Stena Forerunner arrives in Belfast for the first time
Stena Line’s 195m long freighter STENA FORERUNNER arrived in Belfast for the first time earlier today, meanwhile STENA PERFORMER and STENA PRECISION are in Birkenhead.
STENA HIBERNIA (II) (ex HIBERNIA SEAWAYS / MAERSK IMPORTER) imo: 9121637
Stena Line Heysham and Birkenhead fleet movement update
STENA HIBERNIA is currently scheduled to leave Belfast Dry Dock this afternoon, starting a chain of fleet movements for both Stena Line and Seatruck.
Former Heysham vessel Stena Scotia to make Belfast return
Former Belfast to Heysham vessel STENA SCOTIA (ex SCOTIA SEAWAYS, MAERSK EXPORTER) is to return to Belfast as widely expected.
A look inside: STENA HIBERNIA
A series of images taken onboard the Stena Line Irish Sea freighter STENA HIBERNIA by Scott Mackey. Â
Stena Hibernia technical problems
The Belfast – Heysham freight vessel STENA HIBERNIA has been out of service since Monday 28/08/17 with what is understood to be engine problems.
Latest local ferry news (wk2 April ’17)
A quick roundup of local ferry news from the past couple of weeks. Carlingford Lough Ferry to start later this year. Scenic Carlingford ferry have announced that they expect the service between Greenore (Co. Louth) and Greencastle (Co. Down), which has caused controversy in some quarters, to begin this coming June. It is expected that the vessel to be used on the service will be the former (Magilligan to Greencastle (Co. Donegal)) Lough Foyle Ferry FOYLE VENTURE (ex Shannon Willow) which is owned by parent company, Frazer Ferries. FOYLE VENTURE is currently laid up at Wicklow EDIT 14/4/17 operating on the Passage East ferry service across the River Suir in place of FDB TINTERN, having undertaken berthing trials at both Passage East ferry (also owned by Frazer Ferries) terminals on the way to Wicklow. The Carlingford Lough Ferry service had been given the go-ahead as far back as March 2014, but has been … Read more
In strange waters #2: Stena Line Irish Sea dry docking’s/refits 2017.
This page will be continually updated throughout the refit period which is expected to run until May 2017. Last years “in strange waters” can be found here. Please note that due to the nature of their content, both pages are very heavy in photographic material and may take a while to load on slower connections. Â The second part of this year’s feature can be found here. This year Stena Line will complete all Irish Sea dry docking’s at Belfast’s Harland and Wolff shipyard, that’s a total of 9 ships from the fleet of 11. At the end of 2016 Stena announced that the entire fleet would be receiving the latest livery and strap-line “Connecting Europe for a Sustainable Future” during their scheduled dry docking’s, in a style similar to that applied to Stena Britannica recently. This replaces the previous “Making Good Time” strap-line. (Title image: Stena Europe in Rosslare displaying the … Read more
Stena kicks-off Irish Sea refit programme
Stena Hibernia first of 9 Stena Line vessels to visit Harland and Wolff. Stena Line kicked off their 2017 Irish Sea refit programme today (Wednesday), with Stena Hibernia making the short journey across the River Lagan to Harland and Wolff’s ‘Belfast Dry Dock’. Stena Europe will be next to go for refit on Jan 4th, covered by Stena Nordica which is returning to the Irish Sea as the refit cover vessel this year. This follows spells on the English Channel and Mediterranean with DFDS and GNV respectively, following her displacement on the Dublin to Holyhead route by Stena Superfast X. Stena Nordica is of course a part-sister ship to P&O’s European Causeway and European Highlander, having been built for P&O as European Ambassador. £7m contract It is expected that the Stena Line Irish Sea refit programme for 2017 will run until early next May. As reported previously, Harland and Wolff … Read more
PR: Stena Line Adds Extra Pre-Christmas Freight Capacity
Leading ferry company Stena Line is adding additional freight capacity to its busy Belfast-Liverpool service in support of the retail sector as it starts to ramp up for its key pre-Christmas trading period. Stena Line is adding an extra two sailings per week, from Fri 21St October until 16th Dec, it will operate an additional Friday departure from Belfast (15.30hrs) and from Monday 24th October until 19th December it will operate and additional Monday departure (08.00hrs) from Birkenhead, Liverpool. The extra sailings will provide increased freight capacity for up to 2 000 more freight units across the Irish Sea at a crucial time for businesses seeking to maximise their Christmas trade. Richard Horswill, Stena Line’s Head of Freight (UK and Ireland) said: “The extra sailings we have announced today represent an additional 25% capacity on our Belfast-Liverpool freight only service with departures times designed to optimise customer delivery schedules. Since we … Read more
Stena add additional freight sailing between Belfast and Birkenhead?
Looking at the live timetable on the Stena Line freight website this evening, it appears that an extra sailing has been added on Friday afternoon between Belfast and Birkenhead, returning Monday morning ex Birkenhead at 08:00. How this will work in practice remains to be seen though, as with an 08:00 departure from Birkenhead Stena Performer would not be able to operate the 15:30 from Belfast as she would not be back in time. More if/when I hear it (as there has been nothing official from Stena), but I assume some sort of rotation will be worked out with the Heysham ships (Stena Precision and the smaller Stena Hibernia). Edit 18/10/17:  Stena have officially announced these extra sailings which will add extra capacity in the run up to Christmas.  At present it looks as if Stena Performer, Stena Precision, and Stena Hibernia will take it in turns to operate as the third ship … Read more
Stena in Belfast – Celebrating 20 years of Stena Line operating from Belfast.
20th anniversary of Stena Line switching the historic Larne – Stranraer service to Belfast. Today marks 20 years from the last sailing of what was then Stena Sealink Line, into the Port of Larne from Scotland, with tomorrow the anniversary of the first Stena ferry sailing from Belfast. Few could have predicted at the time that 20 years, and 2 bespoke Belfast-Scotland terminals later, Stena Line would also offer services from Belfast to Birkenhead and Heysham, as well as operating a pair of 203 metre long ferries to Scotland from Belfast. Just six weeks after the switch, on the 31st December 1995, the “Sealink” name would disappear altogether with all UK operations being rebranded as “Stena Line”. Of course, things have also changed dramatically at Larne. No longer Northern Ireland’s premier ferry port, Stena’s rise at Belfast has been somewhat mirrored by P&O’s decline at Larne. The services to Fleetwood and … Read more
