Viking Line's brand new vessel Viking XPRS starts scheduled trips between Tallinn and Helsinki this week after a delay of more than two months. "XPRS – it sounds alike in Estonian, Finnish and Swedish, and represents our concept: extraordinary, focussed on the wishes of passengers, reliable and fast," writes Nils-Erik Eklund, head of the Viking Line Group. It is hoped that with the new vessel the number of passengers between Helsinki and Tallinn will increase significantly, by 300,000. In comparison to Tallink’s fast ferries Star and Superstar, XPRS takes half an hour longer as the objective is to take the best of two concepts – the fast ferry and the cruise ship. In 2.5 hours, passengers can eat a meal, shop or hold a conference. There are restaurants available for every taste, this article continues, and unlike Tallink, all of them have porcelain dishes.

 

Aripaev 2008-04-28