DFDS Tor Line
 |
|
| Industry | Shipping |
|---|---|
| Fate | Integrated into DFDS Seaways |
| Founded | 1966 |
| Defunct | 2010 |
| Headquarters |
Copenhagen, Denmark (As DFDS Tor Line) Gothenburg, Sweden (As Tor Line) |
|
Area served
|
North Sea Baltic Sea |
| Services | Freight transportation |
| Parent | DFDS A/S |
| Website | www.dfds.com |
The Tor Line was a freight shipping company. Together with its subsidiaries, the Tor Line operated a fleet of approximately 65 ro-ro, ro-pax and lo-lo ships, primarily on the North and Baltic Seas. It was ultimately purchased by Denmark-based DFDS, which renamed it DFDS Tor Line, and it operated as a freight-carrying division of DFDS along with DFDS Lisco, DFDS Lys Line and DFDS Container Line before retiring the brand.
Tor Line was founded as a joint venture between the Swedish Trans Oil Shipping and Rex Shipping to operate car-passenger ferries between Sweden, England and the Netherlands. The company name was an abbreviation of the founding companies' names, Trains Oil and Rex Line. Tor Line begun passenger operations in 1966 and freight operations in 1969. In 1980 Tor Line formed a brief joint venture for passenger services, Sessan Tor Line, with Sessan Line. A similar joint venture was formed for freight services with Swedish Lloyd. Both proved short-lived: Stena Line acquired Sessan Line in 1981, and during the same year Tor Line passenger services were sold to DFDS. A year later DFDS also acquired Tor Line's freight services. Initially both divisions were marketed as DFDS Tor Line, but the passenger ferries were later moved under the DFDS brand.
Two Swedish shipping companies, Trans Oil Shipping and Rex Shipping, decided to form a new company for providing car/passenger ferry services between Sweden, England and the Netherlands. The new Tor Line (an abbreviation of Trans Oil and Rex) ordered the construction of two state-of-the-art ferries from Lübecker Flender-Werke in West Germany. These entered service on the Gothenburg—Immingham—Amsterdam route in 1966 and 1967 as MS Tor Anglia and MS Tor Hollandia, respectively. Tor Line's main rivals on the Sweden—England route were England-Sweden Line (ESL), a joint service operated by Ellerman's Wilson Line, Swedish Lloyd and Rederi AB Svea. The ESL partner companies had also brought new ships on the route in 1966, but these were slower than the Tor ships, had less modern furnishings and lacked full-height cardecks.
...
Wikipedia