The ferry company Tallink is celebrating this year a decade of its shuttle services that since April 2007 transported 30 mln travellers between the ports of Helsinki and Tallinn.

"Since the maiden voyage of our first shuttle class vessel in April 2007, which consistently provides high-speed transportation all year round regardless of the weather conditions, we have carried a total of 30 million passengers between the so-called twin capitals," Janek Stalmeister, Chairman of Tallink Grupp's Management Board, commented.

He further added, "Having started to use shuttle class vessels, we wished a well-deserved retirement to the era of smaller AutoExpress catamaran ships that also carried cars; in the weather conditions rather typical of the Baltic Sea, they took passengers on journeys best described as 'rollercoaster rides' or would be stuck in the harbour because of the wind. Shuttle vessels of high ice class and storm resistance have in turn created confidence among all the people who value travel reliability and consistent all-year-round schedules in the first place."

"This year, we are celebrating a symbolic jubilee in marine traffic between Helsinki and Tallinn by bringing a new high-speed vessel Megastar, which is also the most modern on the Baltic Sea, to the route with the busiest ship traffic between two European capitals," Stalmeister concluded.

The ferry Star was Tallink's first shuttle vessel that entered onto the Hel-Tal route back in April 2007, supported exactly one year later by Superstar. This year, on January 29th, the company's newbuilding, the LNG-run Megastar, was deployed on the route in question.