Deltamarin Designing Train Ferry for Fennorail

Finnish ship designer Deltamarin said it has signed a contract with Oy Fennorail Ltd for conceptual design of a train ferry capable of carrying both train and truck cargo.

The so-called EUROCARRIER train ferry is being engineered to connect Finland to the European TEN-T railway networks and create a connection across Eastern Europe to Central Europe and the Mediterranean. Approximately 400,000 trucks per year, or almost 1,100 trucks per day travel on car ferries between Finland and Estonia. The emission footprint from heavy goods vehicles (road cargo) is more than five times greater than rail traffic, so significant emission reduction can be achieved by shifting a portion of the cargo from road to rail.

The vessel will operate in the Baltic Sea and have a capacity of more than 1,000 lane meters for train cargo and an additional 1,500 lane meters for trucks. Deltamarin said it is aiming to develop “the world’s greenest train ferry” by optimizing the design and selecting machinery system compatible with alternative fuels such as liquefied natural gas (LNG) and green hydrogen. Work is already ongoing and will be done at the Deltamarin offices in Finland.

Kaj Jansson, Member of the Board of FENNORAIL Ltd, said, “We strive to make the train ferry climate-friendly and profitable. The train ferry will have multifuel marine engines that can run on either pure LNG, a mixture of LNG and green hydrogen or marine gasoil (MGO). The ship's propulsion system is arranged by two 360-degree rotating pods which increases the propulsion efficiency and ships maneuverability.”

Deltamarin’s Sales Manager, Jaakko Lappi, said the unique vessel supports the goals of the Paris Agreement by moving part of the road cargo onto rail, offering significant emission cuts per transported cargo tonne-kilometer. “Tis project is a good continuation of our pathway towards zero-carbon shipping,” he said.