The steel cutting ceremony was held on Friday for the vessels that will have around 3,000 m of drive through lane capacity and able to accommodate 1,000 passengers.
Some 50% larger than today’s standard ro-pax vessels the newbuilds are due for delivery in 2019 and 2020.
“Through standardisation and built-in flexibility, we are planning to secure a highly reliable ferry operation which will provide even better support to our customers and help them to grow. We foresee continued growth within ferry transportation and this is an important step in preparing our business for that growth,” said Niclas Mårtensson, ceo of Stena Line.
The company is currently planning introduce the vessels on its Irish Sea services.
The newbuilds are also more environmentally friendly and both “gas ready” for conversion to use LNG as a fuel.
“The new ro-pax vessels will be among the most fuel efficient in the world with approximately 25% lower CO2 emissions per cargo unit than comparable RoPax tonnage,” said Mårtensson.
“The vessels will run on traditional fuel, but are designed to the class notation “gas ready” and are also prepared for scrubbers as well as catalytic converters, giving us even greater flexibility for the future.”
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