In July Stena Line introduced the largest ferry by far on to their route from Rosslare, Ireland to Cherbourg, France. The arrival of Stena Vision doubled passenger sailings on the crossing and brought extensive cruise-ferry style facilities to the service.
Stena’s involvement in the route date back 30 years, to the establishment of a freight-only service by Stena’s then rivals P&O. Under the Pandoro subsidiary, P&O launched the connection in late 1993 using European Pathfinder, which had come from Dover.
One of the original European class freighters built to serve Zeebrugge in the mid-late 1970s, she was renamed in 1996, and was replaced on the crossing in 2001 by the larger , one of the Korean-built Stena Searunner series. Formerly and , brought limited passengercarrying capacity to the link for the first time. In 2005, however, P&O sold the route and vessel to a consortium of Irish hauliers, who rebranded the operation as Celtic Link Ferries and shortened the vessel’s name to .
