Tallink to open ro-ro service between Muuga and Vuosaari in autumn

Listed Estonian shipper Tallink Grupp is will open a regular roll-on roll-off freight route between the port of Muuga just outside Tallinn and the port of Vuosaari in Helsinki in October.

The move would redirect up to a quarter of Tallink's freight traffic between Estonia and Finland out of the Estonian capital.

Tallink’s cargo ship Sea Wind, at present operating out of Tallinn’s Old Town Harbor, will be moved to the Transiidikeskus AS terminal at Muuga Harbor in October, Tallink announced on Wednesday.

CEO of Tallink Grupp Janek Stalmeister said that given Tallink's constantly growing cargo volumes, the company needed to offer new opportunities to customers to develop the business further. Expanding its service to Muuga would broaden the range of services and give Tallink a competitive advantage, he said.

"Muuga will allow our customers to avoid traffic congestion and save time. Also, our customers travelling with passenger cars will win, as the number of trucks in the city center will decline, and traffic in the port area and around it will become smoother. The Muuga service will take four kilometers of trucks out of the city center every day, Tallinn will become a greener city, and urban traffic will improve," Stalmeister said.

CEO of port operator Tallinna Sadam (Port of Tallinn), Valdo Kalm, said that for them the decision represented a milestone. “It will reduce the much discussed traffic in the Old Town Harbor and liven up Muuga Harbor," he said.

"Good infrastructure has been developed at Muuga, which means that in order to launch the new ro-ro service after a six-year pause we and the other parties just have to complete some changes concerning the organization of work and technicalities. Looking further ahead, the Muuga-Vuosaari ro-ro service will offer us additional opportunities in increasing north-south freight flows and will also make way for the extension of Rail Baltic to Scandinavia," Kalm said.

CEO of Transiidikeskuse AS Vladimir Popov described the joint decision of the sides to launch the ro-ro service between Muuga and Vuosaari as a good example of public-private sector cooperation. He said the decision would have a positive effect on further increases in freight flows without damaging the environment and the infrastructure of Tallinn.

"Our terminal's infrastructure allows us to serve several ro-ro ship routes every day," he said, adding that the launch of the new service could be seen as the first practical step in developing the long discussed north-south project, the main partners in the implementation of which are the state and the private sector.

The 152-meter Sea Wind with its capacity for one thousand lane meters of trucks will make two trips on the route every day. Compared with the Old Town Harbor in the city center, Muuga can be reached faster from the main roads leading to Tallinn, including the Via Baltica, using the Tallinn Ring Road.

Muuga Harbor, the biggest and deepest commercial harbor in Estonia, lies at a distance of 16 kilometers from Tallinn's city center. Of the port's 29 quays, three are built for ro-ro vessels. The last ro-ro service out of Muuga was discontinued in 2011.

AS Tallink Grupp operates six different routes with 16 vessels under the Tallink and Silja Line brands. Ships of the company carry 9.5 million passengers a year, and cargo volumes carried by the ships grew 6.5 percent year over year to 328,000 units in 2016.