Ostend Spirit commenced service from Ramsgate yesterday. She has been repainted in a mixture of TEF and LD colours, pictures on link below. At the moment, she is timing her arrivals at Ramsgate to coincide with high water as there is still more dredging to be performed.
This puts her back on her old run Ramsgate-Ostend from when she was the Prins Filip operated by the Belgian state owned company RMT. When they folded, TEF took over the run using superannuated ex Dover ferries. TEF have been concentrating on freight and most of their fleet are due for a one way trip to the scrapyard.
Ostend Spirit will now run in tandem with the existing TEF flagship Oleander (ex Pride of Free Enterprise), which has respectable passenger facilities. LD have chartered Ostend Spirit to TEF and will be promoting the passenger side of the business. They have been looking at running to Ostend for some time and this is a foot in the door. It would come as no surprise to see them buying out TEF at a later date.
The introduction of Ostend Spirit represents a major upgrade for Ramsgate-Ostend, albeit at the temporary expense of LD Line's Dover-Boulogne service which doubtless will receive attention in due course. Good news for the Belgians who are also about to have the Dover-Zeebrugge service reinstated by P&O.
Both LD and P&O will have taken heed of the major success achieved by Norfolkline on their Dover-Dunkerque route. Access to Ostend and Zeebrugge gives a direct connection to Benelux and Germany, and Boulogne a direct connection to traffic coming up from Southwest France. Both circumvent Calais and offer an alternative for the numerous occasions when it is closed by industrial action etc.
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