I think that`s really strange to take both ferries at the same time so long out of service.
There is/was no dep. to Danmark i Jan./Febr./March ? The expensive Norwegian Crews has now ca. 5 month paid holidays ?
Than starting the Catamaran only from 31.3. with 1 round-trip daily ?
And the freight-customers are accepting all this ???
The E 39 Kristiansand-Stavanger will now become "fast" motorway - so i think in long-term Fjordline would be much better with trying new routes for Stavangerfjord / Bergensfjord. Who will hang around in 4, 6, or 8 years very long time for really a lot of money on ferries with dep. maximal 1 x daily only - if Kristiansand-Stavanger is possible in 1,5 hours only day and night always on the E 39 ? And from Stavanger to Bergen will be/ is also much faster to drive than in the past.
So better to concentrate more on Kristiansand-Hirtshals - maybe also with a 2nd (bigger) Catamaran, cheaper ticket-prices and also earlier starting mid febr. or 1.march there is much more potential than today. And the cabin-ferries use on long attractive overnight-routes to Europe:
A) Bergen/Stavanger - Edinburgh/Newcastle/Aberdeen
B) Göteborg - Kristiansand - Edinburgh/Newcastle/Aberdeen
C) Bergen/Stavanger - Wilhelmshaven/Bremerhaven/Emden/(Cuxhaven)
D) Kristiansand - Wilhelmshaven/Bremerhaven/Emden/(Cuxhaven)
E) Oslo/Langesund/Moss - (Skagen/Frederikshavn) - Rostock
F) I am also 100% sure that HAMBURG(city) - LONDON(Tilbury + own ferry-buses to downtown-different main-trainstations) would work very well. So that travellers from any city in England has only 1 change f.ex. in Victoria Station to the ferry-bus (the buses are going onboard stopping at the elevator as Kombardoexpressen in Molslinjen !) - and than next stop is Hamburg-downtown. 2nd bus from Waterloo-train-station etc. . Especially with big luggage cheaper than all flights and a (big cruise-)ferry could it offer much much cheaper and easier (less changes !) as trains also.
Route A) B) and F) was very successfully operating over decades, today with full duty-free profit-chances it would be very good routes again.
Route C) would replace much more attractive than today mostly the today-route Hirtshals-Stavanger-Bergen
Route D) was a market-gap since decades also, but why to let Holland-Norway-Lines enjoy monopoly there ?
Route E) is for me not to understand since decades why this route nobody starts, from Rostock it is much faster today to the most German and European cities - than from Kiel ! So Color Line can enjoy monopoly Germany-Norway the next 100 years also with galactic tickt-prices and maybe the next new-building-plans with again much bigger ferries are already in the drawer ?
So summary my proposals for Fjordline 2024:
- close the actually route Hirtshals-Stavanger-Bergen, all "my" other routes will bring much more customers and profit 365 days per year.
- 1 cabin-ferry starts route C) - if Holland-Norway-Lines now chose Emden, than take the bigger city Bremerhaven, there was a lot of local newspaper-articles that the local politics there would support any new ferry-route massive. They are very unhappy there that Kiel, Travemünde and Rostock has "1000" ferries and they has 0 in Bremerhaven.
- 1 cabin-ferry starts A) B) or E) - all these 3 routes are good routes, difficult to say which would be the best of them... - just try and see.
- starts Hamburg-London with another chartered XXXL - cruise-ferry from Tallink, they will get back 1 or 2 more cruise-ferries until spring 2024 and has no concept anymore for to use these ferries on overnight-routes. Operation-concept is to copy from Viking Line - what means mass-transport with year-around full ships with cheapest prices, cleaning of the ship in Hamburg etc. . Ship has to be offered to the people as cruise-ship (but sure can cars, trucks, coaches and campers go onboard too) - than everybody is happy also with cheapest Phillipines-crews as it is on all other big cruise-ships (and a lot of ferries, f.ex. P&O, TT etc.) also normal standard today.
- if in Oslo-port is anywhere space for 2 hours turnaround, route E) could be started also with another chartered XXXL-cruise-ferry from Tallink. From Langesund or Moss (the ramp from the former Stena Nordica route is still there) only better start with Stavangerfjord or Bergensfjord.
There is/was no dep. to Danmark i Jan./Febr./March ? The expensive Norwegian Crews has now ca. 5 month paid holidays ?
Than starting the Catamaran only from 31.3. with 1 round-trip daily ?
And the freight-customers are accepting all this ???
The E 39 Kristiansand-Stavanger will now become "fast" motorway - so i think in long-term Fjordline would be much better with trying new routes for Stavangerfjord / Bergensfjord. Who will hang around in 4, 6, or 8 years very long time for really a lot of money on ferries with dep. maximal 1 x daily only - if Kristiansand-Stavanger is possible in 1,5 hours only day and night always on the E 39 ? And from Stavanger to Bergen will be/ is also much faster to drive than in the past.
So better to concentrate more on Kristiansand-Hirtshals - maybe also with a 2nd (bigger) Catamaran, cheaper ticket-prices and also earlier starting mid febr. or 1.march there is much more potential than today. And the cabin-ferries use on long attractive overnight-routes to Europe:
A) Bergen/Stavanger - Edinburgh/Newcastle/Aberdeen
B) Göteborg - Kristiansand - Edinburgh/Newcastle/Aberdeen
C) Bergen/Stavanger - Wilhelmshaven/Bremerhaven/Emden/(Cuxhaven)
D) Kristiansand - Wilhelmshaven/Bremerhaven/Emden/(Cuxhaven)
E) Oslo/Langesund/Moss - (Skagen/Frederikshavn) - Rostock
F) I am also 100% sure that HAMBURG(city) - LONDON(Tilbury + own ferry-buses to downtown-different main-trainstations) would work very well. So that travellers from any city in England has only 1 change f.ex. in Victoria Station to the ferry-bus (the buses are going onboard stopping at the elevator as Kombardoexpressen in Molslinjen !) - and than next stop is Hamburg-downtown. 2nd bus from Waterloo-train-station etc. . Especially with big luggage cheaper than all flights and a (big cruise-)ferry could it offer much much cheaper and easier (less changes !) as trains also.
Route A) B) and F) was very successfully operating over decades, today with full duty-free profit-chances it would be very good routes again.
Route C) would replace much more attractive than today mostly the today-route Hirtshals-Stavanger-Bergen
Route D) was a market-gap since decades also, but why to let Holland-Norway-Lines enjoy monopoly there ?
Route E) is for me not to understand since decades why this route nobody starts, from Rostock it is much faster today to the most German and European cities - than from Kiel ! So Color Line can enjoy monopoly Germany-Norway the next 100 years also with galactic tickt-prices and maybe the next new-building-plans with again much bigger ferries are already in the drawer ?
So summary my proposals for Fjordline 2024:
- close the actually route Hirtshals-Stavanger-Bergen, all "my" other routes will bring much more customers and profit 365 days per year.
- 1 cabin-ferry starts route C) - if Holland-Norway-Lines now chose Emden, than take the bigger city Bremerhaven, there was a lot of local newspaper-articles that the local politics there would support any new ferry-route massive. They are very unhappy there that Kiel, Travemünde and Rostock has "1000" ferries and they has 0 in Bremerhaven.
- 1 cabin-ferry starts A) B) or E) - all these 3 routes are good routes, difficult to say which would be the best of them... - just try and see.
- starts Hamburg-London with another chartered XXXL - cruise-ferry from Tallink, they will get back 1 or 2 more cruise-ferries until spring 2024 and has no concept anymore for to use these ferries on overnight-routes. Operation-concept is to copy from Viking Line - what means mass-transport with year-around full ships with cheapest prices, cleaning of the ship in Hamburg etc. . Ship has to be offered to the people as cruise-ship (but sure can cars, trucks, coaches and campers go onboard too) - than everybody is happy also with cheapest Phillipines-crews as it is on all other big cruise-ships (and a lot of ferries, f.ex. P&O, TT etc.) also normal standard today.
- if in Oslo-port is anywhere space for 2 hours turnaround, route E) could be started also with another chartered XXXL-cruise-ferry from Tallink. From Langesund or Moss (the ramp from the former Stena Nordica route is still there) only better start with Stavangerfjord or Bergensfjord.