Marine Atlantic - going shopping

 The Halifax Chronicle Herald newspaper reported on November 30 that Marine Atlantic is looking for a ship to replace the Leif Ericson in 2026.  

The oldest ship in the fleet*, the Leif Ericson was built in 1991 by Fosen Mekaniske Verksteder as the Stena Challenger for the Dover / Calais route across the English Channel. Marine Atlantic bought the ship from Stena Line of Sweden in 2000. They renamed it Leif Ericson in 2001 when it entered service between North Sydney, NS and Port aux Basques, NL.

The 18,523 gt, 4598 dwt ship is rated for 500 passengers, but is used almost exclusively for commercial vehicles and their drivers and drop trailers. With 1550 lane meters of vehicle deck it can carry 300 vehicles. It can be used for cars and passengers in case one of the other ships is out of service.

Marine Atlantic has a long standing relationship with Stena AB (and CN Marine before that) and has leased and purchased numerous ships from them, so they may well turn to them again.  

 There is even less need for passenger capacity now that Marine Atlantic added the Ala'suinu in 2024 with a capacity for 1,000 passengers, 470 cars and 120 trucks. It is therefore likely that the Leif Ericson replacement will be a similar RoRo freighter with limited accommodation.

* Footnote:

In addition to the ships mentioned CN Marine also operates the Blue Puttees ex Stena Trader and the Highlanders ex Stena Traveller on the North Sydney / Port aux Basques route. Built in 2006 and 2007 respectively, they were leased and extensively modified for the service in 2011. Marine Atlantic purchased the ships in 2015.

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