However, containerisation made many of the smaller ports suffer, this being only later recovered somewhat with newer, smaller multi-purpose ships that could travel to smaller ports, and the loosening of the trade links with the United Kingdom, which diversified the trade routes. The time for river ports had gone however, and most of them disappeared, facing particular pressure from the new rail ferries, In the 1980s, deregulation also involved and heavily changed the port industry, with harbour boards abolished, and replaced by more commercially focused companies. Many port jobs were lost, though shipping costs fell.