LD Lines Information & LD Lines Links at HealthHaven.com

LD Lines is a French shipping company. It is predominantly a freight operator, with both deep-sea and ferry operations, but also operates some passenger services. Its ferry routes are on the English Channel and Mediterranean Sea.

The company is a subsidiary of the Louis Dreyfus Group.

[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' long-standing operation on this route.

Initially there was one sailing per day in each direction, with the Portsmouth-Le Havre sailing taking place overnight. This utilised 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 had ordered a new ro-pax ferry for the route from Singapore Technologies Engineering, with an option for another ship of the same type.^[1] The ship, which will be capable of carrying 1215 passengers will enter service in 2010 and be named Norman Leader. ^[2]

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 ^[3]. The new ship, the Norman Voyager was constructed in Italy and entered service on 6 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 and a true sister of the Scottish Viking which Norfolkline will operate between Rosyth and Zeebrugge.

[edit] Le Havre - Rosslare

In November 2008 LD Lines opened a weekly passenger and freight service between Le Havre and Rosslare, Republic of Ireland. The Norman Voyager operates on the route departing from Le Havre on Fridays and returning from Rosslare on Saturdays. The crossing time is 20 hours ^[4]. A significant customer of this service is Citroen who use the route to transport new cars to Ireland.

[edit] Dieppe / Le Havre - Newhaven

LD Lines was one of five 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 subsidised company by the name of Transmanche Ferries in April 2001. After five 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. However in August 2008 they announced that this service would not be continued.

[edit] Boulogne - Dover

LD Lines and Boulogne Chamber of Commerce announced on 4 July 2008 that LD Lines would open a service between Boulogne and Dover from 1 July 2009^[5]^[6]^[7]. It was initially planned that the company would initially operate four round trips a day between the two ports using the 'Norman Spirit' with a second ship joining the route at a later date. In January 2009 it was announced by LD Lines that the route would start early and begin operating from 12 February 2009, using the 'Côte d’Albâtre'^[8], 'Norman Spirit' will therefore remain on the Portsmouth-Le Havre route. Because the new Boulogne ferry terminal is not due to be completed until July 2009 the service will initially use the terminal formerly used by SpeedFerries. For this service and the former Dover-Dieppe route, the 'Côte d’Albâtre' is chartered to LD Lines from the Seine Maritime Council. The 'Côte d’Albâtre' was joined in June 2009 by the 112 metre high speed catamaran Norman Arrow which operates four additional round trips on the route. 'Norman Arrow' was built by Incat and is chartered from Irish based MGC Chartering. She is the largest catamaran operating on the English Channel. ^[9]

[edit] Dieppe - Dover

In February 2009 the company started sailing between Dover and Dieppe. The service operated daily with a journey time of around 4 hours 15 minutes, using the ferry "Cote d'Albatre". This was the first time that these two ports had been connected with a ferry service. The Dover-Dieppe service ceased on 29 June 2009, due to lack of traffic. ^[10]

[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] Saint-Nazaire - Gijón

LD Lines will launch a Saint-Nazaire-Gijón service in October 2009. This route will receive a European Union subsidy as part of its Motorways of the Sea project.

[edit] Fleet

[edit] References

[edit] External links

[0] [1]

[1] LD Lines - Pictures of the New Building!

[2] LD Lines - The New Voyager

[3] Rosslare - Le Havre Timetable

[4] Mer et Marine (in French) - LD Lines ouvre une nouvelle ligne entre Boulogne et Douvres

[5] La Voix du Nord (in French) - LD Lines en bonne place pour une 2e ligne Boulogne - Douvres

[6] LD Lines News - LD LINES GRANTED PORT APPROVAL FOR NEW DOVER – BOULOGNE SERVICE IN 2009

[7] LD Lines Dover - Boulogne Timetable

[8] Incat - Sea Trials Success for Incat's third 112 metre wave piercing catamaran

[9] LD Lines - LD Lines cancels the Dover - Dieppe route

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