Danish car owners have been quick to adapt following the decision by DFDS to close its route between Esbjerg and Harwich in late September. Now, they're going Dutch and they're going thrice as much from there.
The Swedish-owned ferry line Stena Line has experienced a 200 percent increase in the number of its Danish customers on its route between Hoek van Holland and Harwich.
”It's surprising and very pleasing that the Danes are showing such interest in our route between the Netherlands and England,” Thomas Christiansen, the sales and marketing head at Stena Line's Danish headquarters in Frederikshavn, said in a press release.
”So we've decided to exert more energy attracting even more Danes to the route.”
READ MORE: Final ferry link between Denmark and the UK closes
More driving, shorter time
But there is some considerable driving involved, because the distance from the Danish-German border to Hoek in the Netherlands is between 600 and 650 kilometres.
Nevertheless, it's a shorter journey in terms of total time compared to the closed route between Esbjerg and Harwich, which took 18 hours, as the ferries used on the route – Stena Britannica and Stena Hollandica – are among the ferry line's newest, from 2010.
There are two daily departures from Hoek, at 14:30 and 22:30. Should travellers take the early ship, they will arrive in England at 20:00, while the late ship will bring them to Harwich at 06:30 the following morning.
