Displaying items by tag: exIrish Sea ferry
Former Irish Sea Ferry Leaves Norway-Sweden Route As Part of Color Line Cost-Cutting Operations
A former Irish Sea ferry which Stena Line had chartered in between 1999 and 2000, has recently ended a career in Norway for owners Color Line which cited reasons among them unsustainable high-energy operational costs, writes Jehan Ashmore.
Stena Invicta had first served on the Ireland-Wales route of Dublin-Holyhead and in the Millennium year Rosslare-Fishguard until Color Line operated as the Color Viking on the Norway-Sweden route of Sandefjord-Strømstad. This route links both sides of the Oslo fjord, some 100kms south of the Nordic state capital.
The Norwegian based operator which also has routes to Denmark and Germany, added its decision to cease the career of Color Viking was due to macro-economic uncertainty and weakened framework conditions. This particularly applies to a subsidy scheme for Norwegian seafarers, in a proposal of the national budget for 2023, with a further weakening of the schene is proposed in addition to halving the tax-free quota on tobacco for residents in Norway.
In recent years, Color Viking had undergone upgrades along with freight-only Color Carrier which too was withdrawn from the Oslo-Kiel route. Both ferries represent older tonnage of the remaining fleet of five, and will be put up for sale in the global market. This follows efforts to improve operating profit by around NOK 50 million in 2023 when compared to the current year.
Color Line will seek to minimize the number of crew redundancies through redeployment to the rest of their fleet and by offering voluntary schemes. The Sandefjord-Strømstad route continues to be operated by Color Hybrid (above photo) the world's largest plug-in hybrid ship built in Norway in 2019 to run the 2 hour 30 minute link.
Before Stena Invicta entered onto Irish Sea routes, in which Stena had chartered from P&O Ferries, the 1,773 passenger/ 370 car and 40 trailer capacity ferry had spent several years for Sealink Stena Line on the Dover-Calais route between 1991 and 1998.
Two years prior to joining Color Line, the 19,763 gross tonnes ferry was chartered to Finnish operator Silja Line on the Gulf of Bothnia. The route linking Vaasa with Umeå in Sweden saw the ferry marketed with the name of 'Wasa Jubilee'. (See, Afloat's coverage of current operator, WasaLine's enviromental LNG duel-fuel powered ferry).
Stena Invicta was built in 1985 for Danish State Railways (DSR) as their Peder Paars running the inter-island route between Kalundborg (Sjælland) and Arhus (Jylland). Five years later, Stena Rederi of Sweden acquired the short-sea ferry for UK counterpart, Sealink Stena Line operating a network of routes to Ireland, France and the Netherlands.
Peder Paars was a twin of Niels Klim in which Afloat will also feature as this second DSR ferry also had a career on the Irish Sea with the former British & Irish Steam Packet, better known when marketed as simply the B&I Line.