In English (3.67 MB) - Finnlines

TransRussiaExpress (TRE)
the rock in the surf for sustainability of utmost
reliability for Russia for so many years
Building a successful shipping business is about having the foresight to identify an opportunity,
and the confidence to stand by your belief through good times and bad. In the Baltic, there is
surely no better example of this maxim at work than Finnlines’ TransRussiaExpress (TRE) service.
MS Translubeca in Kiel before the service was moved to Lübeck in 2002 & MS Transrussia serving the route Kiel-St. Petersburg
Photos: Finnlines archive
TRE was an immediate hit with its customers
when it was launched as a direct ro-ro liner
service between Kiel and St. Petersburg in
February 1997. Fourteen years on, it has developed
into a thriving business, with modern
ships carrying cargo and an increasing
number of passengers on a growing network
of routings.
12
Bumpy road to success
The years since the inauguration of the service
were not always easy, however. Indeed, it
has been a slightly bumpy road from there to
here, and it has required determination and
self-belief to get this far.
When TRE’s journey began, though, it was
all downhill. The service debuted with two
old Russian quarter-ramp ro-ros with capacity
of 950 lane metres, and developed so fast
that it was soon operating up to five ships
with a total weekly capacity of 4,750 lm in
both directions.
The first bump in the road came in August,
1998, when Russia’s economic collapse saw
volumes in what had been a profitable service
plunge 75 per cent almost overnight. Finnlines
and its then-partner TransLog (former BTS)
kept the service running nonetheless, even if
with only two ships, and slowly the market
recovered.
By 2000, they were investing again. The
next-generation ro-pax Translubeca, with
capacity for 1,750 lm of rolling cargo and
84 passengers, was deployed on the route
alongside the older 950 lm Transrussia. The
addition of other Finnlines ships and chartered
tonnage later boosted capacity to
6,750 lm per week, while in 2002 the service
was moved from Kiel to Lübeck.
New vessels and ports of call added
The global economic crisis that hit home in
late 2008, however, delivered another blow
to the service, with cargo volumes dropping
abruptly by 70 per cent, this at a
time when the Naplesbased
Grimaldi Group
had just taken over
Finnlines.
Undaunted, the new
owners continued to invest
in developing the
service. Since then, it has moved towards a
full ro-pax service with the addition in February,
2009, of the Transeuropa, with its capacity
for 3,200 lm and 124 passengers. The
service has grown steadily over the last two
years, and is now served by three vessels:
Transeuropa and its sister ship Transrussia,
formerly Finnhansa, and the smaller Translubeca,
for a total of 8,000 lm per week.
The service, which also calls at Sassnitz,
has been expanded recently, with two