Meyer Turku-built ferry will operate on the Tallinn to Helsinki route from 29 January
By
Rebecca Gibson |
Tallink Grupp took delivery of its new €230 million (US$247 million) LNG ferry from Meyer Turku on 24 January.
The 2,800-passenger Megastar has been designed to operate between Tallinn, Estonia and Helsinki, Finland and can run on both LNG and marine diesel fuel. Using LNG fuel will eliminate sulphur oxide and soot particle emissions, and reduce nitrogen and carbon dioxide emissions. This will enable the ferry to meet both current and future Emission Control Area regulations.
Megastar, which will enter service on 29 January, also has an advanced hull shape to substantially increase fuel savings.
“Connecting Finland and Estonia, and even further – Northern Europe to the Baltic States and being the preferred hub for that is an important goal for us,” said Janek Stalmeister, Tallink Grupp CEO. “With Megastar, this hub becomes the most modern sea-hub in the region. At Tallink we have been researching what our customers want in a next-generation ferry. Then we worked closely with Meyer Turku on a fresh and functional design of the ship and I am sure the outcome will please all our customers. We are very thankful to Meyer Turku for listening carefully to our wishes and building an excellent ship for us.”
Megastar’s passengers are accommodated in the Star Class (standard), the Comfort Class, or the Business Class. For the first time, the Star Class area offers two separate lounges – the Sitting lounge for recreational passengers and the Driver`s lounge for cargo drivers. The ferry also offers seven restaurants and cafés, bars, a children`s play area and a two-deck Traveller Superstore.
“We started Megastar by imagining how a new design can again bring a next level of improvements to ferry operation,” said Jan Meyer, CEO of Meyer Turku. “It follows over a year of design work that is closely linked and partly overlapping with the pre-production, assembly, fine tuning and testing the ship. Yet the big moment of hard truth comes at the end when we deliver one large and sophisticated ship, like we did with Tallink Megastar – a product of great team work that is bigger than all the individual efforts.”
Megastar was co-financed by the European Union, the Connecting Europe Facility, Transport – Motorways of the sea.