80 INTERVIEW Innovation at sea Paul Grant tells Simon Johnson about his role in expanding Stena Line’s Irish Sea business and reveals what’s next for the ferry company The Irish Sea has quickly become one of Stena Line’s most important trading areas. In 2024, the ferry operator transported more than 2.7 million passengers, 830,000 cars and almost 900,000 freight units over seven routes in the region, where 12 ships provide a total of 238 sailings each week. Paul Grant, Stena Line’s trade director, has played an instrumental role in the growth of this area of business. “There is no doubt that one of the main gamechangers for our Irish Sea business was the decision we took to move our operations from Larne to a new purposebuilt terminal in Belfast Harbour in November 1995,” he says. “At that time, and still to this day, we have unshakeable confidence in Belfast Harbour as a future driver for growth. The results, in terms of our volumes over the last three decades, speak for themselves.” One of the success stories of the region has been the acquisition of two superfast vessels for Stena Line’s Belfast to Cairnryan route. “When the option to acquire Superfast VII and VIII became available, we knew that – if we could adapt the configuration of the vessels to focus more on the shorter Belfast to Cairnryan route compared to the overnight service they previously operated on – we could create a strong Northern Ireland to Scotland product,” explains Grant. “Both vessels had already proved their seaworthiness and reliability operating on the Helsinki to Rostock route between Finland and Germany. Once we knew the required changes were possible, we were convinced they’d be a success operationally and with customers – and indeed they have.” Adapting the configuration required Stena Line to remove all but six passenger cabins and to create a new passenger area on deck eight. By doing this, the ship transformed from an overnight ferry to a day ferry capable of carrying up to 1,200 passengers in comfort. “We retained the spa area, but pretty much transformed the two ships simultaneously in Gdansk [Poland] before starting service from our new Loch Ryan Port in November 2011,” says Grant. The introduction of Stena RoRo’s E-Flexer series of vessels has also “ Our major focus now will be to keep the company at the forefront of innovation” Stena Embla (pictured) and its sister ship Stena Edda are the biggest ferries to ever operate on the route between Belfast and Liverpool
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