Maersk Asia-Europe service makes first Felixstowe call
The Port of Felixstowe said Thursday that it recently received the first call of Maersk Line's AE1 Asia-Europe service, and a corresponding daily train service from the Suffolk port to support the service.
The 6,600-TEU Sine Maersk arrived at United Kingdom's largest container port from Tanjung Pelepas in Malaysia and is one of 11 ships of between 6,600 and 8,600 TEUs in capacity on the service.
A new daily rail freight service, operated by Freightliner and dedicated to Maersk, has been added to support the AE-1 Asia-Europe service. The rail service uses a 24-car train to Birmingham International Freight Terminal, increasing the number of inland rail terminals to 13 with a direct connection to Felixstowe.
'Felixstowe has been Maersk Line's main port in the UK for many years, and the arrival of the AE1 service means that all its main east-west services are now calling here,' said Chris Lewis, chief executive officer of Hutchison Ports (UK) Ltd., which operates the Port of Felixstowe. 'We are regularly seeing up to 9,000 containers per week being handled by the port's two rail terminals, and the new service will help boost both the total number of containers, and the proportion of inland traffic, moving by rail.'