Stena Line confirmed on 18th October that it was adding extra freight capacity to its Belfast-Liverpool service. The 13,017gt/1996 built Stena Hibernia (above) was subsequently introduced onto the route from Tuesday 5th November and will initially operate eight sailings per week giving freight customers greater availability and choice.

The extra sailings will depart Liverpool Tues-Fri at 0300hrs and will depart Belfast Tues-Fri at 1500hrs. Stena Line acquired the Belfast-Liverpool and Belfast-Heysham services in July 2011 and since then has undertaken an investment programme to increase capacity and improve service levels. The Stena Hibernia began life as Norfolkline’s Maersk Importer on the Scheveningen-Felixstowe service before moving to the Irish Sea for DFDS Seaways as the Hibernia Seaways. She was transferred to Stena Line in 2010 and renamed in 2011 prior to being moved away from the Irish Sea and subsequently laid up since spring 2012.

On 7th November Irish Ferries then announced the addition of the Italian flagged, 26,375gt and 2011 built Epsilon (formerly the Cartour Epsilon) for the Dublin-Holyhead route to supplement the sailings offered by the 50,938gt/2001 built Ulysses and the 5,989gt/1999 built Jonathan Swift. The 186m long Visentini built ship can accommodate 500 passengers plus crew and offers 2,860 lane metres of vehicle capacity. The chartered ship will be available for service in December 2013.