is the busiest cruise terminal and second largest container port in the UK. The port is located ten miles (16 km) inland, between the confluence of the rivers Test and Itchen and the head of the mile wide inlet (technically a ria or drowned valley), known as Southampton Water. The mouth of the inlet is protected from the effects of foul weather by the mass of the Isle of Wight, which gives the port an advantageous sheltered location. Additional advantages include a densely populated hinterland and close proximity to London, and excellent rail and road links to the rest of Britain which, however, bypass the congestion of London. The average tidal range is approximately 5 feet (1.5 metres), with 17 hours per day of rising water thanks to the port's "double tides". These allow the largest container and cruise ships access to the port for up to 80 per cent of the time, according to the container terminal operator DP World Southampton. A common misconception is that the double tide is caused by 'one tide coming up each side of the Isle of Wight'. However, the effect is actually caused as a result of tidal flow through the English Channel. High tide at one end of the Channel (Dover) occurs at the same time as low tide at the other end (Land's End). Points near the centre have one high water as the tidal swell goes from left to right, another as it then goes from right to left, making two for each one at either end, neither as high as the one at each end. The first full-time cruise ship was Ceylon, a P&O; liner converted in 1881. Up to this point ship owners had occasionally used liners for off-season cruising. From 1881 the growth of the cruise industry proceeded slowly until the 1970s when major shipping operators became badly affected by the rise in popularity of longhaul jet air travel. Faced with falling demand for their mail and passengers services they turned their business to holiday cruises voyages that usually end where they begin, providing short leisure visits to other ports on the way. In the case of Southampton at the time ships affected included Cunard's QE2 and the P&O; vessels SS Oriana and SS Canberra: all originally built as fast liners, they began to offer a growing variety of cruises. Through the 1990s cruising's growing popularity saw huge increases in ship size and numbers as well as terminal capacity, with Southampton becoming one of the busiest cruise ports in the world. Cruise ship sizes have risen substantially in recent years. Currently the largest vessel using the Port of Southampton is Royal Caribbean's Independence of the Seas, with a length of 338.8m, a gross tonnage of 154,407 and a maximum passenger capacity of 4,375. As a consequence of these high capacities, the passenger port is currently experiencing its busiest period in terms of either tonnage of shipping or number of passengers (but not the actual number of ships). In 2005, the number of passengers using the port totalled 738,000, higher than it had been in any one year of the previous century. Since then it has increased year on year, and the figure for 2010 was 1.2 million passengers, representing 307 calls by passenger ships. On average, each docking is worth £1.25 million to the local economy. The very modern and well-equipped container terminal is operated by DP World Southampton. The container port has 210 acres (85 ha) of land -- not counting the 375 acres (152 ha) in the older Western Docks -- available for port operations. Loading and unloading operations can be performed simultaneously on four large deep-sea container ships, plus one smaller ship 500 ft (150m) in length. This makes it the country's second largest such terminal, after that at Felixstowe. Southampton handles most of the trade from the Far East. The railway line from Southampton has recently been upgraded to a loading gauge of W10 on the route between the container port and the ABP terminal in Birmingham, where it links with lines that have already received this treatment. This allows the railway line to handle the taller containers now in widespread use. Permission has been received from the Marine Management Organisation to extend the container terminal into berths 201 and 202. The quay is to be rebuilt, and will be over 1640 ft (500m) in length. The depth of water in the main channel is to be increased by dredging to 63 ft (16m).

• published: 06 Jul 2011
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