LD Lines
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LD Lines are a French-owned shipping company. They are predominantly a freight operator, with both deep-sea and ferry operations, but also operate some passenger services. Their ferry routes are on the English Channel and Mediterranean Sea.
The company is a subsidiary of the Louis Dreyfus Group.
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[edit] Freight operations
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[edit] English Channel operations
[edit] Le Havre - Portsmouth
LD Lines' English Channel operations commenced in October 2005, operating between Portsmouth, England and Le Havre, France. This service was introduced following the withdrawal of P&O Ferries' longstanding operation on this route.
There is one sailing per day in each direction, with the Portsmouth-Le Havre sailing taking place overnight. This uses one vessel, the MS Norman Spirit, which is ironically a former P&O vessel (used on their Dover-Calais route until May 2005).
On July 13 2007 it was reported that LD Lines have ordered a new ro-pax ferry for the route from Singapore Technologies Engineering, with an option for another ship of the same type.[1]
On 28 March 2008 it was announced that a second ship would be introduced on the Le Havre route to operate alongside the Norman Spirit [2]. The new ship, referred to as the Norman Voyager in Pierre Gehanne's blog[3], is currently under construction in Italy and will enter service in November 2008. The new ship is a near sister of the Mersey Viking and Lagan Viking which are operated by Norfolkline on their Liverpool-Belfast service.
[edit] Le Havre - Rosslare
From November 2008 LD Lines will open a weekly passenger and freight service between Le Havre and Rosslare, Republic of Ireland. The new ferry currently under construction in Italy will serve the route departing from Le Havre on Fridays and returning from Rosslare on Saturdays. The crossing time is expected to be 20 hours [4].
[edit] Dieppe / Le Havre - Newhaven
LD Lines was one of 5 companies invited to tender for the operation of Transmanche Ferries service between Dieppe and Newhaven. P&O Stena Line operated the route until 1998 after which Hoverspeed operated the route until 2004. Because the French government did not want the route to be lost, they started a new sudsidised company by the name of Transmanche Ferries in April 2001. After 5 years of successful service and the arrival of two newbuilds, the government decided to tender the line in a concession. The contract to operate the service was awarded to LD Lines on 21 December 2006. For this service they will receive an annual subsidy of up to € 14.6 million. LD Lines commenced sailings on this route on 1 May 2007. In addition to three roundtrips between Dieppe and Newhaven LD Lines started a single roundtrip per day between Le Havre and Newhaven during high season using the MS Seven Sisters.
[edit] Mediterranean Sea operations
LD Lines are partners in GLD Lines, which operates a passenger and freight ferry service between Toulon and Rome. They also operate ro-ro freight services between Marseille and Tunis, in addition to other routes serving ports including Algiers, Barcelona, Piraeus and Valencia.
There are also operations which specialise in the delivery of newly-manufactured cars.
[edit] Fleet
- MS Norman Spirit
- MS Seven Sisters
- MS Cote d'Albatre
