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Effective 12 March, 2002, Geest Ireland Ltd and Norfolkline are to extend their joint container service linking Rotterdam and Drogheda in the Irish Republic to include a weekly call in Belfast. Furthermore, the two companies will offer a direct weekly service from Drogheda and Belfast to Grangemouth in Scotland.
As a further consequence of this service change, Geest and Norfolkline will be launching their own weekly container service from Grangemouth to Rotterdam from where both companies offer on-carriage to destinations throughout mainland Europe.
Geest Ireland is a joint venture company between Quality Freight of Dublin and Geest North Sea Line of Rotterdam. Norfolkline is part of the A P Moller Group
Geest Ireland and Norfolkline launched their Rotterdam – Drogheda service in October 2000 with a single 262TEU vessel and added a second 262TEU ship in February 2001. A third ship, the 205TEU Heereplein, was added in October to give the present thrice-weekly sailing frequency.
Now, Heereplein is to be replaced by a larger vessel, the 292TEU Ijsseldijk, and the schedule will be amended to include weekly calls at the ports of Belfast and Grangemouth. While two sailings per week will operate on a Rotterdam – Drogheda – Rotterdam shuttle basis, the third will follow the rotation Rotterdam – Drogheda – Belfast – Grangemouth – Rotterdam. This duty is expected to be shared on an alternate basis between the two 262TEU vessels, Triton Loga and Maria Schepers.
With this new schedule, Geest Ireland and Norfolkline will offer sailings from Rotterdam to Drogheda on Tuesdays, Fridays and Saturdays with return sailings from Drogheda on Mondays (via Belfast and Grangemouth) and on Tuesdays and Fridays directly to Rotterdam.
Belfast will be called every Tuesday and Grangemouth every Thursday.
According to Geest Ireland director, Trevor Dumbleton, the new changes are in response to customer demand:
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“We chose Drogheda as our Irish port of call because it is ideally suited to serve virtually the entire Irish market. Not only is it just 45km north of Dublin - and congestion-free unlike the Port of Dublin, it is only 110km south of Belfast. However, a number of our customers indicated that they would prefer a direct call in Belfast. With a larger ship now at our disposal, we are delighted to be able to offer this service enhancement.
“In talks with our existing customers, we identified business which would use a direct link between Ireland and Grangemouth. Now that we have been able to confirm a start date, several customers have given firm commitments to use the service both from Drogheda and Belfast.” |
Fred Steeneken, general manager container division of Norfolkline, adds:
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“Norfolkline already operates a service to Waterford in the south and Drogheda is ideal for Dublin. Belfast is a natural next step to cover the whole of Ireland.” |
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