RG Line
 |
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| Industry | Passenger transportation Freight transportation |
|---|---|
| Founded | 2001 |
| Headquarters | Vaasa, Finland |
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Area served
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Gulf of Bothnia |
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Key people
|
Rabbe Grönblom |
| Website | www.rgline.com |
RG Line Oy Ab is a Finnish shipping company founded in 2001 that operates a ferry line between Vaasa, Finland and Umeå, Sweden.
The company was founded in 2001 by well known Rabbe Grönblom, just months after Silja Line had put their traffic on Kvarken / Merenkurkku to an end because of a decision in the EU to stop taxfree sales on travels between member states. RG Line bought Silja's M/S Fennia and renamed her to M/S Casino Express, the ship was put in traffic on the route Vaasa–Umeå on 16 May 2001. At first RG Line profiled the ship as a ship where you could have fun and party, much like the ferries who trafficked Kvarken in the tax-free times. However, it did not become a success; people did not want to cruise any more. The blackjack and roulette tables they had added to get a casino feeling were removed before a year had passed. Nowadays they are focused on ordinary travellers and cargo. The route over Kvarken is supported financially by the city of Vaasa. The city of Umeå or the county of Västerbotten do not support international connections because of a policy. The county of Västerbotten is responsible for local bus transport, but they don't have a bus line to the Umeå port, the nearest is 1.5 kilometres (1 mi) away.
The company filed for bankruptcy on 29 November 2011, and the operations are suspended. Despite the bankruptcy, the company is still continuing operations at least until October 2012.
On 23 November 2004 RG Line announced that they had bought the ship M/S Kahleberg, which has more capacity for cargo and takes less passengers than Casino Express, which it will replace. It is said that Kahleberg will be put into traffic between Vaasa and Umeå in May 2005.
On 24 November, one day after RG Line informed the public about the purchase of their new ship Kahleberg, bad luck struck the company. Casino Express, with 39 passengers and 27 crew members on board, ran aground just outside the harbour of Holmsund near Umeå. At the time of the accident, there were strong south-western winds up to 25–30 metres per second (90–108 km/h; 56–67 mph). Casino Express got some serious damages that had to be repaired; six days after the grounding the ship was pulled from the reef and then towed to a repair shipyard in Estonia.
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