Swedish ferry company Stena Line to invest £17m into its Mersey port facility – from where it operates services to Belfast and Dublin – following record year. Tony McDonough reports

Swedish ferry company Stena Line is investing £17m into the 12 Quays Terminal on the Mersey at Birkenhead as it builds on the success of a record year.

Stena operates two routes from the terminal directly across the river from Liverpool city centre. Its passenger and freight service to Belfast offers two sailings a day most days of the week with the Stena Edda and Stena Embla vessels.

In 2024 it reintroduced regular freight-only sailings to Dublin as it looked to capitalise on the closure of the P&O service covering the same route. This has resulted in a significant increase in freight traffic through the terminal.

Stena Forwarder operates the freight-only service with one round trip per day to Belfast and Bore Song operates one round trip to Dublin each day.

In 2019 Stena and Peel Ports combined to invest £17m to upgrade the 12 Quays terminal to accommodate bigger vessels. In 2023 Stena signed a deal with Peel to continue using the facility for a further 77 years.

Now Stena is investing a further £17m into 12 Quays to futureproof its operations by increasing freight parking capacity and improving traffic flow.

An additional 200 freight parking spaces are already complete and have boosted capacity for unaccompanied freight in the port by almost 30%.

Last year was a record year for Stena Line in Birkenhead with more than 315,000 freight units moving through the port, an increase of 20% year on year. The expansion will significantly improve operational efficiency and customer experience.

It will offer more space for freight customers to drop unaccompanied trailers.The next phase of the project will be a reconfiguration of the front of house operations to improve health and safety and traffic flow to ease congestion.

Andrew Kane, regional port operations manager at Stena Line, said: “The significant growth of our services through 12 Quays in Birkenhead has created operational challenges with an increase in unaccompanied freight and traffic build up. 

“With the potential for further growth, we are futureproofing the port with 200 additional freight parking spaces to ensure that we can facilitate our customers’ needs and we are sure this expansion will be welcomed by the market.”

Phil Hall, port director Mersey at Peel Ports Group, added: “Ongoing enhancements at the 12 Quays Terminal in Birkenhead are improving facilities to support continued growth, ensuring that both passenger and freight customers enjoy the highest level of service.”