dollybird
13-11-2011, 02:52 PM
A NEW era of cruise liner-style luxury dawns for Scottish ferry passengers next week when they are offered Jacuzzis, saunas and iPads to enhance their voyage.
New vessels which will be the biggest ferries to sail between Britain and Ireland will also provide Xbox consoles and free drinks when they take over the Scotland-Belfast route.
Operator Stena Line claims the ferries will provide “unprecedented levels of comfort on the Irish Sea” for the one million passengers a year on the route.
There is also the prospect of improved onboard facilities for passengers on routes to both the Northern and Western Isles. Bidders for NorthLink’s Aberdeen-Orkney/Shetland service next year have the option of providing new vessels, while competition for key CalMac routes may be signalled in a Scottish Government review, due by Christmas.
Stena’s Superfast VII and VIII, which are each nearly 700ft long – the length of two football pitches – have been upgraded at a Polish shipyard after previously sailing between Finland and Germany.
Stena said they had “a look, feel and experience more akin to a cruise ship than a traditional ferry”.
The identical vessels will operate from the firm’s brand new Loch Ryan Port from Monday, 21 November, and take two hours, 15 minutes to reach Belfast.
The new terminal, near Cairnryan, will replace its current Stranraer base, eight miles further up the sea loch.
Professor Alf Baird, of Napier University in Edinburgh, said: “Stena Line have acquired two excellent ex-Superfast Ferries ships at a good price.”
The professor of maritime business at the university’s transport research institute added: “Compared with Stena’s previous high-speed vessel on the route [HSS Voyager], the new solution will enable them to carry more people, cars and freight at much lower overall fuel consumption and therefore at lower cost and with reduced emissions.”
The ten-deck ships can accommodate 660 cars – nearly twice as many as the largest of the current ferries on the route – along with 1,200 passengers.
New vessels which will be the biggest ferries to sail between Britain and Ireland will also provide Xbox consoles and free drinks when they take over the Scotland-Belfast route.
Operator Stena Line claims the ferries will provide “unprecedented levels of comfort on the Irish Sea” for the one million passengers a year on the route.
There is also the prospect of improved onboard facilities for passengers on routes to both the Northern and Western Isles. Bidders for NorthLink’s Aberdeen-Orkney/Shetland service next year have the option of providing new vessels, while competition for key CalMac routes may be signalled in a Scottish Government review, due by Christmas.
Stena’s Superfast VII and VIII, which are each nearly 700ft long – the length of two football pitches – have been upgraded at a Polish shipyard after previously sailing between Finland and Germany.
Stena said they had “a look, feel and experience more akin to a cruise ship than a traditional ferry”.
The identical vessels will operate from the firm’s brand new Loch Ryan Port from Monday, 21 November, and take two hours, 15 minutes to reach Belfast.
The new terminal, near Cairnryan, will replace its current Stranraer base, eight miles further up the sea loch.
Professor Alf Baird, of Napier University in Edinburgh, said: “Stena Line have acquired two excellent ex-Superfast Ferries ships at a good price.”
The professor of maritime business at the university’s transport research institute added: “Compared with Stena’s previous high-speed vessel on the route [HSS Voyager], the new solution will enable them to carry more people, cars and freight at much lower overall fuel consumption and therefore at lower cost and with reduced emissions.”
The ten-deck ships can accommodate 660 cars – nearly twice as many as the largest of the current ferries on the route – along with 1,200 passengers.