The Norwegian shipping company Color Line operates the additional freight ferry “Color Carrier“ on the route Kiel – Oslo as of January 11th to increase its freight-carrying capability.
On the occasion of its inaugural call, the Lord Mayor of Kiel, Dr Ulf Kämpfer, PORT OF KIEL Managing Director Dr Dirk Claus and the Executive Manager of Sartori & Berger, Jens Broder Knudsen, welcomed the captain of the “Color Carrier”, Nils Sivertsen”, to the capital city of Schleswig-Holstein and handed over the traditional inaugural plaques during the onboard reception.
As of now, the additional freight ferry offers three roundtrips a week complementing the daily departures of the large passenger ferries. Hence, there are 10 departures per week and direction to choose from on this route.
The “Color Carrier” is 154.50 m long, 22.70 m wide and has a draught of 6.95 m. It has a load capacity of 1,775 lane meters. All sorts of rolling cargo such as trucks, trailers and containers on flats or also construction and agricultural machines are accepted. Furthermore, the vessel carries products of the automotive industry as well as temperature-controlled and classified goods as per IMDG-code. The ship was built in Norway in 1998, has a speed of 20 knots and an ice class.
At the beginning of the year, the Norwegenkai was integrated into the schedule of the Hamburg-Billwerder shuttle operating from Mondays till Fridays, which reaches all national combined transhipment stations overnight. Cargo units arriving by train from the opposite direction are transhipped onto the freight carrier to Norway on the same day.
The Norwegenkai has two berths that are equipped with a hydraulic roro-ramp each. In order to ensure smooth handling processes for the additional cargo units, the operating area on the Norwegenkai terminal has been expanded by 10,000 m2 already some time ago. Dirk Claus: „The PORT OF KIEL has currently invested another 1.5 million Euros in the infrastructure.” The row of fenders has been modified and another storm bollard has been installed. In the area of the track system, surfaces have been adapted, ISPS fences and gates have been relocated and trailer spaces have been newly marked. At the same time, the stevedoring contractor of Color Line, the firm of Sartori & Berger, has invested 1 million Euros in new tugmasters and reachstackers. In future, the “Color Carrier” departs from Kiel every Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday at 7 p.m. and arrives in Oslo the following day at 4 p.m. The large passenger ferries “Color Magic” and “Color Fantasy” continue to cast off daily from Norwegenkai at 2 p.m. to arrive at the Norwegian capital at 10 a.m. on the following day. Color Line carried about 1.1 million passengers and more than 750,000 tons of cargo on the route Kiel - Oslo last year.
