TALLINN - Silja Line, the Finnish-owned shipping company, has predicted that the arrival of Tallink's new fast ship in 2007 will radically alter the passenger ferry market in the Gulf of Finland.
Meelis Laido, Silja Line Estonia's manager, said that Tallink's new fast ship, which will be able to sail year-round, will draw passengers away from competing shippers, particularly during the winter months when travel times become longer and many ships are forced to remain moored.
He said that during the first three months of the year, when the Gulf of Finland is usually covered with ice and fast boats are out of operation, Tallink's new fast ship will be able to whisk passengers back and forth between the two capitals.
Much, however, depends on the timetable, Laido explained. He said that he had heard that Tallink intends to have the new vessel carry on with the current departure times of the Meloodia car and passenger ferry.
Aker Finnyards, a Finnish shipbuilder, will soon start assembling a fast passenger ship that will be delivered to Tallink in the spring of 2007. The 185-meter, 110-million-euro ship will be able to handle 1,900 passengers and more than two kilometers of automobiles. Best of all, the distance between the two capitals in 110 minutes.
Similarly sized vessels spend about four hours covering the same distance.
Unlike the fast boats currently in use, the new ship will be ice-class and able to operate year-round.
Still, as regional winters have become milder, the navigation period for smaller fast boats have become longer. Vessels of Nordic Jet Line, a fast boat operator, continued plying the Tallinn-Helsinki route virtually throughout the past winter.
Silja Line carried 1.3 million passengers on the Tallinn-Helsinki route last year, 260,000 fewer than in 2003.
Tallink continues to be the market leader on the route, handling 2.3 million passengers last year, or 42 percent of the market.
According to figures by the Port of Tallinn, 5.7 million people traveled between the two cities by boat in 2004.
