Regular passenger ferry traffic from Helsinki to St. Petersburg to start in July

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The Stella Company Group, headquartered in Helsinki, has announced that it will start year-round regular passenger traffic on the route Helsinki - St. Petersburg - Helsinki at the end of July.
      The shipping company has purchased a passenger ferry M/S Christian IV, which will sail under the Finnish flag and under another name.
     
The services will include departures from Helsinki every second day. The exact schedules are still open as a berth has not been reserved as yet.
      ”In principle, the arrival will be in the morning, and the departure in the evening”, reports Tapio Kivilehto, the manager of shipping operations at Stella Lines Oy Ltd.
      ”The sales of cruises will start as soon as possible. I believe that everything will be in order in less than two weeks”, Kivilehto adds.
     
Christian IV was built in 1982 and it can accommodate close to 1,900 passengers and about 560 passenger cars. It previously belonged to the Norwegian Color Line.
      Stella had also considered other alternatives, including Finnjet, the former gas turbine ferry recently in the news because of its impending trip to the breaker's yard.
     


Previously in HS International Edition:
  Helsinki looking forward to record-breaking summer cruise season (8.5.2008)

Links:
  Stella Company Group

Helsingin Sanomat