Ferry News Archive
LD Lines to introduce a new Dover - Boulogne ferry service
Date: 08 Jul 2008 00:00 Source: Lloyds ListFrench ferry newcomer LD Lines has announced plans to add an English Channel service between Boulogne sur Mer and Dover to the two it already operates between Le Havre and Portsmouth and Dieppe and Newhaven, writes Andrew Spurrier in Paris.
The new service, the company’s first in the Dover Strait, is due to start on July 1 next year, and will use a single vessel to offer four round trips daily between the two ports.
The Boulogne chamber of commerce, which runs the French port, said that the new line would probably make use of Norman Spirit, the vessel which is in service between Le Havre and Portsmouth. LD Lines has yet to take a final decision on which ship it intends to use for the route, but it has already indicated that it plans to introduce a second vessel at an early stage.
The company expects to handle 120,000 trucks, 130,000 cars and 300,000 passengers in the first year of operation of the new line.
The start of the service will mark the opening of a new RoRo hub at Boulogne, pictured, where work has already begun on a new multi-purpose ramp, with a second due to follow in a matter of months.
Boulogne Chamber of Commerce chairman Francis Leroy said that the port was looking to obtain a sizeable share of the Dover Strait freight market through the new line but without taking traffic away from its neighbours, Calais and Dunkirk.
The port intended to take advantage of the “general progression of cross-channel freight traffic”, he said.
LD Lines made its debut on the English Channel in October 2005 when it took over the Le Havre-Portsmouth route abandoned by P&O Ferries.
Last year, the company won a concession from the Upper Normandy regional council to take over the Dieppe-Newhaven service operated by Transmanche Ferries.
It announced recently that it will be introducing a second vessel between Le Havre and Portsmouth in November and is due to take delivery of another new vessel from Singapore’s ST Marine in 2010.
To date, it has made a speciality of offering RoPax services using vessels designed primarily for the transportation of trucks but offering some limited passenger facilities
For more information on LD Lines, please visit our LD Lines page.
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