Norwegian company Bergen Cruise Lines has plans to run the ferry between Norway and England again. More precisely, it concerns the Newcastle–Bergen–Stavanger connection.
The Newcastle–Bergen–Stavanger Ferry existed for over 140 years until DFDS closed it in 2008.[1]Newcastle-Bergen-Stavanger ferry, Wikipedia.org There have been several attempts to revive this crossing since then, but to date without success.
Bergen Cruise Lines is planning to raise 2.2 billion Norwegian kroner for the development of a low-emission cruise ferry. This would sail on 50% less energy than the last DFDS boat on this route did.
The propulsion is based on LNG and with 13,500 kWh batteries the ship can sail electrically between the fjords and in the harbor.
On board the 210-meter-long ship, there will be a lot of entertainment. The ferry can accommodate 2380 passengers and 200 staff.
The frequency with which the boat will be able to sail is 3 times a week in the high season and 2 times a week in the low season. The ferry will also be used for the transport of goods.
More information: bergencruiseline.no
References
| ↑1 | Newcastle-Bergen-Stavanger ferry, Wikipedia.org |
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Important to mention that this is already a thing / rumor for many years. There have been about 4 tries in the last 10 years or so and none of them materialized. I do hope this one does work though, but let’s see!
I hope so too. Collecting funding can be a bit more difficult in the current times. In addition, due to the high gas prices, LNG ships have suddenly become much less attractive than before. But it would certainly be a nice route!
While this is exciting news from a routing point of view this does not appear to have access for cars…? In addition while I applaud their focus on reducing emissions this could be done far easier with investment in Green Hydrogen propulsion than LNG. Both Teeside and Norway are set to ramp up their production of Clean Green H2.
Hi Ollie, found some info on the car deck here: https://bergencruiseline.no/theproject-2/ “The BCL concept is a large cruise ferry of 210 x 31 meters with the capacity of 2 380 passengers and 200 crew combined with a large car deck and cargo capacity.”
we cruised to Norway many times until 2007. we miss that route so much
@Trevor, you are not alone. From 2007 tot 2026 there were ‘so many plans’ to re-enable this route, however not much materialized. The thing is that the great success of the route from Eemshaven to Kristiansand (which started last year) might be a good case to also restart this route. We really hope this route starts again in the near future.
I hope this is a go…it will make my planned trip to the Arctic Circle 2 weeks shorter than if I had to go through Dover-Calais.
It will be great to have this route open again. Great news and looking forward to it opening as soon as possible.
Really hope this happens… wanted to visit Bergen for so long, but looking at about 3+ days going by rail and sea at the moment!
Be great if this route is reinstated, We want to visit norway and take caravan,
But until last year it was 1 day drive to harwich, overnight ferry to Holland, then 2 days drive to north denmark and ferry denmark to Norway. Almost 4 days lost..
Alternate route since 2023 1 day drive to harwich, overnight ferry to Holland, 4 hour drive to Emden then catch Ms Romantika and be in Norway following day, 2 and a half days
Newcastle to Norway, will only be 1 day drive to Newcastle, then 24 ferry sailing all the way to Norway, it will be sooooo much easier. 2 days tops travelling.
Hi Plum,
We really hope this ferry will get there in 2026! This however isn’t the first time we hear about this connection appearing in the future, many things can go wrong and so far more failed then started.
The travel time through the Netherlands and such is instead a hassle. Have you ever looked at the Kiel – Oslo connection and driving all the way? (Calais-Dover) It’s a long drive but Kiel Oslo is a connection many people seem to enjoy!