New passenger port opens in St. Petersburg

ST. PETERSBURG, August 3 (Itar-Tass) - A new passenger port opened on Vasilyevsky Island in St. Petersburg on Saturday. It will receive cruise liners and ferry ships of any class and tonnage.

The first ship is expected to arrive in the new port on September 10 this year, St. Petersburg's Vice-Governor Yuri Molchanov told a news conference on Saturday. It was devoted to the arrival of the Julia ferry flying the Finnish flag in Russia's northern capital. The ferry's arrival marks the resumption of ferry traffic between St. Petersburg and Helsinki.

The Julia belonging to the Stella Lines Company used to cruise between
Norway and Denmark.

Andrei Mushkarev, the deputy general director of the "Inflot Worldwide SPb" company, says that the Julia will cruise all year round and will make three voyages a week to the ports of St. Petersburg and Helsinki. The ferry can take 400 cars and 1,500 passengers onboard.

Yuri Molchanov, the vice-governor of the St. Petersburg, said that the new terminal would begin operation to its full capacity in 2010-2011.

However, the new port is expecting 80 ships in 2009. The expansion of the terminal's space and the development of infrastructure of the future harbour will increase the number of ship calls.

Besides, plans to cancel visas for ferry passengers allowing them to stay in St. Petersburg without visas for 72 hours may increase the number of foreign tourists to 500,000 a year - this is twice as many as it is today. A relevant law on visas is to be adopted in September.

In the early 1990s, the Baltic Shipping Company controlled the ferry business. Its ferries - "The Anna Karenina", "The Ilyich" and "The Konstantin Simonov" - made regular voyages between St. Petersburg and Baltic capitals. But soon the voyages stopped.

In 2004-2005, Estonian and Finnish companies launched regular ferry lines but later abandoned their projects. In summer season, those companies carried up to 150,000 passengers.