A FERRY named after the city of York has been praised in a comprehensive report on ship safety by a leading motoring organisation.

The Pride of York, which sails between Hull and Zeebrugge, was rated highly in a study conducted by the AA Motoring Trust.

Experienced marine surveyors posed as passengers and observed journeys on board ferries across Europe, scoring ships against the quality of safety information given, provision of fire and life saving equipment and cargo handling.

The Pride of York was assessed as "good" ranking it above average in the survey. Its strengths included regular emergency drills, radar identification of ships, having a black box on board and being very well serviced for an older ship.

The ferry, built in Glasgow in 1986 and weighing 31,000 tonnes, was formerly known as the Norsea before it was dedicated to York in a ceremony attended by the then Lord Mayor, Coun David Horton, in January last year. As the Norsea, it hit the headlines in September 2002 after it was struck by a deck fire off the Norfolk coast.

But the Pride of York was marked down for not having any evacuation systems, or chutes with life rafts. The UK figures marked a distinct improvement from the results of the last study four years ago. Europe's worst ferry was the Flaminia, in Italy, which was rated as "poor".

Bert Morris, deputy director of the AA Motoring Trust, said: "The 16 million people travelling on ferries sailing to and from UK ports each year are now in safer hands than they were when this study was carried out in 2000.

"Back then, several UK ferries were among Europe's worst for safety, but now they set the standards to which other vessels on the continent must aspire.

"But there is a long way to go before sea travellers throughout Europe can be assured of optimum safety.

"Of particular concern are ships on routes in the Eastern Mediterranean, where serious safety issues continue to be raised."

Updated: 08:26 Monday, May 31, 2004