Shipping company ACL’s new transatlantic service in partnership with BG Freight Line and Peel Ports Group will have transit times up to two weeks faster than any similar service travelling between Dublin/Belfast and North America via a UK or Continental transshipment port, according to the company's release.
The partnership will offer importers and exporters quicker than ever before access to/from the USA and Canada with direct calls at the major ports of Halifax, New York, Baltimore and Norfolk via the Port of Liverpool.
The service officially launched on Friday in New York and is a significant upgrade on current services.
BG Freight Line’s Irish Sea hub feeder service already sails between Dublin, Belfast and Liverpool, while ACL’s G4 Con-Ro ships connect the city and the largest UK market to the US and Canada.
ACL’s new schedule will see Liverpool used as the first port in and out of Europe and will not stop at any other intermediate European ports to further reduce the transit times.
ACL and BG Freight Line - part of the wider Peel Ports Group - have also agreed to coordinate their schedules to minimise connection times at the Port of Liverpool, while both will also be given berth priority to ensure those smooth connections.
BG Freight Line provide logistics services in the UK, Ireland and Europe, including door-to-door and quay-to-quay shipping for all types of containerised cargo.
This first eastbound sailing for this new service will be the Atlantic Sun. It set sail from New York on Friday, before it goes onto call at Baltimore, then connecting back into Liverpool with the JSP Anna, which will then arrive in Dublin on May 26 and Belfast on May 27.
The JSP Anna – the first West Bound sailing of the service – will sail from Belfast that same day on May 27, before arriving in New York on June 6.