RIP 24 Dec 2010
A ro-ro service to Larne and Dublin was started by P&O in 1976, taking over from an earlier lo-lo service. The Dublin service was moved to Liverpool around 1980, but the Larne service was very successful, building up to three sailings a day at it's peak. Stena Line took over the service in 2004 and a few years later announced improvements to the service with new faster ships and a passenger terminal at Fleetwood to enable foot passengers to be carried for the first time. A suitable design for the new ships was a long time coming, early 2010, but the designs never left the drawing board as later that year Stena took-over the DFDS routes from Heysham and the Mersey to Larne and closed the Fleetwood service on Dec 24 2010.
PS The three vessels always associated with this route were subsequently sold to a Russian company for service on the Black Sea and from Turkey to Egypt. The vessels continued on these services until they were withdrawn early in 2014 and all three arrived within days of each other at Aliaga, for breaking, in February 2014. A sad but inevitable end.