Port of Zeebrugge is happy with Transfennica's growth!

As of September 17, the 5th weekly sailing for Transfennica on Zeebrugge – Bilbao is a fact. The Managing Director of the Port of Zeebrugge, Mr Joachim Coens, welcomed MV Caroline Russ on her first arrival in Zeebrugge.

Mr Coens explains what Transfennica’s service means to Zeebrugge: “We all read and hear many stories about ferry companies reducing capacity. Transfennica Iberia is doing the exact opposite on the Zeebrugge – Bilbao service. Since the start 2 years ago we have seen impressive growth in traffic which is important to the overall activities in the Port of Zeebrugge. The daily number of ro/ro and con/ro sailings has continued to grow to an average of 20  per day. Transfennica’s admirable decision to put on a 3rd vessel will lead to a spin-off on the connecting services to the UK, Scotland, Denmark and Sweden. Existing operators will undoubtedly benefit on their routes as a result of this. Recently, it was announced that as of  November a con/ro service will start directly from Zeebrugge to Dublin. It is the only direct service from Belgium to Ireland for trailers. It also creates the opportunity for unaccompanied shipments between Spain and Ireland when using Zeebrugge as the hub, as well as onward rail connections into Germany, France and Italy”.

Van den Bosch – one of  Europe’s largest operators of dry & liquid bulk containers – has recently made some changes to their intermodal strategy to prepare for the increased options in Zeebrugge. Mr Paul van de Vorle, Commercial Manager, is commenting: “We started the cooperation with Transfennica back in January and because of the reliability of their sailing schedules we have been able to significantly improve the service we give to our customers. The increase to 5 sailings gives us the opportunity to put more volume on the vessels as we can now also ship time sensitive and temperature controlled cargo. A further reduction in long distance haulage as well as in CO2. Another important benefit of increased volumes in Zeebrugge is the efficiency in our operation and the connections to UK and Ireland”.

Mr Michael van den Heuvel, Director of Transfennica, concludes: “We have heard similar stories from the Port Authorities of Bilbao. Our presence, and increasing activity, creates a spin off for local companies. Stevedores, hauliers, rail service providers etc all benefit from our route. And this is something that comes on top of the real reason why we started: to create safer, cheaper and cleaner ways of transportation as an alternative to long distance haulage in Europe”.

(Source: Transport Weekly)