For the first time, freight hauliers using Stena Line's Dublin-Birkenhead (Liverpool) route will involve two company-owned ships, as Stena Scotia is to start sailing tomorrow, writes Jehan Ashmore.
In the meantime, the unaccompanied 114-trailer-unit freight ferry, which is to facilitate a matching doubling capacity by rejoining its twin, Stena Hibernia, albeit at Dublin Port, has today departed Belfast Harbour, from where it has served since 2018 on the freight-only link to Heysham, England.
Its departure this afternoon also marks an end of an era, as the 1996-built tonnage twins on the Belfast-Heysham route used the inner-city terminal of Albert Quay, Belfast, but with Friday’s entry into service of the second NewMax 2,800-class Stena Connecta, all sailings on this route now use the downriver berth at Victoria Terminal 2 (VT2). This is adjacent to VT4, which Stena also uses to serve Birkenhead and Cairnryan, Scotland.
In recent days, Stena Scotia shifted berths on the Lagan to the Harland & Wolff shipyard fit-out berth before it departed Belfast on its repositioning passage to Dublin. This has led to the ending of the chartered Bore Song, which actually had a larger 210 trailer capacity. Afloat has since tracked having returned to the Baltic Sea and its Finnish shipowners.
With this latest hybrid-powered newbuild, Stena Connecta also has Rotor Sails™ technology but notably is absent of the leadship Stena Futura, which entered service in recent months. However, combined, they complete the modernization of this increasingly busy trade route with Belfast, along with its passenger/freight routes to Scotland and England, and have seen record freight volumes. Noting the Liverpool link, in addition, has a dedicated freight ferry, Stena Forwarder.
Also on this route is operating Stena Estrid, which earlier this month had a berthing incident at Holyhead on the same day it was scheduled to depart for a planned dry-docking at APCL Cammel Laird, Birkenhead, and is currently covering the roster of Belfast-Birkenhead E-Flexer Stena Edda, also at the same shipyard. While a twin, Stena Embla, continues routine sailings. Taking the place of ‘Estrid’ on the Dublin-Holyhead route is Stena Nordica from Rosslare-Fishguard (see Manx ferry), along with the regular cruise ferry Stena Adventurer. Some ferry sailings today on the shorter sea route are cancelled due to adverse weather conditions.
The debut of the new second NewMax freighter enables Stena Scotia to be deployed on the Dublin-Birkenhead route, where the Stena Hibernia has served since September’s service of Stena Futura. Likewise, the weather has also led to the cancellation of tonight's sailing and the returning crossing from the UK. As for the Stena Scotia on the central Irish Sea route, it will initially call at Dublin's Ocean Pier around 2200. Its roster begins tomorrow, downriver at Terminal 5, with an inaugural sailing scheduled at 1915 and arriving on Merseyside at 0300.
Such moves by Stena are a consolidation of both its Irish Sea freight routes, with modern tonnage on the Belfast route, whilst Dublin is boosted by the matching, yet ageing, tonnage of three decades. The company competes with rival operator CLdN, whose operations slightly differ as the company’s UK port is based across the Mersey at Liverpool Docks, however, plans have been announced to develop a ‘lock-free’ river berth, thus reducing crossing times.
