Post developments regarding ports, harbors, marinas, etc. along the Estonian coastline.

Extension of the eastern part of Muuga Harbour Complete

According to the development plans of Muuga Harbour, the harbour area is extended eastwards towards the area in-between the existing container and coal terminals.

1) At the Stage 1 of extending the eastern part of Muuga Harbour, up to 70 ha of land will be developed, of which about 23 ha is covered by the sea. In the course of the project, the existing quay No 16 will be extended by 100 metres (~328 ft) and a new quay (No 17) with a length of 378 metres (1,240 ft) and a depth of 14.5 metres (~48 ft) will be built. Additionally, approximately 27 ha surface area of the terminal will be prepared for the superstructure erection. Meanwhile, the required general infrastructure will be built for the entire eastern part: all communications and networks.

The new terminal and infrastructure will increase twofold the present-day container handling capacity of the Muuga Harbour. The completion deadline for this stage is the fourth quarter of 2010.

Commission decision of 26 December 2006 allocated funds from the EU Cohesion Fund to the Stage 1 of the extension project of the Eastern part of Muuga harbour in the approximate amount of 361 million Estonian kroons.
See further: EU projects

2) The preconditions for the Stage 2 of the extension to the Eastern part of Muuga Harbour have been met. During this stage, it is possible to build about 1,772 m (5,814 ft) of quay line (a 120m/~394 ft quay would be for the harbour fleet and the remaining 1,652 m/5,420 ft would be for the quays of prospective terminal(s) with a depth of16 m/~52 ft).
Up to 67 ha of terminal area will be added.

Paldiski South Harbor Industrial Park

Paldiski South Harbour is located 50 km west of Tallinn and it is the third largest harbour of the five harbours belonging to Port of Tallinn.

The core activity of the harbour is focused on the handling of Estonian export and import cargo and transit cargo. Mainly ro-ro cargo, scrap metal, timber, peat and oil products are handled there. Developing fields of activity include transit of new cars for neighboring markets and pre-sale service.

With direct connection to many West European ports, Paldiski South Harbour has become an important stop for the Baltic Sea Ro-Ro shipping lines. This generates excellent possibilities for the future clients of the industrial park to transport the production/raw material promptly and safely.

Due to its growth potential, a significant part of the investments of the Port of Tallinn investments is directed towards the development of the Paldiski Harbour and adjacent land units. Together with the port area, an additional 21 ha of industrial park area bordering the harbour is being developed.

Paldiski South Harbour Industrial Park is an ideal location for warehousing and distribution services providers and commodities producers whose target market is the Eastern Baltic region, including Russian Federation. The Industrial Park is also suitable for businesses producing EU commodities from Russian raw materials.The location in the port area next to the car and other ro-ro terminals enables the businesses to significantly reduce transport costs.

The plots of Paldiski South Harbour Industrial Park are ideal for companies whose operations assume direct closeness of a port.

The port shall conclude long-term land use contracts with the companies of the industrial park and ensure good access to berths and terminals.

http://img5.imageshack.us/img5/5821/paldiski1.jpg

Source: (for posts #2 & #3) Port of Tallinn website

Few shipping related news:
Ministry of Economic Affairs and Communications proposes incentive to lure Estonian owned cargo ships back sailing under Estonian flag.

Ministry of Economic Affairs and Communications proposes plan to lure Estonian owned ships back to sailing under Estonian flag by various financial benefits to ship owners. Ministry plans to pay subsidies from social security & income taxes paid to government by shipping companies. Companies & ship owners would get 80% returns from social security taxes and 50% returns from income taxes paid on ship crews.
Right now only small fraction of Estonian owned ships sail under Estonian flag. Most ships have port of registry in various tax havens.

Although shipping companies have welcomed such initiative,it also has drawn serious criticism from Ministry of Finance who is not going to support tax exemptions.

Source: http://www.logistikauudised.ee/?PublicationId=acc713ab-3f32-4675-8ce8-5fd6f062cf29&ref=rss

Tallink plans to continue sailing under two brands.

Tallink Silja OY CEO Margus Schults has reassured that they don't have plans of abandoning Silja Line brand,as it's well trusted & has won good reliability in Nordics.

Source: http://www.ap3.ee/article/2011/6/1/tallink-kahe-kaubamargi-all

Tallink,Estonian shipping company founded in 1989,bought Finnish owned Silja Line in 2006 and since then has operated cruise ships & ferries under both company names.




Tallink sold it's oldest ship in fleet.

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/d/df/Vana_Tallinn.jpg/800px-Vana_Tallinn.jpg

Tallink has signed deal with Allferries SA for sale of MS Vana Tallinn (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MS_Vana_Tallinn),a cruise ferry built in 1974 and owned by Tallink since 1997. Until 2008 MS Vana Tallinn ran on Riga-Stockholm line,but since then it stood in docks. New owner plans to operate ship in Mediterranean Sea.

Source: http://uudised.err.ee/index.php?06229680

Reconstruction of Kärdla harbour

http://hiiunadal.saartehaal.ee/imgfiles/image_artikkel.php?id=484&x=800&y=392&piirang=0

Kärdla yacht harbour in Kärdla town,Hiiumaa island,will be rebuilt. Earlier this year harbour received both government & EU funding. Original Kärdla harbour was destroyed in bombing raid during World War 2. New harbour which will be built on it's historic location,will have space for 110 8-12m long yachts,repair facility & yacht club building. Estimated cost of project - about 5 million euros.

Great info Tin Can :applause:

Excellent timelapse video of typical summer day in Port of Tallinn. To be more precise,this is view from Old Town harbour,overlooking D-terminal and piers 3 - 7 and 16 - 17.

3hZMULhMcw4
By Youtube user vsobolev (http://www.youtube.com/user/vsobolev),all rights reserved.

Today is this summer's cruise shipping top day - 6 cruise ships are at Tallinn's Old Town harbour and around 9100 tourists are expected to hit the city.

Photos from Positmees.ee:
http://f.postimees.ee/f/2011/07/13/668324t44hb0bb.jpg

http://f.postimees.ee/f/2011/07/13/668398t44hceaf.jpg

Source: http://www.tallinnapostimees.ee/496938/galerii-tallinna-saabub-tana-kuus-lobusoidulaeva-ule-9000-reisijaga/

I can only imagine what's going on in the Oldtown. :D

as i understood, the ships carry 9100 passengers, but we cant expect all of them to go around touring the city. Maybe 60%..

Most of them seemed to be in Viru Centre today, instead of the Old Town.

photo: stpeterline.com
http://anastasia.stpeterline.com/portals/_default/skins/spl/img/fp.pm.jpg

The Princess Anastasia will be departing from Tallinn at 18:00 on Sundays and arriving in St. Petersburg at 8:00 on Monday morning. The passengers will have the opportunity to spend a whole day in St. Petersburg without a visa. The ferry will leave St. Petersburg again at 18:00 on Monday and arrive in Tallinn at 9:00 on Tuesday. From Tallinn, the Princess Anastasia will sail on to Stockholm.
http://news.err.ee/0664b78f-4897-4884-b594-c180c118b057

That's nice. Now,if they would finally update their website and show prices & departure/arrival times from Tallinn,then it would be pretty decent alternative for travelling to St.Petersburg. Afaik,cruise from Helsinki to St.Petersburg & back costs around 140-400€,which is pretty manageable price,so from Tallinn it's should be more or less the same.

St. Peter Line plans to open Tallinn-St.Petersburg ferry line in the future.

Although even now it's possible to use St. Peter Line to get to St.Petersburg (given that you buy a cruise ticket) company plans to open direct ferry line between two cities in few years time.
Company president Igor Gluhhov said that company is right now evaluating demand on this route and decides if it's economically feasible to open line. According to him,new line would require 'considerable investments'.
Port Of Tallinn board member commented that it would take only few years for Tallinn-St.Petersburg line to reach similar passenger numbers,as Tallinn-Stockholm line does (over 1 million passengers each year).

Source:http://www.e24.ee/562504/st-peter-line-loodab-tulevikus-luua-peterburi-ja-tallinna-otseliini/

Weird thing is that I saw an advertisement for a round-trip Tallinn - St. Petersburg on Viru Keskus a few days ago. The price advertised was €59 if I'm not mistaken.

^^
Yeah,but I think Baltic cruise which doesn't start or end in Tallinn,can be booked full by cruise ship tourists and ordinary passengers on Tallinn <> St.Petersburg route might be left on the shore. Atleast there's a chance that cruise ship tourists could be preferred over ordinary passengers (putting it bluntly - they pay more than some Jaan or Ivan who would want to travel from Tallinn to St.Petersburg or vice versa ;))

Direct ferry link between two cities would remove that possibility.

Hey, if anyone wants to change the name of this thread to a cover a broader subject just tell me the new name and I'll PM a mod.

(I found a message deep in my inbox about this lol)

What's wrong with the current thread title? :dunno: It's fairly accurate,as it's maritime thread. It could have been in more common Estonia | thread name format,but that just being too picky on insignificant details.

Port Of Tallinn is doing preparations for new cruise ship quay construction.

Port of Tallinn is currently doing preparations for new cruise ship quay construction,which will be built next to current 300m long cruise ships quay (piers 24 & 25). Once built,it will allow to handle additional 300+ metres long cruise ships,as current space is very limited in Tallinn's Passenger Harbour. Funding hasn't been allocated yet from Port Of Tallinn's budget,but company plans to design & build it in 2012-2013.

You can clearly see piers 24 & 25 here (upper left corner,with two large cruise ships) - the new quay will be built right next to it. Photo by Port Of Tallinn ©
http://www.portoftallinn.com/static/images/pilt_229.jpg

Source: http://majandus.delfi.ee/news/uudised/tallinna-sadam-teeb-ettevalmistusi-uue-kruiisikai-ehituseks.d?id=62547364

Those poor cruise tourists really have to walk quite a long way before getting to anywhere remotely nice looking. This isn't a way to introduce your city to the world.

Those poor cruise tourists really have to walk quite a long way before getting to anywhere remotely nice looking. This isn't a way to introduce your city to the world.

+1.

One of the most depressing things about Tallinn. The first and the last view of Tallinn will be the fugly decaying Linnahall and empty plots with its puddles, old bottles and plastic bags laying around.

Port of Tallinn is renovating the oldest quays in Old Town harbour,next to D-terminal, in Tallinn. More about it here: http://majandus.delfi.ee/news/uudised/fotod-tallinna-sadam-tugevdab-d-terminali-juures-kaid.d?id=63737918#!/13352429/pilt.delfi.ee

Photos by Delfi.
http://y.delfi.ee/norm/242627/13352429_8JG11L.jpeg

http://y.delfi.ee/norm/242627/13352447_vhT8oo.jpeg

http://y.delfi.ee/norm/242627/13352449_GJH2GX.jpeg

http://y.delfi.ee/norm/242627/13352441_8pdGjw.jpeg

http://y.delfi.ee/norm/242627/13352445_8JXoWr.jpeg

Eckerö Line is replacing M/s Nordlandia with Moby Freedom:cheers:
Very clever move from them.
e24.ee (http://www.e24.ee/725558/eckero-paneb-helsingi-ja-tallinna-soitma-uue-laeva/)

http://www.ferry-site.dk/picture/ferry/9214379l.jpg
www.ferry-site.dk
http://www.ferry-site.dk/picture/ferry/9365398b.jpg
www.ferry-site.dk
Moby freedom and Superstar are sister ships btw... Ugly ones unfortunately. :D

^^
That's great! :cheers:



Rail Garant started container terminal development in Muuga harbour.

Russian company Rail Garant,who won competition for container terminal development,has started works on project. They will strenghted the quays,add cranes and build railways. Terminal should become operational in first quarter of 2013.

Company hopes to handle 125'000 TEU's in 2014,300'000TEU's in 2015 and 400'000TEU's in 2016. Terminal will be able to process Panamax and PostPanamax class ships.

Source: http://www.neljas.ee/est/?news=1014059&category=1&Galerii--Rail-Garant-alustas-konteinerterminali-ehitust-Muugal

http://static.neljas.ee/apps/kalev_media/201201/1024x680/85630_DSC_6513n.jpg

http://static.neljas.ee/apps/kalev_media/201201/1024x680/85624_DSC_6446n.jpg

http://static.neljas.ee/apps/kalev_media/201201/1024x680/85591_DSC_6523n.jpg

Wow! I start a thread then go somewhere else and forget about it, I'm like a squirrel with acorns. :doh:


Glad to see all the developments! Has the Baltic frozen over after this cold spell?

Has the Baltic frozen over after this cold spell?

nope, its -26 C two days back, today -22 C degrees and Tallinn bay f. example looks wonderful - every day "hot" steam raises from sea :lol: - view is like in heaven (:lol:), but nothing frozen. Only my dog dislike the cold, but loves snow.

Pretty cool video of Port of Tallinn in 1935: Tallinna sadama ajalugu (http://www.filmi.arhiiv.ee/fis/index.php?act=search_detail&a_id=2088&isik=&autor=&esitaja=&string=&pealk=&mark=raudtee&mod=3&lang=et&nocache=1330867822)

Worth watching,as it shows how today's Passenger harbour (which at that time was cargo port) was developed.

Photo update of Old Town harbour quays renovation. Works are still going on,but harbour already has far cleaner look.

Click on the photo for larger view.
http://i45.tinypic.com/30jh7o4.jpg (http://i50.tinypic.com/246j7eo.jpg)

http://i49.tinypic.com/335dpjn.jpg

Click on the photo for larger view.
http://i47.tinypic.com/11146u1.jpg (http://i45.tinypic.com/p0v2o.jpg)